ITCareerCoach Training - Coaching » courses http://www.it-career-coach.net How To Take Your Career To The Next Level Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:09:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Live Up To Your Potential in 3 Steps http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/20/live-up-to-your-potential-in-3-steps/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/20/live-up-to-your-potential-in-3-steps/#comments Sun, 20 Mar 2011 16:28:39 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3144

Live Up To Your Potential

Live Up To Your Potential

This question was submitted by a very young, exceptionally gifted and talented top performer who wants to know how he can live up to his potential.

Hello,

I am very young (23) and was radically accelerated through college \ graduate school.

By next year, I will have a BA (Math \ Religion), MBA (Management Consultancy), MSc (Business IT), PhD (Computing & Mathematics), and PhD (ABD), in IT from leading universities, as well as 9+ years IT experience, with 5+ years BA experience with stellar recommendations.

I do not want a career in university teaching or research … could you suggest a few viable directions to move my career forward in IT business analysis?

I feel “painted into a corner” and now am not certain which way to go at this point, as a Senior Analyst.

Just a few alternatives would be helpful.

Best regards and thank you.

How To Fulfill Your Potential

The first of the three most important challenges facing talented people is that of identifying their passion.

This is a big challenge because talented folks can do almost anything and succeed at it.

Another challenge facing talented folks is not doing what they love and / or following the money trail!

Because talented people can easily get high-paying jobs and get paid a lot more than their colleagues, they can be easily derailed from their true objectives.

Following the money trail is bad because it eventually leads to mediocrity.

Regardless of how talented one is, it is not possible to achieve your deepest potential if you do not identify your passion and do what you love.

The final challenge that talented people face is not taking their passion to market.

They pick vocations where they are unable to serve their community or their world because of money concerns or because of poor career recommendations.

Discover Your Passion

The first and most important thing that you have to do: “is to discover your passion“.

Your passion is something that you are deeply interested in doing because you love it, you have strengths in it, you enjoy thinking, dreaming or even speaking about it.

Your passion is not necessarily what promises you job security or what promises you lots of money.

Money and Job Security are used as the primary basis of making career recommendations and yet, they don’t truly matter because … guess what?

If you do what you truly love, the money will surely follow!

Discovering your passion is an exercise of the heart and not of the head.

You must be able to dream or envision your passion in your heart first and then use your head to figure out what to do.

Good folks get this heart and head mixed up all the time! Your heart is your instinctive, sensing personality and your head is your rational, logical person.

Do What You Love

The second thing that you must do on the path to self actualization is to: “Do What You Love”.

Doing what you love means working very hard at something that you love.

But it also means more than that … it means training yourself the way that world-class athletes do!

Though you can do several things exceptionally very well, you should concentrate on a few disciplines and hone your abilities in those alone.

You want to become so good in your chosen field, that your work in those areas will stand out in comparison to that of any others in your chosen field.

Think about this for a moment: world-class athletes have to invest considerable amounts of time into just training and honing their skills.

They understand that even through they may be exceptionally gifted, they cannot win unless they are much better than the competition or other equally gifted and talented folks.

And also get this … no world class athlete depends on their exceptional talents or giftedness alone!

Instead they put themselves through the most rigorous, skill-advancing training that they can find so that they can live up to their potential.

The issue is not really whether you are gifted. The true issue at stake is whether you will live up to your potential? I will advise that you read these two books:

  1. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
  2. Talent Code by Daniel Coyle

Amongst other things, these two books point out that to become a world class player, you will have to invest a solid amount of time into just doing nothing else but honing your skills and abilities!

Take Your Passion To the Market

Starting a blog and getting on Social Media is the starting point for taking your passion to market.

The next thing that you have to do with your passion or the work that you love is: “Subscribe to the Publish or Perish” mantra which you are already used to coming from academia.

The main purpose of your blog is to create a market for your passion or connect your passion with an existing market on the internet.

Your market is the readers or subscribers of your blog and what you must do is: help them, talk to them, connect with them using your blog as your premier publishing or speaking platform.

Without sharing your passion with other people who love the topics that you care about, your passion dies with you … which is the definition of being boxed in!

Not having a blog means that you are not others learn or grow. It also means your own growth is incomplete because you are closed off from the feedback of your industry … and no one can develop your passion in isolation

Starting a blog does not mean that you must offer a service or sell a product.

Starting a blog does means that you have decided to make your world a better place by serving humanity with your gifts and talents.

The lesson here is that being wired or connected to others using blogging and social media is now considered essential for success!

One person that comes to mind in that regards is Jacob Nielsen, the world’s numero uno usability expert!

For several years, he has been conducting researches on usability and publishing his findings online.

From those findings, he has written books and he conducts training seminars around the globe.

You can see that Jacob is deeply passionate and extremely knowledgeable in his field and that he publishes more than most people in his field.

Do these 3 things (discover your passion, do what you love, take your passion to market) and you will succeed.

Jonathan, when you break into stardom, don’t stop telling people how I helped you, ok :-)

P.S. I am sending you my new ebook titled “Discover Your Passion, Do What You Love, Take Your Passion To Market“.

Best Wishes and Lots of Success in your Career

This question was published using [Ask IT Career Coach].

[Ask IT Career Coach] is a Career Advice Column for Information Technology (IT) professionals looking for answers to their most challenging career situations.

If you have a question about your career that you will like me to answer for you, go ahead and submit it using the [Ask IT Career Coach] Career Advice Service.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/20/live-up-to-your-potential-in-3-steps/feed/ 0 What Is the Toughest Challenge Facing your Career? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/11/the-toughest-challenge-facing-your-career/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/11/the-toughest-challenge-facing-your-career/#comments Wed, 12 Jan 2011 04:30:35 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3062

What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

Compliments of the Season and Merry Christmas To You. What is the toughest challenge facing your career right now?

Post a detailed question regarding your challenges right now, and I will help you take care of them, once and for all!

How To Discover Your Passion?

Perhaps, your toughest challenge is …

  • How to choose the right career or
  • How to make a career change or
  • How to get an entry level job that is inline with your career goals

Regardless of the type of challenge facing your career, go ahead and post a detailed question regarding your challenge and I will answer it for you

How To Do The Work You Love?

Perhaps, your toughest challenge is …

  • How to become highly skilled at your job or
  • How to get suitable hands-on experience or
  • How to transition from a beginner or junior position to a senior-level job

Leave a detailed comment about your challenging career situation using the form below and I will answer it for you!

How To Take Your Passion To The Market?

Perhaps, the most challenging situation facing your career is …

  • How to rewrite your resume and/or cover letter, so you can get the job you want or
  • How to distinguish yourself from others in your industry, so that you can standout or get hired or
  • How to ace your job / technical interviews so that you can get jobs more easily …

Whatever your challenge, just go ahead and ask a question using the “comment form” below and I will answer it for you.

I may answer by writing a new article that addresses your concerns or by posting a comprehensive reply to your comment below.

The concern or challenge facing you is important to me, so go right away and post it as a comment on this page.

The sooner you ask that question, the sooner I can take care of it for you. So, let’s get started


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/11/the-toughest-challenge-facing-your-career/feed/ 53 Don’t Let Your Career Become A Silo! http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/07/03/dont-let-you-career-become-a-silo/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/07/03/dont-let-you-career-become-a-silo/#comments Sun, 04 Jul 2010 00:01:51 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2942

Is Your Career A Silo?

Is Your Career A Silo?

Don’t let your career become a prison. Use it as a launching pad for achieving your dreams.

If you would like to change career but feel like you can’t satisfy the specialized requirements on job postings, here is some good advice for you!

[Ask IT Career Coach] is a Career Advice Column for IT professionals looking for answers to their most challenging career situations.

Why Is Changing Roles So Hard?

