Originally posted by: TonyPearson
Yesterday's post [
Software Programmers as Bees]was not meant as "career advice", but certainly I got some interesting email as if it was.Orson Scott Card was poking fun at the culture clash between software programmers andmanagement/marketers, and I gave my perspective, having worked both types of jobs.
This is June. Many students are graduating from high school or college and lookingfor jobs. Some of these might be jobs just for the summer to make some spending money,and others mights be jobs like internships to explore different career paths. I found both programming and marketing are rewarding and interesting work, but each person is different.
There are a variety of ways to find out what your personality traits are,and then focus on those jobs or career paths that are best for those strengths. Hereis an online [Typology Test] based onthe work of psychologists Carl Jung and Isabel Myers-Briggs. The result is a four-letterscore that represents 16 possible personalities. For example, mine is "ENTP",which stands for "Extroverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Perceiving". You can find out otherfamous people that match your personality type. For ENTP, I am lumped together withfellow master inventor Thomas Edison, fellow author Lewis Carrol (Alice in Wonderland), Cooking great Julia Child, Comedians George Carlin and Rodney Dangerfield (I get no respect!),movie director Alfred Hitchcock, and actor Tom Hanks.
USA Today had an article ["CEOsvalue lessons from teen jobs"] which offers some career advice from successful business people.Of course, what worked for them may not work for you, all based on different personality types. Hereis an excerpt of the advice I thought the most useful:
- "If you are committed, you will be successful." (unfortunately, the reverse is also true: if you are successful,you will be asked to move to a different job)
- "Tackle offbeat jobs. Challenge conventional wisdom within reason. Come into contact with people from all walks of life."
- "Show an interest, demonstrate you want to be on the job."
- "Never limit yourself. Look beyond to what needs to be done, or should be done. Then do it. Stretch. Go beyond what others expect."
- "Find a job that forces you to work effectively with people. No matter what you end up doing, dealing with others will be critical."
- "Bring your best to the table every day. Learn professional responsibility and how to handle difficult situations."
- "Listen carefully to what customers want."
Before IBM, I ran my own business. If you are thinking, "Maybe I will start my own business instead?" you might want to see this advice from Venture Capitalist [Guy Kawasaki on Innovation].While running your own business has advantages, like avoiding issues "working for the man", it has somedisadvantages as well. It is certainly not as easy as some people make it seem to be.
Of course, things are a lot different nowadays than they were when these CEOs were teenagers. And the pace ofchange does not seem to be slowing down any either. Here is a presentation on [SlideShare.net] that helps bring to focus the realities of globalization:
But in the future, you will not just be competing with other smart people around the globe.Which brings me to "the Singularity". The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) has [The Singularity - A Special Report], a whole issue of Spectrum Online devoted to this.Nick Carr offers his thoughts on this on his Rough Type blog in his post[What we talk about when we talk about singularity].
Whether you are a student looking for a job, or a seasoned professional willing to share some career advice,enter a comment below.
technorati tags: career advice, Carl Jung, Myers-Briggs, ENTP, USA Today, Thomas Edison, Guy Kawasaki, venture capitalist, Shift Happens, IEEE, Spectrum, Nick Carr, Rough Type, engineers
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