Give

In the volunteering portion of my talk, I give some reasons why volunteering is a good idea. I see this as doing more than you need to do, without being asked. When you volunteer to help others, whether this is work related or not, it shows:

• you are motivated
• you choose to do things without being told
• you want to make something better
• you are willing to help
• you can do more than you have to.

There are probably more reasons, but those are some that I give.

I ran across a piece on giving, showing others believe in this advice as well. Giving is a positive exercise, and while you will feel good, it shows that you are someone that is less likely to take more out of job/life than you put back. You will likely be an asset more than you are a burden.

Think about giving at some point in your life. It might not be now, but I do believe that you should give back to others when you can. At work, however, you ought to think about doing this quarterly, helping others when you can.

Standing Out

I saw this post on 10 Tips for Programmers to stand out at work. It’s a good piece if you’re a programmer and want to move up in your company, or get more money/responsibility/whatever from your current employer.

However it’s also a great post if you want a new job. The same types of things you would do inside your company are valuable in presenting yourself to prospective employers. All of these items are good ways to show that you are really a professional.

A Journey

We are all on a constant journey, but the best of us push forward regularly, even if that means finding another job.

Read this piece on How to Keep Your Best Programmers. I found it interesting and I agree with lots of it. However the important thing here is to think about what your journey is and work towards it.

To help you on your journey, document your progress in a blog of some sort. Network with others to find opportunities or ideas that might help you move, and have all of that ready as your brand for the next step of your travels.

A Reset Button for your Brand

We don’t have it, but I think this piece has a good idea in some ways. Perhaps we should have a reset button for children when they become adults. Often the things we might do at 15, or 17, are not the things we would do when we are 21 or 22 and entering the workforce. The things we might do before we enter military service are often not what we would do later.

We might, but in that case, does a brand reset matter? We’d just rebuild the same brand.

We don’t have those things, however, and in the technology world (and perhaps others soon), our brands, our reputations, and our history will follow us around. If that’s a good brand, we may have more, or better, opportunities. If it’s a poor brand, we may have few.

Do good work. Do professional work. Build a positive brand.

Learn Something Today

I saw this quote, and thought it was great.

“Go to bed smarter than when you woke up.” — Charlie Munger

Charlie Munger is the partner of Warren Buffet, and has worked in the financial industry for decades. Both men are billionaires, living late in life, and still working.

I think this advice is something all of us in technology can take to heart. We work with a variety of ever changing technologies, and we can’t know everything about the platforms on which we work.

However we can continue to get better.

I don’t know that I learn something every day, but I’m starting to think I should be making more of an effort to learn something small, something that makes me think or question the world around me. Something that makes me think differently about my career.

Read and learn something new today.

And write about it.

What Have You Learned?

I ran across an interesting link that relates to colleges and their goals, as well as measuring this goal: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130509131339-17000124-congratulations-college-graduate-now-tell-us-what-did-you-learn

It’s disconcerting to see this as a parent of a college kid, but I think this also can apply to work. You ought to think about what you've learned at work on a regular basis. If you're not learning, then you're adding another year of the same experience.

At the end of five years, do you want five years of experience, or one year of experience five times? Employers, and especially technical interviewers, are getting better at separating these out.

Work on your career by learning more. Assess yourself, and try to determine if you’ve learned to actually do new things each year. Make a list, or keep documentation when you learn something new and can apply it to work.

You should ensure your branding reflects this.

Networking is Talking

I know so many people that view networking (for business) as a hassle, as disingenuous, as a distasteful act, or even as something that’s difficult to master.

It’s not.

Networking, in the business sense, is just talking. It’s introducing yourself and genuinely trying to learn something about another person. It’s being friendly, asking about their work, or what they think about some topic.

Try to keep it mostly professional, but after avoiding the problematic topics, if you want to talk sports, or fashion, or cooking, make a connection.

It’s easy. Make an effort at your next event.