IBADD Tech Survival 101
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The document outlines key strategies for building a successful career in technology, focusing on understanding the tech landscape, developing personal branding, and enhancing both soft and hard skills. It emphasizes the importance of managing relationships, both upward and laterally, while also encouraging self-care and maintaining a growth mindset. The session concludes with group discussions on individual takeaways and action items for career advancement.
IBADD Tech Survival 101
- 1. Tech Survival 101 Building A Successful Technology Career Iowa Business Analyst Development Day, 2018 Tom Henricksen & Greg Jensen
- 2. Overview ● Introductions - who we are and what this is about ● The Tech Career Landscape - paths, roles, titles, pay, stakeholders ● Building Your Brand - strengths, radar, narrative, staying above the line ● Soft Skills & Hard Issues - culture, mindset, authenticity and more... ● Wrap Up Review - group takeaways, individual action items ● Questions, Comments & Challenges - let’s talk!
- 3. Tom Henricksen ● Developer ● Scrum Master ● Manager ● Career Coach
- 4. Greg Jensen ● VP of Software Engineering, CDS Global ● Executive and senior technical roles at LeadPages, Best Buy, Adaptive Engineering, T-Mobile, Dish Networks, AT&T, Lockheed Martin… ● Large scale next gen digital systems and services, leading the delivery of over a billion dollars in enterprise programs and projects ● 30+ yrs in the high tech industry ranging from startups to the Fortune 500, and across industry verticals such as finance, media & entertainment, telecom, retail, defense and national intelligence agencies
- 5. Greg Jensen... ● Adjunct Faculty, University of Minnesota Software Engineering Center, graduate course on Big Data & Analytics ● MS, Software Engineering, University of Minnesota ● BS, Computer Science, Park University ● AAS, Intelligence Operations & Analysis, Community College of the Air Force ● TOGAF 9 certification from the Open Group, a framework standard for enterprise architecture. Favorite Quote: "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted" - William Bruce Cameron
- 6. This is my true passion - and it informs my daily work if I stay focused and balanced
- 7. Where Have You Been… and Where Are You Going? ● What’s on your mind? ● What would you like to get out of this session?
- 8. Finding Your Path Common Roles ● Automating ● Programming ● Consulting ● Training ● Managing ● Designing ● Testing ● Architecting ● Supporting ● Administering
- 9. Finding Your Path Rank & Title ● Interns & Associates ● Analyst, Engineer, Designer ● Project Manager, Product Owner ● Senior Analyst or Engineer ● Team Lead, Architect ● Engineering or Product Manager ● Director, Principal Eng, Ent Arch ● Exec Dir, Chief Arch, Fellow ● VP, SVP, EVP ● CIO, CTO, COO, CISO, CPO, CEO
- 10. Do your homework :) Research, communications, networking, professionalism, follow-up... Employment & Compensation
- 11. The single most important leader in an organization is your immediate supervisor. —JIM KOUZES You can safely assume all perceptions are real, at least to those who own them. —JOE FOLKMAN
- 12. (E&C) Performance Results = Results Anything Else = Results
- 13. (E&C) Performance... How you do anything is how you do everything - Buddhist expression How you do what’s next is how you do what’s next - Greg Jensen
- 14. ● Timing - be patient, company and position first ● Base compensation ● Benefits ● Contracting vs FTE (30% plus or minus) ● Startups and Stock Options (vesting schedule, shares, and shares outstanding) Employment & Compensation...
- 15. Compensation = i* salary + j* stock options + k* benefits + l* who they get to work with + m* where they get to work + n* what they get to work on + . . . … don’t forget that all the variables in this formula can make a huge difference in your career Employment & Compensation...
- 16. Common Personas Biz Stakeholders Why does this take so long, why can’t I change this or that, when will it be ready??? Senior Management Time and cost estimates? What will the ROI be for each phase? Do we need this many people? Lowest contractor rates? Engineers We need these new tools. That is not best practices. We have to service our tech debt. This won’t work. That is not enough time! Ops & Security You will need a new license. That is not supported. This does not comply with policy. Not approved for deployment!