Changing roles is hard because Information Technology (IT), Web, or Software Development Managers want depth of experience in specific, narrowly defined or over-specialized skills.

For example, you may be a strong HTML developer and yet fail at a job interview because you don’t have HTML5 on your resume even though you will easily learn it, if hired!

Or you may be an e-commerce business analyst (ba) with 5 years of experience and yet you can’t qualify for an “e-commerce ba job because it requires an agency or advertising background”. This type of job description seems to imply that having an agency or advertising background is essential in a business analyst role!

Is Your Career A Silo?

IT careers have not always been silos. Software developers have been known to gather or document requirements for their projects (business analysis), create software manuals or help files using specialized programs (technical writing) or create and execute test plans (quality assurance).

But because of the siloing of IT roles, our personalities are now limited by our careers instead of being expressions of them.

Don’t Let Silos Stand In Your Way

Transitioning careers is harder than it needs to be because of this narrow, over-specification of skills.

  • Your career is not bound to your college education. You are better of assuming that college is a training ground for improving thinking, probelm solving or analytical skills. College does not dictate your life work!

  • You are more than your resume. You succeed at work because of your intrinsic personal abilities which transcend job descriptions. Your resume only proves that you can get things done. Your resume does not determine what you can or cannot do!

The ability to succeed at a job is within you. It is not limited by over-specialized job postings. This means that you should believe in yourself and let that confidence drive your career transition.

For example, if you are a software developer used to gathering requirements for your team, believe that the same intrinsic personal traits (good communication or documentation skills) will help you transition into a full-time business analyst or technical writer job.

I am saying that you musn’t let your current job become a silo. Use it as a launching pad to your dream career.

Software Development As A Launching Pad For IT Careers

Believing in yourself means that you focus on building bridges between your current and dream career instead of focusing on the restrictive or limiting words frequently used on job postings.

with all this in mind, here is how you can transition from a software developer to a business analyst role.

Expand the scope of your day to day computer programming tasks to take on more business analysis tasks.

A good number of software development projects lack full-time business analysis resources. Take advantage of this opportunity to become a business analyst. Here is how:

  • Volunteer to gather, elicit or document the requirements for your software development projects. Don’t stay within the silo fo a typical software developer job role.

  • Learn UML and Use Cases which are skills that are common to both business analysts and software developers. This helps you build a bridge between your current and desired skills.

  • Bridge the gap between your current programming team and stakeholders. Become the go-between who interprets requirements to software developers or explains the programmers’ concerns to stakeholders.

  • Distinguish yourself by studying or training to be the best informed business analyst on your team. Many software developers have fragmented or incomplete knowledge of what business analyst do. Don’t be one of those.

    For example, some software developers know a little bit of Use Cases or UML, But having fragmented or incomplete knowledge doesn’t get the job done.

  • When an opportunity for a full-time business analyst resource opens up in your company apply for the position and ask the same stakeholders you are working with to recommend you.

  • If a business analyst position does not open up in your firm, document all the work that you are doing and apply for a full-time business analyst position at another company.

Don’t let your career, education or job postings become your silo. You have to believe in yourself and learn how to build bridges between your current job and the career you want.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/07/03/dont-let-you-career-become-a-silo/feed/ 1 Coaching Or Self Study http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/20/coaching-or-self-study/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/20/coaching-or-self-study/#comments Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:11:14 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/20/coaching-or-self-study/

There are a number of ways you can learn programming or business analysis or any
other technical skill. I recommend both coaching and self study. I
am going to compare both modes of learning so you have a better idea of what
works for you and what doesn't.

Self Study or Teach Yourself

Self study is the type of learning where you are 100% responsible for the
outcome. It involves researching a concept, subject or topic through books,
online websites and other types of media. You set the learning goals by
yourself, draw up a lesson plan and then do your own reading and learning.

1. Self study is the cheapest way to learn a skill. It is cheaper than training,
coaching, mentoring or distance learning.

