Step AFK: Practical Advice for Career Adavancement

Technical skills alone are not enough to help you advance your career or find that next job. This session will provide some very practical advice about the things you can do to help broaden your horizons and prepare you for the next step in your career. One warning: your boss doesn't want you to attend this talk, your takeaway might just be that you should quit your job!

Originally presented at LOPSA-East 2014

Transcript

1. Step AFK: Practical Advice for Career Adavancement @nathenharvey
2. Introduction Nathen Harvey Chef Food Fight Show @nathenharvey @nathenharvey
3. What do I know about career advancement? I'm a hiring manager I've been hired I've worked at VisualCV @nathenharvey
4. Professional/Career Talks Track IT Careers Panel Backing Into Configuration Management Professional Topics Panel Discussion Don't Be That Guy ...and more! @nathenharvey
5. Who are you? Hiring manager? @nathenharvey
6. Who are you? Hiring manager? On-call right now? @nathenharvey
7. Who are you? Hiring manager? On-call right now? System Administrator? @nathenharvey
8. Who are you? Hiring manager? On-call right now? System Administrator? Developer? @nathenharvey
9. Who are you? Hiring manager? On-call right now? System Administrator? Developer? DevOp? @nathenharvey
10. Why are you here? Actively seeking a new job @nathenharvey
11. Why are you here? Actively seeking a new job Passively seeking a new job @nathenharvey
12. Why are you here? Actively seeking a new job Passively seeking a new job Recently stared a new job @nathenharvey
13. Warning! Your boss might not want you to attend this talk @nathenharvey
14. The Best Advice for Career Advancement Quit Your Job! @nathenharvey
15. I'm not ready to quit... I love my job, love my team, love the company I work for. @nathenharvey
16. I'm not ready to quit... I don't like what my company does, but the technology I work with is great! @nathenharvey
17. I'm not ready to quit... There are lots of things I dislike about my work environment but the compensation package is great! @nathenharvey
18. I'm not ready to quit... I'm not "done" here yet. There are still things I'd like to accomplish @nathenharvey
19. I'm not ready to quit... Do I have the skills required to get a new job? DevOps Cloud Continuous Delivery Security @nathenharvey
20. Do what you love Why do you go to work? What your company does matters. What your team does matters. What you do matters. @nathenharvey
21. Your next job starts with you! You have to figure out what you want to do the kind of company you want to be a part of the type of team you want to work with @nathenharvey
22. So now that you've sorted that... How do you find your dream job? Step away from the keyboard Step out of your comfort zone Step out of the echo chamber @nathenharvey
23. Conferences Take a day or three off Hear the echo of new voices and ideas @nathenharvey
24. Podcasts Shorten your commute Listen to new voices and ideas @nathenharvey
25. Blogs Write a blog Know your audience Read blogs @nathenharvey
26. Twitter Use a client Set-up searches on hashtags Don't try to read every tweet in your timeline Someone gets noisy, stop following him or her @nathenharvey
27. Contribute to Open Source If you've never done so, make it a goal Start small It can be addictive! @nathenharvey
28. Meetup Groups Find people near you with similar interests Networking is hard and I'm shy Ask a question Give a presentation @nathenharvey
29. Take a vacation "I'm on vacation! I won't be checking email, voicemail, or even opening my laptop again until May 4th." @nathenharvey
30. Road Trip! Visit another company in your area See how their teams operate Share how your team operates Invite them to visit you @nathenharvey
31. Exchange Program Engineer Exchange Operations Exchange @nathenharvey
32. Exchange Program (funny story) Operations Exchange + Twitter Hashtag @nathenharvey
33. Exchange Program (funny story) Operations Exchange + Twitter Hashtag #opsexchange @nathenharvey
34. Exchange Program Within your company With another company @nathenharvey
35. Wait a minute... We're operations, I can't give an outsider root access! How do I know the employee will return? @nathenharvey
36. Always be interviewing! You should go on a job interview every 12-18 months at a minimum! @nathenharvey
37. Tools used to get hired Resume Recruiters Phone Screen Interview @nathenharvey
38. Resume You will NOT be hired because of your resume! Goal of a resume: Get an interview @nathenharvey
39. Recruiters Who does the recruiter work for? Contingency Recruiters Retained Recruiters @nathenharvey
40. Job Boards Spray and pray Longevity @nathenharvey
41. Social Media LinkedIn Facebook Twitter @nathenharvey
42. Phone Screen Goal: get an interview Who's on the other end of the line? @nathenharvey
43. The Interview Remote interviews In person interviews Meet at least one person face-to-face @nathenharvey
44. You are responsible... For your learning For your development For your career For your teammates For lots of important things! @nathenharvey
45. ...but you're not alone! Find a mentor Lean on your peers Mentor someone Give back @nathenharvey
46. A quick story Hi, just got rejection from [REDACTED] for the SA position. I'm a little curious why - wanted to reach out to see if you had any insight. Thanks. @nathenharvey
47. A quick story Hey, I just wanted to thank you again for reaching out to [REDACTED]. I start in a couple of weeks... :) @nathenharvey
48. This only works in a good market! Continuing your education Meeting your peers Working with other organizations Participating in the community @nathenharvey
49. Yes, we're hiring But this is not a pitch for you to come work for us http://getchef.com/careers http://getchef.com/jobboard @nathenharvey
50. Thanks! I'm not quitting my job today, but maybe you should What questions can I answer for you? @nathenharvey @nathenharvey