First things first:
Thank you for being here so early on my journey — this week I’m bringing you a short podcast episode to accompany this newsletter. Give it a listen and let me know if you like it!
If you have questions or you’re looking for mentorship, reply to this email and we’ll hop on a call (for free) — my way of thanking you for being here. 💚
Let’s dive in…
Three Keys From My First Three Years 🔑
The first three years of my career were a fun whirlwind. I went from just a junior engineer all the way to managing my own team, and my company grew right alongside me. It was an electric synergy, and while there were certainly ups and downs, I would like to think that I did a few things right to maximize my chances of success.
After reflection, I narrowed it down to three keys. Three keys to maximize your chances of supercharged career growth at an early tech company. Keep in mind that this isn’t just a do-it-once-and-forget-it list. These are things that I consistently did, day in and day out, and ingrained them as part of my personality. To get these, I worked insanely hard, didn’t have any work-life balance, tried and failed a LOT. I’m hoping that by sharing my learnings, you can forge your own success in a healthier and more efficient manner.
Here’s the summary — for the whole story, listen to the podcast above.
1. Figure out what you don’t know, and learn it
Have you ever heard the phrase “I don’t know what I don’t know”? If so, you were probably in the presence of a very self-aware person. It’s already difficult to admit when you don’t know something; but it gets even more difficult to realize that you don’t even know what you don’t know.
I’m not trying to twist your tongue here — I’m just pointing out what happens with every new job, venture, relationship. You go in with a certain set of expectations and an understanding of what you know, and what you don’t know. But if you revisit those thoughts 6 months later, you’ll probably realize that there was a whole section of the Venn diagram that was completely hidden from you.
So, how do you figure it out? Pay close attention to what others around you are doing. Ask questions and try to understand EVERYTHING, even if it’s not related to what your responsibilities are. Often, you see someone do something and you think you understand it… Until you try to do it yourself. My trick: visualize doing something end-to-end to make sure you really understand each and every step.
For learning, I leaned heavily on both the people around me as well as the grand Internets. It’s very difficult to learn just from one or the other. What worked best for me was doing a bunch of Internet learning (YouTube, Google, Udemy), then using that to ask more exact questions to my mentors and peers, and then alternating back and forth until I reached a level of comfortable mastery. You’ll get a chance to try this out in this week’s challenge.
2. Say Yes! Everything is “figure-out-able”
This is a bit of a tricky one but you have to embrace your ignorance. There’s a certain something about someone who’s young and just starting their career — you haven’t yet been jaded by the realities of the corporate world. You don’t have to worry about silly things like stakeholder management or budgets — you get to focus on getting things done.
So say yes to things. Even if it feels like you’re biting off more than you can chew, I guarantee that the effort and willingness to take things on will pay off in the long run. Now, obviously, don’t lie. Be up front and transparent that what you’re saying yes to is new to you, and that there will be a learning curve. Set the right expectations up front. Chances are, if you’re at a lean and mean company, there’s no one else available to work on it anyway. So worst case, you fail and your effort is appreciated. Best case, you’re successful! And either way, you learned something new along the way.
Don’t let the system get to you. Hold onto this attitude even as your level of experience grows. Especially if you’re someone who has goals of entrepreneurship in the future. I’ve dabbled in entrepreneurship, and I’ve been around many successful entrepreneurs. This is the one common thread I’ve noticed — the attitude to figure anything out.
3. Don’t be limited by your job description
I’ve noticed a lot of comments going around about people feeling like they’re doing things beyond their job description. I don’t really understand it, and when I was going through my early career years I definitely threw away any notions I had of sticking to the script.
A job description is written at a specific point in time, when a company has a specific need. A year later, the company may have different needs. Companies evolve and change, and ideally you grow with your company, expanding yourself and your skillset in order to meet the evolving need of the company.
In my story, I started out as a junior engineer, testing code and writing low level drivers. A year later, my company started getting more firmware clients and I took on a more customer-facing role. This allowed me to grow out of my engineering shell and learn sales, marketing, and customer management. If I had adamantly stuck to my job description of writing supporting code, I would have never been able to develop these skills as quickly as I did.
Challenge 🏆
I have a challenge for you. In my quest to mentor and teach, I want you, my dear reader, to go beyond just reading my content. I want you to try applying it and get a feel for it!
So let’s practice one of the specific lessons I shared above — learning something that you don’t know, using the Internet, and the people around you.
Here’s how it works:
Pick someone in your life that you see regularly
Find a topic that person is really good at, but you’re iffy on
Go do some research on that topic
Ask them educated questions
And voila! You’ve now learned key skills in doing your own research and combined it with asking someone directly for help.
Let me know what you pick! I’ll do this challenge myself and report on my progress next week.
And that’s the end. Remember to always add value.
—Vigs
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