- 17. Common Personas ● Not a good strategy for IT professionals ● Don’t say “NO”, give options ● Explain trade-offs ● Be positive, consistent, and rational
- 18. You don’t have to like or admire your boss, nor do you have to hate him. You do have to manage him, however, so that he becomes your resource for achievement, accomplishment and personal success. —PETER DRUCKER
- 19. Managing Up, Down & Sideways ● Start learning how to “manage up” first ● Sideways - do you play well with others? This is about learning how to communicate, collaborate and compete without losing the trust and confidence of your colleagues ● Managing people will be one of your greatest challenges
- 20. Your Colleagues ● Managing “sideways” is an important skill for every role starting day one ● An opportunity to develop leadership without authority (true leadership) ● ...But more importantly, an opportunity to learn about colleagues, their needs, their strengths and weaknesses, and how you can partner to help each other succeed
- 21. Building A Team ● Culture Fit ● Holding out for the right talent ● Seed, Feed, and Weed Poor team performance is nearly always due to poor leadership. If you’re constantly frustrated with your team, it’s time to face facts. You have a leadership issue, not a team performance issue. The poor performance is the symptom, not the cause.
- 22. Servant Leadership “SOMEONE WHOSE PRIMARY MOTIVE IS TO HELP OTHERS SUCCEED.” - SIMON SINEK, LEADERS EAT LAST
- 23. Building Your Personal Brand Bringing your career narrative to life and finding what is essential: ● Finding Your Strengths ● Your Tech Radar ● Creating Your Narrative ● Taking Care Of Yourself ● Staying Above The Line
- 24. What are your strengths? Technical Depth ● Keep digging deeper into what is possible ● How it works, how to leverage or apply Technical Breadth ● Follow connections, look for synergy ● High level views, components & modules People Management ● Like to coach and mentor ● Care, share and support Art - Craft - Science ● Logic and Rules vs Creativity ● Tools or Systems vs Applications
- 25. What Are Your Strengths?... ● Creativity, Logic, Discipline, Agility ● Soft Skills vs STEM Skills ● Management? People, Projects, Code… ● Technical Depth vs Breadth ● Tools, Systems, Applications, Ecosystems ● Different Roles - help bring different needs/skills to the surface
- 26. Tech Radar Neal Ford, Thoughtworks https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/build- your-own-technology-radar Split into 4 quadrants: Techniques, Tools, Platforms, and Languages & Frameworks with four rings, from outer to inner: hold, assess, trial, and adopt. What makes sense for you? Modify to suit your needs and go through the exercise of building one.
- 27. Building Your Narrative ● First things first, pause for some gratitude… we are lucky to be knowledge workers and in such a healthy industry ● Do you fill squares or fill a role? ● Why are you here, right here right now, what brought you here? ● If we created the perfect job for you, the one that would fit you best and position you to bring the most value and make great contributions, what would it be?...
- 28. Building Your Narrative... ● Now create an arc that connects the dots from your first interests and activities to this ideal landing zone of a perfect job. This is your career narrative. ● You are now the main character in your own lifetime movie, you have an arc to follow with lessons learned from both failure and success, with a supporting cast that helped educate, challenge and collaborate with you on your journey.
- 29. Activity - Build a short narrative and “tell me about yourself” Early Interests ● Passions ● Aptitude ● Influencers ● Talent ● Energy ● Fun Skills & Experience Think through each step of your journey: ● What did you do? ● What did you learn? ● Quantify and qualify results ● Why did you leave? ● Why did you pick the next step? Direction & Vision Weave it all together and smooth out your arc: 1. Fine tune and revise as needed 2. Show true north 3. Develop the overall value proposition
- 30. Taking Care Of Yourself (first, then your job)
- 31. Taking Care Of Yourself... Essentialism, The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Greg McKeown): ● Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying Yes too quickly and not saying No soon enough. Josh Billings ● Flow, The Genius of Routine - Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition. W.H. Auden
- 32. Taking Care Of Yourself… diet, exercise & budget ● YMMV - but we all have to guard against burnout ● Time to do my job, 32 hrs (attend meetings, document) ● Time to communicate and manage (up, down, sideways), 8 hours ● Time to study best practices, learn what is new, 8 hours ● Time to network, 4 hours ● Time for family (6-9pm?), time for growth, time for hobbies, culture, entertainment???
