Monday, May 11, 2015

Musings : You need to expand your career

Been doing a bunch of interviews lately and what alarmed me was the number of people who do absolutely nothing wrt. professional development or expanding their career.

Time after time, I asked "Do you keep up with any blogs"? only to get a blank stare. Seriously - you're a Microsoft aligned dude and you don't read Scott Gu, Scott Hanselman. Jon Skeet, Mat Velloso et al?

So actually all you do is drag yourself into work from 9:00 to 5:00?

Do you attend any meetups - you didn't know of any? Just Google Meetups and prepare to be amazed. And it's not just the technical stuff or the pizza and beer - it's also the networking and meeting people - can't tell you how many people I've met because I go to user groups.

"If you were stranded on a desert island, what three technical books would you have"?

Seriously, you can't name one? Not one book?

Watch sessions on Pluralsight? No - don't really get the time.

Can't afford Pluralsight? Fair point - what about Microsoft Virtual Academy?

So you don't read blogs, don't go to user groups, don't read books, don't watch Pluralsight / MVA?

Move on dude into the backwater of your mediocrity - no opportunities here.

Make a resolution - from now on. I will read one blog entry a day, watch one online session a month and read a book every three months. You might even surprise yourself :-) Just do it!

And next time I might even offer you a job!

Enjoy!

No comments: