Here's an unpublished draft that I found. The first two discovery parts are here and here (though they're unrelated, so there is no reason to read them if you want to read this post. I just thought since the title is part 3, some people might be curious).
As a side note, I made it through an entire month! Which is a bit surprising for me, but my goal is to get to 100 days at least, because that is the challenge GP has set for me (since he managed to write a story every day for 100 days). You can find his blog here, though most of the stories are private now, so you'll have to buy his book if you want to read it (it doesn't seem to be an e-book version available anymore, so I'm glad I got one when I could!).
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Another discovery - I don't really have the time to blog nearly as much as I used to. Probably because between my work schedule and my gaming schedule, there is very little time for self-reflection.
To continue with the theme of the reluctant hero, I was asked to take part in a mentoring program for the long term unemployed. We are supposed to help mentor someone who is trying to find a job, and as part of the program, develop leadership skills. I was hoping my boss wouldn't let me do it, but he said yes. Then I was hoping my dev lead wouldn't, but he also said yes. As my last resort, I was hoping my project manager wouldn't let me do it, but he also said yes. So off I went to the training and I now have a protege, who I'll nickname ADM (not related to her initials, I just have some after dinner mints sitting on my desk).
I was ridiculously nervous when I first met her, and I think she knew. She's really, really nice though, and I honestly have no idea why she's not employed. I feel a bit bad for her, because she is trying really hard, and she got paired with me as a mentor. I'm not really sure what I can do to help her. I've only been working for a couple of years, and the other mentors in the program are all managers or senior managers. I have 0 people reporting to me, and I've never hired someone in my life. But I don't want to let ADM down, so I'm trying to introduce her to some people who are working in the areas she is trying to get into (she wants to be a personal assistant or a flight attendant). Unfortunately, she still hasn't found a job yet, but she has had a lot of interviews, so I'm still hopeful.
I wrote the above about 1.5 months ago.
The program is now over and ADM got a job! She actually got offered two jobs, and despite my earlier hesitations, I did help her in the end. The people I introduced her to loved her so much that when they heard that there was an opening, they asked for her resume and passed it along. The interview went really well and despite the fact that she has no experience, they admired her cheerful nature and decided to take a chance on her.
The whole thing has changed my view of networking. While you could say it was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time, I think ADM would not have had the same opportunities if she hadn't met me. That doesn't mean I'm going to start brown nosing any chance I get, but it does mean that I'm going to try harder to get to know people, as you never know who could lead you to your next job.
Although, contrary to what I just said, I finally managed to step away from the social committee. Despite the fact that it is such a great way of networking, the level of involvement that I feel compelled to give isn't worth it. I felt bad doing social committee things during work as I was charging the time to a project, so I tried to make up the time in my own time. That just meant I was always tired and always playing catch up. It also caused a lot of strain between me and MrMan5.5 as my free time dwindled. So we agreed that I'd see out the rest of the year on the committee, and then quit. I thought about staying on and taking up a less demanding role, but I realized that it wasn't the role that took up so much time, it was the fact that I was doing other people's roles. I tried to delegate, but I found too often that it would mean that nothing got done, so I just cut out the middle man and did it myself. That was such a failure.
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A couple of years later, I've definitely gotten way better at networking (as I touched on in my 2014 wrap up post). I'm feeling a lot less hesitant about using my networks now. So I feel super happy that I've managed to line up a popular book author to speak at one of our events. He's the guy who wrote the most widely referenced book for one of the tools that is used by a lot of teams at the bank, so I'm hoping his presentation will be interesting, as we've had our numbers dwindle a bit over the past few months.
I've also been reading some articles written by successful people, and one of the key themes they bring up when they talk about how they got the job they had is that they just started telling people around them that it's what they wanted to do. Eventually, it was the case of a friend of a friend, or an ex-co-worker who tells them about an opening that hasn't been advertised yet, and they manage to get in early. My cousin's husband actually told me that he knows someone who does what I want to do, so I told him that after we get back from our honeymoon, I'd love to catch up with his friend sometime. I'm feeling a bit more confident about my skills at the moment, and I'll be sitting the certification exam soon, so I'm not 100% sure that I'm ready to get out of the development game. Plus, I got an email saying that they're looking at people with my exact skillset, and they're willing to pay $500-1000 a day for that kind of person. I have to say, the money sounds tempting, but I don't think I'm worth that much quite yet.
Someone did an IAMA (Q and A type post) on Reddit, and he gave a good guide to how to get into his field, so one of my goals this year is to go through all the things that he listed in his guide. I've started with a few TED talks, which were really interesting.
A lot to learn, and a long way to go still, but I'm getting there!
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