People tell me that in order to get a job, you have to network. There is nothing I would like to do less than talk to strangers about myself, so that's not been an option for me. Here's my tips to having a good career.
Often, we look at job listings and choose something that matches our skills, our interests, and our salary requirements.
If you keep doing those jobs, you'll steadily grow your salary -- maybe -- but it will plateau eventually. Anecdotally, I've seen a plateau at age 40 or at around $150K, whichever comes first. $150K sounds like a lot when you don't have kids and are single or have a partner that also works. It isn't when you're supporting two or three other people.
You'll stay in your interests, but you'll continue to do the same thing for years and years until you are bored to tears, if you're like me.
Your skills will grow deeper, hopefully, but not wider.
Don't do this. When looking for a job, look for one of the following:
- Something way out of your league technically. Choose something that scares you. (For me, Cognitect.)
- Something that really engages you in its mission. (For me, CFPB.)
- Something that pays something crazy that you can use to make yourself secure for the next position. (If you find this, let me know.)
Sometimes, these jobs will suck! That is ok.
If you're good, people will always be sad when you leave. You don't want them to be mad as well. It costs a lot of money to hire someone. Make it worth their while. This isn't for them as much as it is for you. When people call your references, you want them to sigh and say "I'd hire them back in a minute."
Also, you are dumb. We all are dumb when it comes to our wants and needs. If a job sucks three weeks in, it's probably you. Stick it out and you might find out you were wrong.
I have met so many angry bitter developers. They are all bores and I would not hire any of them. Take the good from jobs and leave the bad behind.
Some things that have happened in my career:
- Experiencing a major earthquake at work.
- Getting assigned to work with someone on the day they died and then taking one of their books from their desk.
- Driving forklifts in the basement of the NSA.
- Maintaining and improving a codebase written by an actual cocaine addict.
- Writing code in a photography studio while the married owners melted down about the husband having sex with a photography model.
- Going to a hackathon at the White House.
Risky weird jobs are where you'll find this stuff. It's great. As someone who doesn't like talking to strangers, coming in hot with a hilarious story is key.
If you stay over your head in your career -- and I hope you do -- you'll need something to hang on to. For me, I have found a few people to inspire me. I have one person who I think of as my business spirit guide, another who is my people spirit guide, and another as my programming spirit guide. When I don't know what to do -- which is most of the time -- I just think "What would they do?" and then do that.
This is the one I have a hard time with. I do not like people knowing stuff about me or staring at me. If you can pull it off, though, it's huge. I had this realization at OSCON this year. I was a speaker and so I got to go to the speakers' party, which was mainly the keynoters and people you see on the speaking circuit all the time. Looking around the room, I wondered what made these people successful. I had interviewed one of the keynoters for a position a few years earlier and was unimpressed. What made them special?
They all had some ridiculous affectation that made them stand out. One guy was, not joking, in a top hat. Another speaker had her own very unique personal style that would look crazy if not worn with confidence. Another was a guy who got on stage and sung each year. Looking at them, I was kind of horrified, but I got it: if you stand out, people remember you and you get rewards.