- 33. Staying Above The Line The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership, Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, & Kaley Warner Klemp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovrVv_RlCM w
- 35. The Drama Triangle Victim Hero Villian Wanting to be right Blame Fear
- 36. Staying Above The Line... I commit to taking full responsibility for the circumstances of my life at LeadPages, and I commit to supporting others to take full responsibility for their lives. I commit to blaming others and myself for what is wrong at LeadPages. I commit to being a victim, villain, or a hero and take more or less than 100% responsibility
- 37. Staying Above The Line... I commit to growing in self-awareness. I commit to regarding every interaction as an opportunity to learn. I commit to curiosity as a path to rapid learning. I commit to being right and to seeing this situation as something that is happening to me. I commit to being defensive, especially when I am certain I am RIGHT.
- 38. Staying Above The Line... Breathe, Pause, and Shift Be aware that you have drifted below the line and commit to leading and interacting with others from a place of openness
- 39. Activity - Office Challenges Quick Exercise ● Please focus on the worst situation you can remember at work ● DId you Freeze, Fight or Flight? ● Stand Up, Deep Breath, think about trust and openness ● Sit down, how do you feel now? Challenges? ● Frustration ● Complication ● Stuck in a rut Navigating 1. Take care of yourself 2. Stick to your narrative 3. Look for support 4. Change your organization or change organizations
- 40. Soft Skills & Hard Issues ● Culture & Core Values ● Mindset ● Participation ● Networking & Permission ● Community ● Discipline ● Imposter Syndrome ● Authenticity
- 41. Culture ● Open and honest collaboration (we are getting better) ● Diversity - a safe, open and welcoming environment for everyone (why can’t we get this right?) ■ Stupid is as stupid does - Forrest Gump ● No one of us smarter than the rest of us ■ Not a fact but an important daily philosophy
- 42. Core Values ● What are yours, what are your fellow employers and do they align? Some examples: Clear Communications Ownership Craftsmanship Recognition Customer-Centric Thinking Respect & Humility Dogfooding Results Over Politics
- 43. Evolving Your Mindset We could complain and criticize, or we could become stronger and happier by trying, learning, growing...
- 44. Growth & Learning Mindset Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh0OS4MrN3E
- 45. Mindsetonline.com In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort. They’re wrong.
- 46. Mindsetonline.com... In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. Virtually all great people have had these qualities.
- 47. Mindsetonline.com... Teaching a growth mindset creates motivation and productivity in the worlds of business, education, and sports. It enhances relationships. When you read Mindset, you’ll see how.
- 48. Participation ● It’s hard being an introvert, but there are so many benefits… (and extroverts are still OK too) ● Make the effort to come out and play ● Think about what best supports your narrative and spend your time wisely ● Choose your moments at the office, there is plenty of oxygen to go around
- 49. Networking: Just Ask… (getting help or helping = networking) ● Not me, I mean anyone, anytime, for just about anything ● This is the single biggest blocker in our own daily career standup ● Don’t bring any pressure or obligation or expectation, just ask people if they can help you with whatever you need help on… and make it clear you are happy to reciprocate in any way that you can
- 50. Permission ● It starts with you ● Grade yourself on a scale of 1 - 10 and be honest, but know that people rarely rank you higher than you are willing to rank yourself ● Rich vs Poor (and not just in dollars) often comes down to what you think you deserve, to your sense of self- worth
- 51. Community ● You are a “company”, an army of one, and your brand matters ● Everyone you interact with is a “customer” and their experience matters ● Be positive and communicate thoughtfully, be helpful ● Don’t do it well because people don’t forget, do it well because you don’t forget, you have muscle memory
- 52. Discipline… (baby steps) ● Achievement, Success, Happiness ??? ○ You must define these things on your own terms ● You have to write it down, edit honestly, be realistic ○ Buffet’s Pilot - 50 things to 5 ● Start with one thing you could do to raise the bar for yourself, and just do that one thing ○ When you planned, how you planned… consistently
- 53. Imposter Syndrome If you feel anxious or feel like your confidence is slipping away, look this up and read about it and take it all in. This is extremely important for many of us and we need to step back and know that we are OK, that we belong here and have in fact earned our seat at the table.
- 54. Authenticity ● So easy to underestimate the importance of this ● No mask, no fear, be true to who you are, be in touch with your own gut and intuition, and feel the connection to your heart in your everyday tasks and activities ● Build a support network, start with one person you really trust
- 55. Wrap Up ● The Tech Career Landscape - paths, roles, titles, pay, stakeholders ● Building Your Brand - strengths, radar, narrative, staying above the line ● Soft Skills & Hard Issues - culture, mindset, authenticity and more... Group Takeaways? Individual Action Items?
- 56. Thank You ! Questions ? Comments ? Challenges ?