In order to make progress in your
career in IT, you need to actively plan your professional development rather
than allow others around you to control it. For anyone in IT, the task of
learning new skills and technologies is part of your work: and you can do
it right where you are, in your current job.
I teach a technical career class
from time to time. It’s a workshop designed to help technical professionals
learn how to get where they want to go in their careers. As part of that workshop,
I’m often asked “how did you learn what you know today?” – to which I always
reply “the same way you should. Right where you are.”
This inevitably leads to the comment
“I can’t learn anything new where I am – XYZ won’t let me/nothing new to
learn/same old stuff every day.” Not true. You can learn something right where
you are – and in this article, I’ll show you how.
OJT
- On the Job Training
In front of me now are a series of
bookshelves, which are mostly empty. I used to keep hundreds – literally
hundreds – of books on my shelves. Most of those books are gone now, since I’ve
switched to using mostly electronic books for my reading. I can store thousands
of books (yes, I now have that many) on a smaller device and have them all with
me wherever I go.
But the shelves aren’t completely
empty. I have a few books I can’t find electronically, but most of the space is
taken up with notebooks. Some are the old-fashioned black-and-white-speckled
notebooks like you might have had in college; others are the three-ring binder
type. All of them are filled with notes I took at each job I had.
Sure, I had – and still have –
required job training, like you might have at your company. Things like Human
Resources training, business conduct training and the like. In fact, where I
work now, there is an amazing amount of on-line and in-person training I can
take that is technical and directly relates to my job.
But often, this isn’t the type of
training I’m thinking about. This isn’t really the kind of thing that helps you
progress in your career – it’s something that everyone has to take to comply
with legal regulations.
Perhaps you get a bit more training
than that. You might have someone assigned to “show you the ropes” by your
boss. That person might be an enthusiastic, engaged, trained instructor,
skilled in the ways of making someone productive quickly. If so, you’re quite
fortunate – I haven’t had one of those experiences yet.
Usually the person
assigned to “bring Buck up to speed” has other work to do, and isn’t motivated
very well to help me succeed. This type of ‘On the Job Training’ (OJT) is also
not what I’m thinking about that you can use to be successful in your career.
Conferences
and Vendor Training
Perhaps you’re fortunate enough to
work at a company that believes in training for its employees. Maybe you have a
budget for training, either by attending conferences or by vendor-led training.
But in tougher economic times, these
kinds of programs are often the first things to be cut. They’re seen as not being
valuable enough – just a “free vacation” for you, with little benefit coming
back to the company because of your training. (I’ll address this very real
shortcoming in another article. Also, if other companies don’t offer
these kinds of perks, it’s not as if the company will lose you to another firm
purely because of the better availability of training somewhere else.
And then there’s the possibility
that the company will spend a lot of money sending you to conferences and
training, only for you to leave shortly after and benefit another company with
that training. Say what you will about that situation, I’ve heard this argument
time and time again from companies that are unwilling to pay for training. So while this type of training can
be incredibly useful, it’s still not the kind of thing I’m thinking about.
Taking
Responsibility
Take a look at the OJT options I’ve
already discussed. In each case it’s someone else that has control of your
career. In my classes this is the biggest hurdle for the students to get over:
you are in charge of your own success.
“Well, sure” you think to yourself,
“I’m fully aware of that.” And perhaps you are. But many times our actions
belie our beliefs – we do things, and then when we think about them, we realize
they don’t move us closer to our goals.
The
Career Notebook
So let’s return to those notebooks
on my shelf. These days I use OneNote, an electronic note-taking tool, but
regardless of the format, the key is to have one.
You might think that you don’t need
to do this, since you learn in other ways. I suggest that you try it – grab a
notebook and a pencil, or create a OneNote or other electronic notebook, and
give it a chance. Whatever you choose, make sure you can keep it with you at
all times – literally at all times while you work. And make a habit to write
things down. I’ll explain what things to write down in a moment.
There’s science behind this method.
Writing things down – even if you never refer to them again – uses a different
part of your brain than hearing the information, which is different yet again
from seeing it. Combining all of these methods cements information in your
mind, and helps you recall it when you need it.
