Thinking Out Loud: Handling Career Evolution
Published on 9 Jun 2014 · Filed in Musing · 504 words (estimated 3 minutes to read)As IT pros at the “cutting edge” of technology and industry change, I think sometimes we forget that not everyone has the same mindset toward learning, growth, and career evolution. That’s especially true, I think, for those of us who are bloggers, because it’s our passion for the technology that not only drives us to write about it but also drives us to constantly explore new trends, new areas, and new concepts. It is that passion that drives us to seek out new ways the technology could be applied to our jobs. That passion sustained us over the years, as we progressed from Windows admins to VMware admins and now to virtualization and cloud architects. That passion led us to “bring our work home” and build home labs. We’ve had years of actively seeking out new layers of knowledge to build on top of what we already knew.
This isn’t a bad thing; not by any stretch. But my point is this—we must consider that not everyone is like us. Not everyone is driven by a passion for the technology. Not everyone seeks out new technologies and explores new ways to put those technologies to work. Some IT pros like to leave their work at work. And that’s OK, too. However, knowing that there are folks out there who don’t have that same passion and don’t have years of layering pieces of information on top one another, it’s our job not to berate them about change but rather to encourage and educate them about why change is needed, how that change will affect them, and what they can do about it.
There have been times that I’ve seen some IT pros lecture others about how they aren’t embracing change, they aren’t growing fast enough, how they aren’t headed in the right direction and how technology will leave them behind. (Shoot, I’ve probably done it as well—none of us are perfect, that’s for sure.) I think we can all agree that career evolution is a necessity, but rather than jumping on the “You’d better change or else” bandwagon, wouldn’t we be better served by asking these simple questions:
-
What can I do to help others understand the changes that are coming?
-
Are there things I can do to help others formulate a plan to cope with change?
-
What can I do to help others get the information they need?
-
How can I help others know in what ways this information applies to them?
I don’t know, perhaps I’m overly optimistic, overly idealistic, or overly naive (or all three). I just think that maybe if we spent less time preaching about how career evolution has to occur and instead focused on helping others succeed at career evolution, we’d probably all be a little bit better off. This aligns really well, too, with some thinking I’ve been doing about my own personal “mission statement” and purpose, which centers around helping others.
Feel free to tell me what you think in the comments below—courteous comments are always welcome.