EG #27: Finish Lines are Finished
There are only starting lines now.
Reframe
You did it! Updated your resume, studied the pieces you need to know but don’t use everyday, made a good impression, lasted through rounds of interviews and emerged on the other side victorious. The new job is yours.
Take a step back and appreciate what just happened.
Then get back to work.
I’m speaking with many people now who regret not keeping in touch with former colleagues and managers. People who regret not trying to interview for other jobs. People who realize how much people with less experience were making because they took risks and switched jobs more often.
Take these steps to make sure you’re not one of these people speaking with me about regret later.
Keep in touch with former colleagues.
You never know who will help or who you can help. Texts and email are nice but coffees and phone calls take it to the next level.
Stay on top of trends in technology as well as business.
The two have merged. You can’t get away with just focusing on tech or just focusing on business and get paid as well as other people who have both.
Evaluate your sources of truth. How accurately are they predicting? How is the way they are framing the information useful for you? What is the best argument for the opposite view?
Set aside time to talk with people.
What you see online is not always reflective of what’s actually happening. Imagine making decisions based off what the tv or news says alone.
Get involved with a group.
Volunteer for a charity, join a run club, book club, meetups, anything you find interesting.
The general idea is more focus on people and what we have in common.
The old work model was about learning enough skills to get a job and sticking with it. Rising due to tenure and connections.
The next work model will be about building a talent stack and using a defined system for learning new skills. Rising due to the speed of good results and the scale of people you can help.
Prepare yourself.
It’s an exciting time to be alive.
Cloud engineers and people with AI experience will be in strong demand.
Boston
While visiting Boston for the marathon, we saw a Lego exhibit called the Art of the Brick. A corporate lawyer named, Nathan Sawaya, decided he’d rather be playing with Lego than law. So he quit and started building with Lego full-time. A good lesson in starting over if the chosen path is no longer serving you. No matter how crazy it looks to other people.
The exhibit overall seemed introspective. You felt his need to remove the logical feeling of his head, separating it from the body in some sculptures and displaying skulls in others. You also felt the his emotion of being boxed in by the course of his life that he’d taken in the past. A sense of screaming to get out depicted more than once.
To counter balance the heaviness of those thoughts, nostalgia featured prominently with crayons, a pencil, a T-Rex skeleton and classic art reimagined in brick form.
While the exhibit ended April 30th, a new one will return that is double in size on November 18th.
Running
Every finish line brings a rush of excitement and a certain sadness at the same time. The rush of the marathon is over. Now the blues set in. Happens after every race. All of the time you used to spend training is now free. Open to new possibilities.
The question of what next hanging in the air. Waiting for an answer.
You know how amazing it feels to finish a marathon and what it’s like to feel like you’re in top shape. You feel like you can do anything. This one in particular made me feel 10 feet tall as one of 11,000 people in the world who have completed the challenge.
What are you working on now that is building you up personally or professionally?
Let’s keep moving,
Jen
PS I’ve been dabbling with prompt engineering, new business development tools, digital products, and writing a longer piece on the world major marathon experience. The best is yet to come.