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09:08:13
60 Days Later – Reflection on A List of IT Professional Career building Activities
Here’s a list written privately about 60 days ago and printed on a piece of paper. I put it aside and didn’t look at it since then. Today I found it and read through it again.
In reflection, some of these ideas weren’t relevant but some were. But now I’ll reconsider some of these IT Professional Career development ideas again.
What Ideas were both relevant to me then *and* still relevant to me now?:
– Writing written notes on my activities and then blogging and tweeting about them. (in my now-60-day-old list, this idea had been incorporated in most every list item)
– Performing a task at my day job. (this idea was #8 on the now-60-day-old list)
– Being more active on an online public software support forum. (this idea was #3 in the now-60-day-old list).
– Attending an IT meetup/lecture. (this idea had been #9 in my now-60-day-old list)
– Listening to an IT podcast. And google hangout or IT video. (in the now-60-day-old-list this idea had been #12 in the list)(and google hangout or video weren’t in the list, but are similar to #9 and #12 in the list, respectively)
– Reading others’ blog posts! (not in the list! but extremely similar to #10 and #11 in the list… and in fact the most common way I find an interesting IT Professional blog post to read is by seeing someone tweeting it on twitter.)
Conclusion? It turns out that about 6 of the ideas from my now-60-day-old list are still relevant to me now, and that on top of that I have organically put into practice one additional idea to develop my career.
What’s next? From this reflection, I realize that the activities involved in growing one’s career are hard to define, and furthermore that within the period of just two months the list of activities changes.
In addition, here are some ideas that now, by looking at my 60-day-old list I have been reminded of them, that I think I should do more of:
– Do more of any activity that involves talking with colleagues.
– Do more of taking career-related pictures, recording career-related gpx (GPS) tracks, recording career-related videos and audiorecordings, and including these recordings in my blog posts and tweets.
Why should I do more of these two aspects? It will boost one’s career, by professionally networking and by recording + publishing a portfolio of professional accomplishments.
Finally, Here’s the original list of Software Support Engineer / IT Professional career building activities, from ~60 days ago, unedited since then:
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20130929 Career Building Activities remix:
1. Write a software script on github. Blog then tweet the script.(~1/month)
2. Write a technical blog post — for example a set of instructions how to do something on linux or on a device. Blog then tweet the technical blog post. (~1/month)
3. Respond to a forum post on an online public IT forum. Blog then tweet the forum post. (~1/week)
4. Author and host an IT audio performance to produce a podcast. Blog then tweet the podcast. (~1/year)
5. Give an IT lightning talk to produce a video(and/or audio and/or still pictures and/or slides). Blog then tweet the video (and/or audio, pics, slides). (~1/year)
6. Sit for an IT certification exam to produce a picture of the certificate with my name on it, zoomed in on my name and zoomed in on my official title. Blog then tweet the picture. (~1/year)
7. Audiorecord a GPL IT book reading, to produce the audiorecording. Blog then tweet the audiorecording. (~1/week)
8. Perform a task (like write a ticket, script or kb article. or other) at my day job to produce a written note and to produce a picture of me doing the task. Blog then tweet the written note and the picture. (~1/week)
9. Attend an IT meetup/lecture to produce a written note and to produce a picture of me at the meetup(and gpx track/map-picture). Blog then tweet the written note and the picture. (~1/week)
10. Read IT Tweets to produce a written note. Blog then tweet the written note. (~1/day)
11. Read github activit(y/ies) or online forum activit(y/ies) to produce a written note. Blog then tweet the written note. (~1/day)
12. Listen to an IT podcast to produce a written note. Blog then tweet the written note. (~1/week)
13. Read an IT Exam book to produce a written note about the reading. Blog then tweet the written note. (1/day)
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*2014-12-05 edit: previously published at http://w̶i̶e̶l̶d̶l̶i̶n̶u̶x̶.̶c̶o̶m̶/?p=65
[2020 edit: Moved to: https://i̶n̶v̶e̶s̶t̶o̶r̶w̶o̶r̶k̶e̶r̶.̶c̶o̶m̶/2014/... .html.]