Career

You’ll Never Get It Together

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"Once I get it together, I'll launch my career!"

If you think this way, you're never going have a career.

The truth about careers (and life in general) is you'll never truly have it together.  There will always be something not quite right.  There will always be something a bit off.  Even if you get to your supposed perfect point, you'll re-evaluate it and discover it's not as perfect as you thought.

So you might as well start your career now.  Take that class.  Read that book.  Do that research.  Practice Flash animation or whatever.  You're never going to have it together enough to start, so wade on it.

"Once I get these things together, my career will be perfect."

If you think this way, you'll be waiting forever.

Careers are evolving, unpredictable beasts.  You can set a direction into the future, but you can expect quite a few twists and turns as you head towards where you want to go.  Along the way you may decide where you want to go is something differently entirely.

Want to be happy in your career?  Start as soon as possible, throw yourself into it, and enjoy the ride.  Accept the crazy, chaotic nature of what you'll face.  Enjoy the experience of the changes.

There's never a time it'll be all together.

But it can be pretty exciting!

– Steven Savage

Weekly Challenge: Your Hidden Army

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We all have people we can call on – friends, family, co-workers, fans, and more.  It's easy to forget it – especially when we're having a bad day – but there's a good chance you have people that you can call on when it's needed.

The problem is that we forget this – ad we don't know when to reach out and bring people together.  This week's exercise is about both of these factors.

Here are the two parts of the challenge:

  1. List all of the people – and organizations/fandoms/communities – you can call on when needed.  This may not be due to a crisis – this could be to achieve something – and of course different groups and people may have different abilities that can help.
  2. Ask how you'd bring these people together when needed.  Are you a leader already, a moral center, a manager of ideas, etc.  How do you bring people together.

Now knowing these things:

  1. Does anything surprise you?
  2. Do you see any gaps in your life you need to fix.

You probably have an entire army to call on in life.  You just may not realize it – or realize how you can do so.

– Steven Savage

Frustration Friday: The Best Isn’t The Best – Again

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OK, let me go and say something I've been telling people for awhile.

Your competency at a profession is not based on any one skill.  It is based on if you have the skills that SUPPORT that skill so you can use it, and thus have a job and a career.

  • If you're the world's greatest artist and have no social skills, you're probably not going to get hired, or even let people be aware of your talent.
  • If you're the world's greatest writer and you're disorganized and ever complete anything, that legion of half-finished novels will never see an audience.
  • If you are a brilliant programmer and don't know the industry you're in, then you will not be able to deal with clients, make plans, and get the job done.

For that matter if you're a brilliant ANYTHING and can't do a job search, network, and market yourself you're probably in trouble anyway.

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