![]() ![]() “It is not enough to be busy so are the ants. ![]() Photo by nikko macaspac on Unsplash | Also the author in his head about a year ago I eventually got promoted to Executive VP, and our growth really started to accelerate late last year. I loved all of it, especially the way I could rapidly put into practice what I’d learned. #Night lamp mazaika softwareSo I kept picking up more and more tech skills, especially in data science and software engineering. I also increasingly devoted more and more time to individual contributor projects, mostly because there were things I wanted to get done that we simply didn’t have the bandwidth for on the dev side. Over the next ten years I started our initial strategic marketing push and built up the marketing tech side myself, functioned as a product manager, built up our SaaS infrastructure to support operations, acted as a technical sales lead, performed frequent ad-hoc data analysis, wrote SQL-based workarounds, hired and built up the technical implementation and support teams, managed IT projects, and managed key account relationships. I’d never had any exposure to tech before, and had to acquire new skills and tools almost overnight in order to just be able to do my job. That meant spending 7 days per week, 10–12 hours per day on site managing the customer relationship, logging test results, doing ad-hoc data analysis, and learning SQL on the fly. ![]() One early project was managing the first pilot installation of our robotic inventory system. My role quickly evolved into a full-time position as the company’s Swiss army knife. The author circa 2010 experiencing one of many more deer-in-headlights moments to come Instead, I hooked up with a startup pharmacy automation company in the San Diego area as a marketing intern. I’d spent a considerable amount of time living and working in China, including a semester at Sun Yat-Sen University’s business school, so I thought “international business” sounded cool as a next step. When I was finishing up my MBA at San Diego State University in 2009, I only had a vague idea of what I wanted to do next. #1: I figured out what I want to be when I grow up I distilled my own experience down to three reasons why I changed career tracks, and how circumstances of my own chance involvement with the startup world helped me to develop a much better understanding of my own strengths and weaknesses. The difficulties and distractions of demanding day-to-day work meant that it took me years to really be honest with myself as to what I wanted to do and the risk I’d need to take to do it. This was my opportunity to learn on the job and figure out where I could specialize and build a focused career. My lucky break was getting to work at a start-up that needed help with just about every business function. ![]() Evidence in peer-reviewed studies backs this up. Eventually, somebody might take a chance on you based on how you interview, your grades, or some intangible quality they perceive in you, the first-time job seeker.įor many of us, including me, chance events have an outsize impact on career trajectory. As an entry-level applicant, you don’t have any. Remember trying to find your first job? Every recruiter wants experience. “I have noticed that even those who assert that everything is predestined and that we can change nothing about it still look both ways before they cross the street” ― Stephen W. ![]()
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