Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
Sometimes people talk about their career. Sometimes they talk about their job. In too many cases people mix the two up. In other cases they talk about careers without talking jobs and jobs without talking careers. In all cases people are missing the big picture about jobs and careers.
Jobs are not careers. Careers are not jobs. Understanding how they're different – and how they're related – is key to your success.
In my average day I deal with people from five different countries, individuals in four different time zones, and have work shared between three different countries. These numbers add up to make me one very busy person walking what feels like an infinite amount of very fine lines.
Whatever your work is, especially if you're a progeek, odds are you are going to have to deal with people from many different countries and cultures. We are in a global economy (in case you haven't heard), the world is a much smaller place thanks to communications technologies, and with this economy, everyone wants a piece of the economic pie.
On top of all of that if you're in any kind of large city or development zone, like the greater Toronto area, the Baltimore-DC corridor, or Silicon Valley, then you almost certainly will work with people from all over the world. You may not be aware of it or think about it, but take a moment and ask yourselves about the backgrounds of your co-workers and clients.
What this means is that you'd better get culturally aware.
We all know technology has changed how the world works, careers, go, and so on and so forth. However I think one thing technology has done to careers – especially fannish and geeky ones – is that it's created an odd timeshifting effect.
Technology has the obvious effect of making a lot of things faster and easier to do and distribute to people. The upside of course is obvious – the downside is that EVERYONE is able to do and distribute more things faster. Everything is faster but the competition is the same – if not moreso.