Knowing yourself, mapping careers to that as the starting point, trying, networking, Michael Jordan&

I meet with a lot of young people, and a surprising number of mid career people, and all I can say is that what I've learned is that the key to success is knowing who you are, what you're naturally drawn to and the general activities that you really enjoy and get into flow with (even if other people don't like those activities or it). Then you can map that to careers. If engineering is your thing, then having that structural background that you're getting is great for the long run because there are lots of engineers who are talented but wing it, and they either learn how to work at scale on the job, or they don't and they sometimes don't even know what they're missing. If you know yourself (and this evolves over time), own it, and map that to careers and roles, in the short run, pretty much everyone encounters a lot of noise, and the gatekeepers can keep you out (temporarily), but this is also where too many of us give up (I can think of instances when I did), but in the long-run the noise will dissipate and no gatekeepers can stop you. Tactical suggestion: Joel on Software. I'm sure you're reading it. But, if not, it is one of the best elucidations of software development. It is the real deal -- independent informed thinking. One the business side -- see The Four Steps to the Epiphany -- by Steve Blank. Look athttp://tomtunguz.com/ to steep yourself in the business side. And it is all about networking and getting information. Huge. It's an investment, but totally powerful, and this is the key -- it really pays off when you get closer and closer to the zone that you want to operate in for business and life and the people you want to be around. Michael Jordan is quoted on the Khosla Ventures website (an important site to study and read thoroughly if you want to understand how a hard-core VC firm operates) that I keep on my desktop --> "Our willingness to fail gives us the ability and opportunity succeed where others may fear to tread. I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

#Careerdevelopment #Networking