I was furious. Why would I post something that I'm not sure about? I even backed it up with a slide. Why are you doubting me?
Took me a while to remember that that's what other people do. Say things even when they are only 60% sure. I look back at my career and cringe to think of all the times when other people were regarded more knowledgeable because they open their mouths even when they are not sure.
This time, I am happy that I checked the details before passing it on.
Work hard and you shall be rewarded. I don't know where I got that idea, but that was how I operated for a long time. Turns out hard work does not count if nobody knows about it.
This is especially important during performance reviews. How do you let others know the good work you have been doing? To most of us, it is not natural to toot your own horn. But like most skills, it can be learned.
Step one: Reframe. Rather than viewing it as bragging, look at it as celebration. Celebrate your achievements, big and small.
Donuts
I really like how Lara Hogan does it. She gets herself a donut whenever something awesome happened in her career, and makes its significance known to those around her. Check out her Donut Manifesto!
I wrote about the donuts, and how political celebrating achievements can be for women. https://t.co/6KdyL5woHc 🍩
If donut is not your thing, you can do with the good ol' list. Send a weekly summary email to your team with a few bullet points of what you have done.
Weekly Plan and Weekly Status are useful whether you work from home or not. Visibility is everything! https://t.co/69hU47tnGr
Or you can take it a notch up and add some prose around it. I have started doing that with my newsletter, sending out about once a month, and it has been a great way to look back and take stock my accomplishments.
Your turn! Write a blog post for your 2015 accomplishments (do it on medium if you don't have a blog) and post a link in the comments. Let's celebrate!
I could guilt you into doing it. I could tell you that you have benefited from other people's sharing so much that it is time for you to give back.
But instead I will tell you what is in it for you: Job security.
Your real résumé
The classic first step to get a job is to prepare a résumé. It could lead you to an interview if you keyword-stuff it the right way. But nowadays employers are turning to the internet to cross check if you are who you claim. A repertoire of technical articles is a solid way to show that you know your stuff, and more importantly, you can communicate.
But what do I write?
I knew you would say that. While I have no guaranteed formula that works for everyone, I can share how I make writing technical articles a part of my normal workflow.
Experiment on a clean slate
Whenever I need to incorporate an unfamiliar technology into my work, I do not do it directly in my main project. Instead, I create a brand new project and implement the minimal setup to understand how it works.
Build it up step by step
Once I get the minimal setup working, I add extra logic to get to what I need. But instead of overwriting the minimal setup, I make a copy so that I can explain the steps later. For example in Android apps I make my MainActivity a list of activities, each corresponding to a step.
Integrate into the main project
When the sample project has all the functionalities I need, I put it into my main project. It may interact with my existing code in unexpected ways, so I tweak until it works.
Write the article
After the coding is done I write the article. This is the structure I use:
A back story of what I was trying to do
Outline the steps I took with code snippets and screenshots
Explain the problems I encountered along the way, and how I solved them
Link to source code on github
Push the sample project to github
I don't publish my source code until the article is written because sometimes I thought of a better way of doing things while explaining my method in writing. Once I am happy with the article, I push my repository to github, publish the article, then add a link from the README of the github repository back to the article.
Share on social network
After everything is published, I post a link to Twitter and Google+ with a screenshot as the teaser.
I stumbled upon this workflow by accident. I used to stick the new technology straight into my main project, failed to make it work, and unable to pinpoint why. With a brand new project I can focus on the new stuff, work out all the kinks before I introduce the extra complexity of my main project.
Once I figured out how it works, I could have just thrown away the sample project. But what a waste! Instead I push it to github, and suddenly I am an open source contributor. Sweet!
Writing the article is a bit of extra work, but so very worth it. It gives me credibility. It lets people know that I know my tech, and I know how to explain it. Icing on the cake? It helps other people too!
I was intrigued by Rejection Therapy when I heard it on Invisibilia. You have to get rejected by someone at least once, every single day.
I was especially struck by this example given by the inventor:
It was harder to get rejected than I thought.
And that was really amazing for me, that people were actually saying yes.
I'd ask for a discount at a store, and they would go, yeah okay I would sell it to you for this, and I was like what? Really?
I had a similar experience:
When the lease for my apartment was up, I asked the manager for a discount. He readily offered me a free half-month if I signed a one-year lease. Which I did. The whole thing took 15 seconds.
That was so empowering. The manager's readiness made me realize that the discount was probably sitting there all this time, waiting for me to ask. I went on to ask for more things, and getting surprised by the yeses I got. Slowly it dawned on me: it is actually hard for people to say no!
Rejection Therapy is a great exercise. Getting comfortable with being rejected gives you the courage to ask for the things you want. And if you don't ask, they cannot say yes. So ask often, embrace the noes, and enjoy the yeses!
When I first started working, I was happily learning all kinds of new stuff: source control, working in a team, unit testing, etc, etc. After two years or so, I felt quite comfortable as a software engineer, but I had no idea how to grow further. I have since discovered that the most important thing is to develop your voice, and here is my lightning talk on the topic:
Voice is an interesting word, because it encompasses so many things. It's your vision, your direction, what you believe in and what you stand for. Voice also implies that it needs to projected, that you need to let other people know what you are trying to do.
Others don't know more than you
How many times were you in a conversation, forming an opinion, someone spoke and you discarded your thoughts? The distinguishing characteristic of someone who has found his voice is that he talks. He is using his voice, but that does not mean that he knows more than you. Be aware of that so you can listen critically and form your own opinion.
Delete "I think"
Email is a great way to build up your voice. Before you send out any emails, delete phrases like "I think", "I believe", "Maybe we should do it". They dampen your voice, and make you sound weaker than you actually are.
Reply to group emails
When someone poses a question to your team mailing list, reply. Don't go off and research for half an hour to come up with the perfect response. Just tell them the steps you were planning to take, and the expected outcome. As your name appears more and more on the mailing list, people think about you more, and will start asking for your opinion.
Sit at the table
Your team has regular meetings, right? Don't hide in the back row and bury your head behind your laptop. Sit at the table, and make a presence. Better yet, sit next to your boss. That takes courage, which sends a very strong signal. Also, your boss will probably turn around and ask you for your opinion, so you don't have to shout and wave to get your voice heard.
Learn to say no
To develop your voice, you need to focus on what matters the most, and stay on course. There are a million things that people want you to do, and you need to push back on the ones that don't matter. In the process you will learn to defend your position and vocalize your priorities.
Let your voice lead you
Realize that you have something to contribute, make a presence in emails and meetings, and defend your position. Slowly but surely your voice will emerge. Let that guide your career, with confidence and a sense of purpose.
