Career Advice

There seems to always be that golden child at work that gets the great projects or can’t do anything wrong. That guy should be you. Let me tell you how.

The greatest and worst thing about humans is that we are emotionally driven. Most people make decisions heavily influenced by emotion. The control that emotion has over people is a powerful force.

You will lose at life if you can’t manipulate other people’s emotions. This is what people call building a relationship. Being personable is not a trait that all people are born with. It is a skill that needs to be excercised, tuned, and developed. 

You can do this by being less interested in yourself and be more interested in the people around you. Take extensive mental notes on personal interests, management styles, and emotional cues. Use this information to transform yourself into a friend or at least a well-informed equal. People are drawn to others with similar goals, hobbies, and temperament. They gravitate towards people that bring social engagement to them and provide a stress-free environment. Be generous and helpful to them outside of work, as well.

These are just a few examples but learn as you go and befriend as many people as possible. Be nice to every single person no matter what their position. When you become the well liked person in the office, you, too, can harness the benefits of being  “the golden child”.

Ps: Don’t be that guy that tries too hard

Tml time money life Alex Huthmacher career advice. 

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I love interviews, but when I first started they were very intimidating. Even now if I have an interview for a high profile position I get nervous. So how do I conquer these nerves and nail almost every interview? Let me tell you a few of the techniques that work for me.

1. Try to be personal.
Your personality can help you make the cut, but more importantly the wrong personality will get you cut in a heartbeat. Try not to come off as anti-social or awkward. Most job roles require confident, capable, and personable workers, simple being qualified is not enough. Being prepared and comfortable in the interview will take you a long way.

 2. Preparation is key.
I research extensively for every role that I apply for. I look for the people interviewing me on LinkedIn and try to discover their level of technical knowledge. You can often find personal information that can help you connect with the people interviewing you. Things like hobbies, family and location can all play into how well liked you are as a candidate. Always read and research everything on the job req, which you will find many people don’t take the time to actually do. I study all the common questions asked for network engineers. In most careers you can do a google search on interview questions. Try to find every question list you can and become familiar with the questions. You wouldn’t believe how many places just use a common list of questions to vet the technical skills of an applicant.

3. Interview experience.
This means do as many interviews as possible, especially when you are early in your career. When I first started, I did dozens of interviews. Now when I go into an important interview I have hundreds of interviews to pull experience from. This allows me to stay calm and almost never get caught off guard by certain questions or interview techniques.

4. Everything else!
There are common things to be aware of as well. Dress appropriately, arrive early, bring your resume, follow up after the interview, ask relevant questions and show interest in the company.

Remember, being a bad-ass in your field will usually get you most of the way. Then again, if you are a bad-ass in your field you should already know the advice above.

Keep an eye out for more career advice!

#TML

 

Is job-hopping killer for your career, or is it the fastest way to six figures? I am going to share my experience and let you decide for yourself.

First, a little background in my career path. I do not have a degree. I went to a community college for a few semesters but quickly stopped when I discovered I didn’t need a degree to be successful in the IT field. I achieved several industry specific certifications in IT that have helped me along my journey.

I have held 9 different jobs in the last 7 years, all of which contributed to my success. I was always told to stay at a job for at least two years before moving to a new job, otherwise employers won’t want to hire you. That may have held true back when people got pensions and companies were looking at keeping employees until retirement, but in my experience job hopping was the fastest way to a six figure salary.

Did this ever prevent an employer from hiring me? I doubt it! Not when, in a ocean of under qualified candidates, a well-rounded and highly experienced person like myself was presented to them. I only know this because I have participated in the hiring process at most of my jobs. The amount of under-qualified IT candidates is staggering, but that will be for another blog post.

There are many factors that gave me the opportunity to explore this path, all of which boiled down to hard work: getting certifications, volunteering for the hard assignments just for the experience, never being afraid to leave a job, and always pushing myself to be better than those around me.

I started when I was 18 as a systems administrator working for a small medical office. I was not a good worker at the time, decided to leave the position, and ended up ignoring my college classes even more. However, my boss at the medical office inspired me to give a technology certification a try and I was studying every day for about 3 months for my CCNA. Once I achieved this certification he got me a job at his new employer, a small government contractor in my home town. I eventually left that $16 per hour job for a different contract company to make about $25 per hour.

Two years later I met my future wife but she lived in Denver, CO. I was motivated to leave my home town in California and venture to Colorado. I applied for many jobs and had a large number of phone interviews. I finally landed a position at a small company supporting a nonprofit that helped build banks in third world countries. I negotiated a nice raise of $70k per year.

I became restless there due to the mundane work and decided to start my own contracting company. I found one medium sized manufacturing company that supported me for a few months, but I ultimately couldn’t make it work.
I applied for a job with Comcast and was making about $75k per year.  I lost my interest in Denver and we decided to move back to California.

I had two job offers in San Diego, one with AT&T and one with SAIC. I ended up taking the SAIC job for a cool $95k per year. I was stoked. Of course, when I got there and started working I noticed that most of the job was working on deprecated hardware and I was not learning anything! I had to get out.

I landed a job with Xerox working for the City of San Diego. This is where I took my first ever pay cut down to $82k per year. Although this was a hard decision for me, that job gave me a diverse amount of experience. The job required a huge number of hours. This is when I found out my wife was pregnant with our first kid. I needed a change of pace to accommodate my growing family.

I got a call from a government contractor near the bay area. After interviewing and receiving my offer, I was sold and moved north. It helped that I negotiated my largest jump in pay to date, and I was now in the 6 figures at the ripe old age of 24.

I have had two other jobs since then, each with a good increase. There were several factors that led me to my success, but if you don’t let fear drive your life and you are willing to be flexible in your circumstances you can really achieve the same results. Work hard, be honest, and kick everyone’s ass.

#TML