2023 Career Advice for Techies

Digital convergence and technological disruptions are creating new business models. And digitization is set to completely transform the way we work, communicate, and live. Our world is changing.?

Luckily for you, there has really never been a better time to be thinking about a career in technology. With opportunities and a broad diversity of roles and specialism out there, the future looks inviting.

Being competitive in the era of digitization is just as much about mastering and developing some solid, base skills today as it was yesterday and it will hold true tomorrow. There are some competencies that are set to remain just as in demand now as 50 or 100 years from now.

Here is our top advice for techies in 2023

Be so good they can’t ignore you

Steve Martin was talking about entertainers that need to keep getting gigs, but this is?excellent?advice for people in technical roles. The?entire point?of your professional existence is to be really, really skilled at what you do. Nobody worth working for or with will ignore an outstanding contributor.

You should exist in a?constant state of dissatisfaction?with your own skills. Do?something?at least 6 days a week to develop your skills in your area. A year from now, deliberate study and practice will have lifted you to an entirely different level. You’ll even have got better?at learning,?and will now to be able to learn things that you weren’t ready for when you began your journey. Imagine the compounding effect of doing this?year after year.

If perpetually honing your skills (nearly every day) sounds like a lot of work — well, it is! You must learn to?like?trying to do things that are hard — but not too hard — for someone at your current level. The satisfaction you get from each incremental improvement in your knowledge or skill is the fuel that you will burn to keep rising through the levels.

Simply studying harder than almost all your peers will, over time, give you abilities that place you in an entirely new peer group. When you see a seemingly effortless, masterful performance — whether by a musician, a dancer, or a developer — be sure there were thousands of hours of practice behind it. Your own path to excellence won’t be much shorter.

Be Passionate

It is hard to ignore the importance of passion; it is the fuel that propels the very best engineers to heights too rarefied for mere ambition. I don’t think?anyone’s?day is entirely filled with work that brings them joy, but if your field doesn’t regularly excite you, then it will be hard to really excel; duty and doggedness will get you through the day, but will they keep you reading late at night as months turn into years?

That said, being really good at something does bring joy, and perhaps persistence in the early stages will carry you up through the clouds and into the sunny uplands of the happy professional.

Be Wrong

There are?at least two?very important ways to end up at the wrong answer. Getting it wrong?less?over time is essential, but there are some situations where you should not stop being wrong occasionally.

• A colleague — perhaps a?junior?colleague — criticizes some lines of your code. If they are right?or if it is a toss-up?as to who is correct?let them have the win?with the maximum good grace you can muster. The reasoning here is that junior colleagues need to realize that they can safely criticize you. Getting defensive will quickly shut them up, and prevent them from saving you from some future blunder — and reduce?your?future learning opportunities.
• If everything you try works out brilliantly and you never encounter difficulties, then you are cruising along a plateau. Do you want to be an expert with 10 years of experience, or a journeyman with 1 year’s experience 10 times over? Leave the plateau for the hills and re-introduce a little gradient in your life.

Be a great communicator

All your technical expertise will be wasted if no-one believes your solution is the right one. As an?expert, the problems you work on are not easily understood by your less technical colleagues. You will often need to get agreement from others to implement your solution; at this point, it is so, so tempting to use the “argument by authority” (“I am an expert! I practice 6 days a week for many years!”). This is almost always the wrong thing to do!

If your authority was really enough, they would already be doing it your way! The very fact that agreement is necessary reveals that your solution seems unconvincing in some way. Remember that communication involves?listening?as well as talking. Understand the concerns, explain your solution in an accessible way — and, of course, remember that sometimes they will be right!

Let opportunity find you

If someone had the ideal opportunity for you, how would they find you to tell you about it? If you are working in splendid isolation — doing great work known only to your immediate team — then, of course, you will be passed over.

The simplest way to advertise your abilities is to share what you have learned. Perhaps there is a conference you could give a talk at? Maybe you should be sharing something about your work on LinkedIn or on Medium.

You will be demonstrating your capabilities in a way that is much more public and obvious than when you are sitting at your desk, tapping on your keyboard. If you are any good, people from your audience will come to you afterward for help. Helping them will be a great chance for?you?to develop expertise, and for people outside your team to realize what they’ve been missing out on.

Be a quitter

If you read this far, probably you are quite a diligent person who likes to finish what they started! It is quite likely that you are sometimes too slow to simply accept failure and walk away.

Sometimes, a feature is a bridge too far. Sometimes a product just isn’t something people want to buy. Perhaps you?are?in the wrong line of work!

Sometimes, to get the next opportunity, you need to cut loose from something that is holding you back. Leaving a job that isn’t really working out can be a big wrench — if it is a job you’ve held for some time, there will be colleagues you don’t want to leave — but it can be really transformative.

Quit more!

Be Lazy

Long-term?lazy. Find or build tools that help you do more or better work. If you are writing software, take the time to write your automated tests, and let your future-self sleep a lot easier. Take code re-use seriously. You can save you and your team a huge amount of time by being?so lazy?that, just to avoid marathon bug fixes?later, you really go to town?now?on doing high-quality work. Oh, and if you ever catch yourself thinking “that is just too hard to test”,?go browse the automated tests for the Chromium browser. Just inspirational!

Be Patient

A promotion or a great new job doesn’t come along every day. New skills aren’t earned overnight. So be patient.

Summary

Progressing in your career is just as achievable as training for a long race, or learning an instrument.?You can do it!

Good luck!

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