Journey To Expert Status

Day 38 - Interview Preparation - Part 3

There is so much advice to receive in regard to career development and career growth in the era we are all experiencing together. And as someone who is frequently receiving feedback, criticism and advice from others, I think it's important to know when and how to utilize received advice.

There are people in my life I care about so much that I keep the advice they give me in a mental locked-safe. And I save the advice for later because I know if they are sharing the information with me, I may need a piece of it one day.

I can't remember the conversation, but later after undergrad, I genuinely believed that it was drastically improbable to give advice or get advice from a peer, because the chances of someone saying the solution it is You needed to hear in that very second of a moment was slim to none.

I stopped giving advice to college friends because we all existed in different realms of careers, (we all were pursuing different careers and degrees). A lot of high-level conversations growing up were about what it was like in each others' fields and from our POV in Virginia, USA.

A technical portfolio isn't the most common artifact in my industry today.

In the early career stage where I received the most of my career development help, a technical portfolio is something an early-career candidate may create coming out of college, I had one back then.

You may build and host a nice website, because you know you need one to showcase you are in fact technically literate.

The reason it's considered junior in regard to my lane, is because it's coding. It's not project management, people management, innovation strategy, or budgeting resources. It's painting a pretty picture online of your hands-on capabilities.

So if you wonder "what took Rheonda so long" to build this thing in this economy, all week it has been crossing my mind that:

1) If I had done this before this year, it probably would not have included the core functionality the way in which it did this spring,

2) I avoided the portfolio because of my previous presumption from way back in the 2010s regarding the technical portfolio. Somewhere in my tin jewelry box, I still have my technical portfolio from High School on a thumb drive.

3) Working in the SNOW Platform (ServiceNOW) is enough real-time experience, and seeking practice experience is rare in some cases. However, I am someone who is more developed in the business-mindedness (and literally ethics), so one thing I am not doing that many junior candidates are into at this time is, repeating the development from their real work into their ServiceNow Personal Developer Instances (PDI), it really is unethical in my eyes.

But, sometimes you have to march to the beat of your own drum, and trust your gut on something.

Just to emphasize #3, is literally why I struggle with the concept of even creating a ServiceNow PDI while I'm not actively sitting in a ServiceNow role.

Like I said the portfolio in my industry is something popular amongst entry-level candidates, but I had to trust my gut on this one.

Someone who's advice holds value to me even said something that sounded like, a portfolio is "popular in the marketing industry".... ?? this isn't graphic design or UX design... omg "I'm going to give off the wrong vibe I fear".

Check out the Hiring Rheonda Portal on my ServiceNow PDI:

https://dev176129.service-now.com/sp        

Anyways, I created a solution to a real-world complex-problem (I mean remember, we are in a "global talent shortage", and the data is saying that "top talent" is being "filtered out by the AI through talent management")

and I did successfully do so with a senior level twist for certain.

Thank you for joining me on this exciting journey to employment! If you're interested in following along and staying updated on my progress, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. Let's continue the conversation and explore new opportunities together.

Connect with me on LinkedIn: Rheonda D. Ogletree

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