2. Self study is not the most productive or the fastest way to learn a skill. It
is easier for you to give up on your study goals because you are only
accountable to yourself. It is easier for you to skip on scheduled lessons
because you are only accountable to yourself.

3. Self study is great if you don't care about feedback. The books you are
reading are not likely to tell you anything about how you are doing or talk back
to you. So, if you like learning in solitude without any feedback from other
people, self study may be ideal for you.

Coaching

Coaching involves someone else other than yourself walking you through your
study material.

1. Coaching is more expensive than self study because you have to pay for your
coach's time.

2. Coaching is a quicker, faster, surer way to achieve your learnng goals and
here is why. When you pay a coach to learn a skill (body building, writing,
internet marketing, etc.) you are more likely to do whatever it takes to
complete your program. So, you are more committed and invested in your goal.

3. Learning a new technical skill can be a difficult or frustrating experience
at times and having a coach walk you through the process can save you a lot of
tears, detours and time.

4. Your coach can show you the shortcuts that shave years off your learning
curve. There is a limit to how much you can actually learn about a subject just
by reading it. A coach can supply that experiential knowledge that will take you
years to learn otherwise. That is why the top performers in almost every
industry have mentors who are above them.

5. Since coaching is a one-to-one relationship, you must admire and respect your
coach and also get along fairly well with your coach otherwise you may well be
wasting your money and your time.

I hope this clarifies things for you. On my website, I have IT Career Books for
computer programmers, business analysts and other software development
professionals. These books are perfect if you are a do-it-yourself kind of
person.

At the same time, I also have coaching programs that provide personalized,
one-on-one attention or feedback. So, just do what works for you
… get the ebooks if you prefer self study or the coaching programs if you want
a guide, mentor or trainer that will walk you through your
learning.

About The Author

My name is Kingsley Tagbo and I?m a technical expert living in Saint Louis,
Missouri. I write about the training, coaching, mentoring
and personal development of software development professionals including
business analysts, computer programmers, testers, project managers, web
designers, data analysts, report writers, software developers and other
information technology professionals .

My firm, Exacticity, performs software development consulting and training for
clients throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New
Zealand. If you are in need of software development consultants or training,
target="_blank"
title="contact the author">click here to get in touch with me.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/20/coaching-or-self-study/feed/ 0 How To Recession Proof Your Career http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/06/how-to-recession-proof-your-career/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/06/how-to-recession-proof-your-career/#comments Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:22:14 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/06/how-to-recession-proof-your-career-part-1/

Recession Proof Your Career

Recession Proof Your Career

Is the US economy already in a recession?

Will the weakened US economy affect the global economy leading to a recession in Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia and perhaps other international markets?

Should you really care about a recession and how it will affect your career, job or income?

How About A Refresher Course On Recessions?

If you do not quite realize what a recession looks like, perhaps you can do with this refresher on the last recession to hit the US economy in 2001.

In the beginning, no one seemed to be quite sure that the recession was going to happen. Some pundits felt that the US economy will perhaps weaken but not really experience a full blown recession. Other experts felt that the economy was already in a recession. Then all of a sudden all the pundits and experts and news media outlets seemed to be screaming in unison, we are in a recession!

Fortune 500′s Laying Off Employees In The Thousands

Fortune 500 corporations where laying off employees in the thousands! There where daily announcements of job cuts leading to tens of thousands of full-time employees hitting the streets with their last pay check! Smaller businesses could not be out competed too! If you read your local newspaper, you will see the same daily roll call of local employers laying off workers.

No Jobs for Highly Skilled Workers

The recession got so bad, that even highly skilled and highly qualified employees with post graduate degrees couldn’t get jobs. The news media was awash with news on how the middle class and the white-collar workers could not even get job interviews.

Salary and Wage Cuts

Some of the fortunate white and blue collar workers who still had jobs after all the job cuts and layoff announcements, had to stand in line for salary cuts. Freezes on wage increases and benefits beame common. Vacationing was a taboo word and as if that wasn’t bad enough, the senior, experienced, highly-skilled workers where being offered an option between either working for entry-level wages or getting the dreaded pink slip.

