Pareto's Principle applies. You get over 80% of your results from less than 20% of your efforts. That effort might be job hunting and self marketing.
So many people think why not double down on this 20%? They spend more time optimizing for interviews, looking for better jobs, getting certifications, and so on.
But nobody wants to hire or work with someone who's looking for the next opportunity. Especially at the senior stage.
I wanted to be a consultant. My first consulting gig was from a consultant at my office who was impressed with my results. The following consulting jobs were similarly from people I worked with.
I wanted to be an entrepreneur. My co-founder was someone impressed with my work ethic and he was someone whose work ethic impressed me too. We spent little effort marketing ourselves but were picked out by accelerators and customers because we built something nice. I wanted to be a trainer. My first training gig was from a VC I pitched to whose bread and butter was corporate training.
I'd say focus on the 80% of work that gives you the 20% of your results. But don't neglect the career growth. Your mind should be focused on bringing in more sales to the company, making the product better, building a better team. If you wanted to play in Manchester United, your best bet would be scoring goals rather than scouting clubs.
I really enjoyed reading your post but I have a comment regarding your final football analogy.
Football players goals and statistics are publicly available and analysed. Additionally, every football team plays the same game, so the rules and context are understood by all.
As an employee, you do not necessarily have this kind of visibility so you necessarily need to market yourself in some ways. This way, your achievements are visible, but also understandable to others who are not familiar with your company's context and situation (to put things in perspective).
This is a quite a good comment and I must agree. There's an authenticity to that mindset as well that I think is noticed by collaborators and that is really powerful too.
Comments
Pareto's Principle applies. You get over 80% of your results from less than 20% of your efforts. That effort might be job hunting and self marketing.
So many people think why not double down on this 20%? They spend more time optimizing for interviews, looking for better jobs, getting certifications, and so on.
But nobody wants to hire or work with someone who's looking for the next opportunity. Especially at the senior stage.
I wanted to be a consultant. My first consulting gig was from a consultant at my office who was impressed with my results. The following consulting jobs were similarly from people I worked with.
I wanted to be an entrepreneur. My co-founder was someone impressed with my work ethic and he was someone whose work ethic impressed me too. We spent little effort marketing ourselves but were picked out by accelerators and customers because we built something nice. I wanted to be a trainer. My first training gig was from a VC I pitched to whose bread and butter was corporate training.
I'd say focus on the 80% of work that gives you the 20% of your results. But don't neglect the career growth. Your mind should be focused on bringing in more sales to the company, making the product better, building a better team. If you wanted to play in Manchester United, your best bet would be scoring goals rather than scouting clubs.
I really enjoyed reading your post but I have a comment regarding your final football analogy.
Football players goals and statistics are publicly available and analysed. Additionally, every football team plays the same game, so the rules and context are understood by all.
As an employee, you do not necessarily have this kind of visibility so you necessarily need to market yourself in some ways. This way, your achievements are visible, but also understandable to others who are not familiar with your company's context and situation (to put things in perspective).
This is a quite a good comment and I must agree. There's an authenticity to that mindset as well that I think is noticed by collaborators and that is really powerful too.