I would only add to this that you need to network and grow your skills to prevent potential ageism in the industry.
They would involve making lots of friends in the industry and continually learning. I would suggest really really deep learning. I recently worked with a guy in his 60s who deeply understood python and specific open source libraries (contributing to them as well) in a specific industry (e-commerce).
there are only a limited number of hours per day. how can you network substantially but at the same time keep up with all the new programming language fads and whatever this industry throws at you and still have time to cook proper food, go to bed early and take care of your health and family?
i have thought about this many times. sometimes i think that "networking" needs to be built into the job, and this is not the case for engineering roles.
I don't think networking is something that takes tons of time. Just be nice and curious. Show yourself to be honest, reliable, and hardworking. Maybe go to dinner every couple of weeks.
I agree with you that there so is many language fads and things you could learn. I spent several hundreds hours on different Udemy things over the last few years. That's why I think just focus deeply on one or two areas like my ecommerce friend. Any new grade can learn the basics of whatever fad in a couple months so you don't want to be competing for that anyway.
Always make sure to do what you said or promised you would do, dependability like this is almost impossible not to notice.
(Flip side is don't promise shit you know just isn't going to happen, and if you mis-calibrated make it known as early as possible you can't meet original expectations, people like that because they can plan instead of being blind sided)
This is a hard question, like asking how you make friends.
I don’t go to conferences myself. But if I consider people in my network who I would vouch for it’s:
- Classmates from schools or various programs who I became friends with or joined the same clubs so I find them interesting
- Coworkers who got things done and seemed smart. They had my back and always made sure the right person got credit for things.
- Various meetups and events in my city. My particular interest is Biohacking and startups in general but I am sure there are crypto, healthcare, self driving, hacking, or meetups in whatever topic you might have interest.
- People I only met once or only through LinkedIn messages. They went out of there way to recommend for a job or help in some way when I asked.
I will say it’s far easier to network in person. People trust you more. And it’s far easier to network when you have done something cool to that other person. (self projects, sold a company, etc)
Comments
I don’t think this is very complicated.
Drink water, eat healthy, exercise regularly, get enough sleep, have an active romantic and social life.
https://www.reddit.com/r/starterpacks/comments/6wszws/why_do...
It sounds like you have career and budgeting down.
I would only add to this that you need to network and grow your skills to prevent potential ageism in the industry.
They would involve making lots of friends in the industry and continually learning. I would suggest really really deep learning. I recently worked with a guy in his 60s who deeply understood python and specific open source libraries (contributing to them as well) in a specific industry (e-commerce).
there are only a limited number of hours per day. how can you network substantially but at the same time keep up with all the new programming language fads and whatever this industry throws at you and still have time to cook proper food, go to bed early and take care of your health and family?
i have thought about this many times. sometimes i think that "networking" needs to be built into the job, and this is not the case for engineering roles.
I don't think networking is something that takes tons of time. Just be nice and curious. Show yourself to be honest, reliable, and hardworking. Maybe go to dinner every couple of weeks.
I agree with you that there so is many language fads and things you could learn. I spent several hundreds hours on different Udemy things over the last few years. That's why I think just focus deeply on one or two areas like my ecommerce friend. Any new grade can learn the basics of whatever fad in a couple months so you don't want to be competing for that anyway.
What do you think works well then, to network?
Always make sure to do what you said or promised you would do, dependability like this is almost impossible not to notice.
(Flip side is don't promise shit you know just isn't going to happen, and if you mis-calibrated make it known as early as possible you can't meet original expectations, people like that because they can plan instead of being blind sided)
This is a hard question, like asking how you make friends.
I don’t go to conferences myself. But if I consider people in my network who I would vouch for it’s:
- Classmates from schools or various programs who I became friends with or joined the same clubs so I find them interesting
- Coworkers who got things done and seemed smart. They had my back and always made sure the right person got credit for things.
- Various meetups and events in my city. My particular interest is Biohacking and startups in general but I am sure there are crypto, healthcare, self driving, hacking, or meetups in whatever topic you might have interest.
- People I only met once or only through LinkedIn messages. They went out of there way to recommend for a job or help in some way when I asked.
I will say it’s far easier to network in person. People trust you more. And it’s far easier to network when you have done something cool to that other person. (self projects, sold a company, etc)