Dog Eat Dog Market

I recall recruiters telling me horror stories of how they would put up a job advertisement and get 500 resumes of highly skilled and qualified people within 24 hours contrasted to how they used to get a few weak resumes per week for their job postings. The irony of the situation, was that the mailboxes of hiring managers and recruiters got filled up within hours of putting up a job posting. Hiring managers and recruiters who couldn’t deal with the flood of resumes literally had to abandon checking their voicemails and inboxes for other covert (black ops) methods of hiring.

An Employers Market

The job market situation worsened as those employers who could still hire, realized that they literally had the whole employment world at their fingertips. Then things got really ugly as employers start getting really picky about resumes, credentials, qualifications, experience, level of expertise and level of technical training of job applicants. I recall the horror story of a techie who had to contact about 10,000 employers to get 2 job interviews and one job offer.

How To Protect Yourself From The Next Recession

Hopefully, you get the picture now. The point of these horror stories is that, yes you should care about the ongoing debate between pundits and experts about whether the US economy is in the beginning or middle of a recession.

The big question is really “what should you do immediately to protect yourself and your loved ones from a national or perhaps global economic recession?“

Here are a few tips recession proofing your career:

  1. Become A Highly Skilled Worker Now

    In a recession, the unskilled technical worker is obviously more at risk than the skilled technical worker. While the highly skilled technical worker may get downsized to a lower paying job, the lesser skilled technical workers are the weakest in the tech food chain and are the ones most at risk of losing their jobs.

  2. Take Your Technical Training Now

    Now is the time to take your technical training and not in the middle of the recession when jobs are difficult to get. First, when you take as much technical training as you can, you reduce the chances that you will be laid off because technical training increases your competitiveness.

    Also, it is much harder to pay for your technical training if you are laid off and in the middle of a job search than while you still have a job and an income. What typically happens to laid-off workers in a recession is that their first instinct is to cut down their expenses and cost of living including out-of-pocket training costs. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really help them because this is the time when they really need to be competitive.

    Note: some employers get picky in a recession and will question your judgment by asking you why you waited until you where laid off to take your technical training seriously.

  3. Polish Your Resume Now

    Now is the time to take your resume and update it with all the latest and greatest technical skills (recruiter speak for cutting edge technology) . If you are in a computer programming career, now is the time to master the latest versions of the most popular software development languages (I have listed them in my “how to learn programming book“).

    If you are a business analyst, now is the time to ensure that you have learnt and mastered full life cycle software development practices. Whether you a tester, project manager, quality assurance analyst, data analyst or database developer, now is the time to look outside the windows or confines of your day to day job and ask yourself the question, “what critical skills am i lacking on my resume?” or “how do I take my career to the next level?.”

    For your sake and the sake of your loved ones, do whatever it takes to gain the critical, leading edge skills that you need to take your career to the next level and then put those skills, experience and training on your resume now, so you are not caught in the deadly grip of a recession.

    Don’t forget to polish up your technical interviewing and job hunting skills and finally do whatever it takes to look after your employer or clients now and they will be more willing to look out for you when you need their help.

Current Training Opportunities

If you are a business analyst, software developer, data analyst, computer programmer, web developer, web designer, tester or project manager interested in taking your skills and career to the next level, SIGN UP NOW for the 2008 SQL / DATABASE DEVELOPER TRAINING PROGRAM

If you want to master software development, computer programming or web development SIGN UP NOW for the 2008 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TRAINING PROGRAM

About The Author

My name is Kingsley Tagbo and I?m a technical expert living in Saint Louis, Missouri. I write about the training, coaching, mentoring and personal development of software development professionals including business analysts, computer programmers, testers, project managers, web designers, data analysts, report writers, software developers and other information technology professionals .

My firm, Exacticity, performs software development consulting and training for clients throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. If you are in need of software development help or training, click here to contact me.


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