Professional Development

Job Research: Look for the Best Of

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You have any trouble finding the right resources for your job and career?

If you're the average progeek, there's two situations:

  • You haven't done enough research, and when you do you are overwhelmed with the books, websites, meetups, and other resources and have no idea to start.
  • You have done the research long ago, and you're still painfully aware of just how much stuff there is out there you can use to find a job, research a career, etc.

One of the problems we progeeks face is, being information-oriented one way or another, being plugged in, is that we're swept away by a flood of options when we do career research.  Sure, we're great at surfing the web, mining amazon, and finding local event boards, but we have no idea where to start.

We could go do everything, and read everything, but we just don't have the time.

We could be very selective, but we worry we'll miss something.

We have frankly, no idea where to even start

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Finding your Ideal Pace

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Ever know someone who works slower than you (and drives you crazy?) or faster than you (and drives you crazy?).  Do you look at these people and wonder if you're overworking or underworking?

Let me put your mind at ease – we all have our ideal work pace.  We just have to find it.

I myself like to keep up constant activity, punctuated by breaks, with a decently full plate.  I know other people who ONLY work in huge, long, multi-day bursts of insane effort.  I know others who like slow and steady.  Everyone's different.

If you want to be a success, in your hobbies or your career, you need to find your ideal pace.

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Weekly Challenge – Mirror, Mirror

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Here's your weekly challenge.  We're going to get a bit psychological.

I want you to ask yourself, what your complete opposite is like. What's the "you" from the Mirror Universe, Bizarro World, whatever fictional opposite-land you prefer as a metaphor.  Who is this other you? what motivates them? What do they do – and what don't they do? What is their daily life like?

Once you have a good image of this UnYou, ask yourself a few questions:

  • What is it that they do that you wish you did or should?
  • What is it that you do they don't that you're proud of?
  • Is this alternate you happier or sadder than you?  Why?
  • What do they do for a living, and does it work?
  • What do they do for fun, and why?  Does it make them happy?
  • What can you learn from them and what can they learn from you?

This week, take a look in the mirror and find out what you learn.

(Though I won't go into much detail on my experience with this exercise, I realized I was much happier than my opposite.)

– Steven Savage