Becoming more...

????????Often, we find ourselves responding to life events, where getting derailed from our immaculate plan is just devastating.?It turns our life upside down, and we wonder how we’re going to get back to where we were.??

??????????????This was true for me when my late wife was diagnosed with cancer. Right after the loss of my late wife came the start of the pandemic and the isolation that ensued. For anyone out there experiencing anything with a sickness in the family, a battle with cancer, or the loss of a loved one, or anything similar you have both my empathy and my prayers.?

??????????????However, as much as this was one of the many defining moments in my life, something that forever changed who I am and how I see and approach life, it wasn’t the end to the upheaval.??

??????????????Therapy was conducted on Zoom in front of a keyboard and monitor, devoid of most human contact.?While working through that loss, my position was eliminated at a company I worked at.?Loss of a loved one, loss of employment, isolation, lack of human interaction, all in the course of 6 months.?

??????????????Within 6 months I had a new position, thinking it was the pinnacle of my career and grief-stricken that my wife couldn't experience this turn of events. A year later I relocated to Washington, where I got the news that my father had passed away unexpectedly. A short two months after that I experienced the loss of my father-in-law as well. Often my head was spinning from the challenges in front of me, and still processing the loss of my wife.??

??????????????Now, like many others, I now find myself looking for new opportunities again in the current economy. I think I’ve always had a clear direction of where I wanted my career to go, but never a clear idea of how to get there. Perfectionism has run deep, and with that comes imposter syndrome as well.?Did I really deserve my success? Do I belong here? Have you ever battled with either??

??????????????I've spent a fair amount of my career evaluating if I was doing the right things to move forward, intently focused on not making a wrong move for my career.?Worried that I would mis-step and fail, or worse realize I went entirely in the wrong direction. Although I explored a variety of industries, and never shied away from challenges, I didn’t stray very much from my core technology, which had both its pros and cons which have been weighed carefully over the years.?

??????????????Now I find myself redefining the trajectory of my life again. I’ve renewed connections with industry professionals, peers, mentors, and recruiters. I find myself in the daily shuffle and grind of combing through appropriate opportunities, checking email, connecting with recruiters and HR personnel alike, going through screenings and interviews and wondering what I need to do to set myself apart from other candidates.?

???????????????As I started to dig, I realized that I wanted and needed to approach my career with more intentionality and to be more daring, more confident. I discovered that I had lost sight of what drove me. Other than working, I had no overarching direction or vision to the future of my career.?I had been so focused on a particular path, that I had avoided exploring technology, unsure if I wanted to invest in something that would be dead in a year, and find myself again wrestling with what direction to take next.?How do I grow myself beyond my educations, skills and experience??

???????????????Last year, I figuratively went back to the drawing board, and reached out to professionals to learn things I had never been taught. I learned how to dress better with a stylist, then I learned a bit about interior design and turned my home into a place I could enjoy and entertain. Decisions which propelled me to meet and hire an Executive Coach that came highly recommended by a small business owner. Seems like an odd direction to take right? I’ll say it was one of the best things I’ve done this year.?

??????????????Over the next few months, I am focused on growing myself both in technology and leadership, and I’ll be sharing how I do that through resources, connections, books, articles or whatever else crops up. My goal, first and foremost to once again change myself, the trajectory of my career and subsequently my life, but secondarily to share that journey, and hopefully connect and inspire other individuals who want to do the same for themselves, but are curious about how to start that process.?

??????????????I'm currently evaluating the second edition of "A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms" by Jay Wengrow. As I go through the book I'll be sharing my insights, perhaps even exercises I've done with the goal of creating from scratch a comprehensive list of resources for expanding the breadth and depth of my software engineering knowledge.

??????????????My vision around this area was sharing that journey and challenging myself to grow in new ways, so you may want to watch out for a YouTube channel as well where I go over the resources I’ve used, and how I’ve tackled some of those areas.?It may not be pretty or polished, and may ultimately fail, but I’d rather have the courage to try and grow and, and in that crucible, find out what I enjoy doing the most and discovering the most compelling purpose for myself and my future.?

??????????????Sharing on social media kind of keeps me both authentic and vulnerable in a way that I haven’t really done before. I think we often forget in business and especially in technology that we are people first, and while there is certainly a balance to maintain in professionalism, infusing a little more humanity into tech-based relationships isn’t such a bad thing.?Connecting with peers, mentors, partners, industry professionals, stakeholders and bringing humanity back to technology.?Besides… How else do we prevent the robot overloads (AI) from taking over the world?