But the most powerful part of
creating a Career Notebook is that it forces you to take responsibility for
your own learning, and allows you to learn right where you are. That’s right –
there’s enough information in your current work environment to help you get
ahead.
You
Just Have to Tell Me Once
Whenever I start a new role at a
company, or even a new task area, I take a lot of notes. I just write
everything down I can about how to do something – even if it looks simple
enough the first time.
This prevents me from thinking “I’ve
got this down cold”, only to have to ask the person who originally told me how
to do it to have to show me all over again. This not only saves me time, but it
also saves the other person time, and develops the general belief that I can be
trusted to learn something on my own with minimal instruction – something
you’ll see in every job requirement at the professional level. It’s one of
those subtle things you might not think about, but others are thinking about
you. “He’s a nice person and all, but I just have to keep showing him the same
things over and over!”
Writing the process down also helps
me to communicate it to the next person who gets that role. In fact, I
volunteer to help the new person learn the task, even if I’ve just been at it a
few weeks. When I teach others, I learn more. Haven’t you ever wished someone
helped you get up to speed quickly and efficiently on a task? Then be that
person – your boss will notice when you help others succeed.
There’s another benefit to writing
down a process. It allows you to research each step to see if you can do it
faster, easier and better. In your notebook you can note places to research and
what you find out about each part of the task.
Resources
Are Key
That last point brings up a great
concept – resources. In your notebook, make sure you write down the people that
are the Subject Matter Experts (SME) on the topic you’re being taught. I can’t
always remember all the names I’m told when I first start at a company, or
which department or group has the information, keys, or other things I need to
get a job done. I put down names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses. This is
another “you only have to tell me once” strategy.
I also note down when I talk to that
person. If I know three people with expertise in a particular area, I’ll ask
them questions in turn – so I don’t pester one person too often. I also make
sure they know what I’m good at, and I always offer to help in return.
I’ll also write down books, articles
and web links as I’m researching a topic. Last but not least, I write down the
locations of internal forums and other places where questions like mine are
sure to be asked – and hopefully answered. I’ll also answer the questions I can
on those sites.
Developing a paper-network like this
is essential to learning right where you are. Participate wherever you can, and
ask people’s names and find out what each department does. You’re not only
looking for a particular solution, you’re developing a bigger picture of your
company – and that knowledge builds up over time. I’ve used this knowledge to
cross-pollinate my career, finding what things in aerospace works in
manufacturing, which concepts from healthcare inform my career in consulting
and more. Being self-aware is a powerful career tool.
It’s
a Task List and a History Lesson
I use my Career Notebook for far
more than just writing down references or processes. I keep task checklists
there, and I’ve even shared some of those as a Mission Critical Tasklist
series. Making those checklists at each place I’ve worked helped me learn right
where I was – no classes or courses needed.
There are other things I write down
about my work environment, such as when to speak up and when to shut up.
Lessons I’ve learned the hard way make a great history lesson on what to do and
what not to do.
I’ve also recorded the actions of
those I’ve seen in authority, and those who are my peers. I don’t write down
names, but I do write down actions I’ve seen that work, and those that don’t
work. Sure, most of us observe those, but have you ever stopped to write down
what you learned from those (sometimes wonderful, sometimes painful)
situations? Just today I read back through some of those notebooks, and
realized that there are patterns of things to do, and things to avoid, that I
should be following even now. I rarely share or show these parts of the
notebook to anyone else – they are life-lessons that I take away from each
situation.
Use
the Notebook to Create a Professional Development Plan
Which leads to the best use of the
Career Notebook, and the real way to learn where you are.
Start with your goal. What do you
want to accomplish at the company where you work now? Write that down. Then
create a plan to get there – books you’ll read, people you’ll want as mentors,
those you will mentor, classes you’ll attend or create for yourself. Create a
plan to develop your own career.
You’ll find that there are many
things you can learn this way right where you are. The more situationally aware
you are, the more you’ll see in your organization. And the more you put that
learning into practice, the more those around you will notice. You’ll get
opportunities you might not have otherwise – you might get a promotion, another
role, or perhaps not. Either way, observing the training and lessons you can
gain where you are now puts you on the path to controlling your own career –
rather than having those around you control it.