your messy agile career

Your Messy Agile Career

@daniel_davis

Who I am?Business/Process Improvement ConsultantAgile Practitioner/DeveloperInnovatorHackerMakerCub MasterProfessional Snowboard Instructor

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Your Messy Agile Career

Outline -Your Messy Agile Career

- Seeding a couple questions - A bit of background on Agile - Some key agile concepts - What a healthy career might entail - Career paths then and now - What a messy career might entail - Potential impacts/concerns - What you can do about it

Are you currently “agile”?

&

Do you have a “messy” career?

Seeding a couple questions -Your Messy Agile Career

A bit of background on Agile -Your Messy Agile Career

Agile is a group of methods, processes and practices

based on iterative and incremental development, in which

requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration

between self-organizing, cross-functional teams.

A bit of background on Agile -Your Messy Agile Career

It promotes adaptive planning, evolutionary development,

continuos delivery, a time-boxed iterative approach, and

encourages rapid and flexible response to change.

Your Messy Agile Career

Founded on the Agile Manifesto - Individuals and Interactions over Processes and ToolsWorking Software over Comprehensive DocumentationCustomer Collaboration over Contract NegotiationResponding to Change over Following a Plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

A bit of background on Agile -

- Specializing generalist mindset- Soliciting feedback early and often- Self-reflecting and continuously improving- Being resourceful with what’s at hand- Striving to fail fast and pivot quickly- Seeking new or “out of the box” solutions- Focused on delivering business value

Some key agile concepts -Your Messy Agile Career

Your Messy Agile Career

What a healthy career might entail -

A healthy career is one that is both challenging and

rewarding at the same time. It offers you the ability to

grow and learn, while not coming at a sacrifice of

personal needs or desires.

A healthy career is one that you enjoy, appreciate and

look forward to come Monday morning.

Your Messy Agile Career

Career paths then and now -

Way back when career’s looked like this…

One Job

Your Messy Agile Career

Career paths then and now -

Eventually things had changed to more like this…

No Job :(

Second JobFirst Job Third Job

Your Messy Agile Career

Career paths then and now -

Nowadays we actually see it similar to this…

No Job :(First Job

Third Job

Open Source Support

Second Job

Start-Up Support Start-Up

:(

Your Messy Agile Career

What a messy career might entail -

A messy career is still one that is both challenging and

rewarding at the same time. However it offers you the

ability to grow and learn more rapidly. While not

intending to, it may now come at a sacrifice to personal

needs or desires.

Your Messy Agile Career

What a messy career might entail -

A messy career is one that you still enjoy, appreciate

and look forward to come Monday morning, however

this may now also come with a higher set risks and

chance for failure.

A messy career might encompass multiple

interests or roles?

Which can actually be healthy, in a way, as it helps

to cross pollinate knowledge and share ideas.

Your Messy Agile Career

What a messy career might entail -

Changing roles and/or positions is good as well, as

it offers you the chance to learn new things and

grow new skills.

Your Messy Agile Career

What a messy career might entail -

Potential impacts/concerns -Your Messy Agile Career

• How long have you been doing what you’re doing?

• When was the last time you learned a new language or skill?

• What do you do when traditional retirement options just are’t there anymore?

• Do you feel like your career is heading in a positive direction?

What you can do about it -Your Messy Agile Career

Being able to continuously learn has become a must within our modern-day technical careers. If you aren't growing, adapting, and evolving your skills as technologies change, then you are stagnating.

Eventually you won't outgrow your job, - it will outgrow you!

The key is not which language(s) you already know or skills you already have, but how quickly you can pickup and learn the new ones when needed.

Learn how to write good clean code, no matter

what’s the language you’re writing in. Learn how to

respect both yourself and the other members of

your team, by proving components that are easy to

understand and work with.

Your Messy Agile Career

What you can do about it -

Join local user groups and go to conferences. It’s

incredible how many things you learn when you

meet people from different organizations, cultures,

backgrounds and knowledge bases.

Your Messy Agile Career

What you can do about it -

Since the financial aspects of a messy career don’t

always support you as they have in the past. You’ll

want to find the mechanisms to support you beyond

your career as needed. The sooner you start the

better of course too.

Your Messy Agile Career

What you can do about it -

Take a “career as portfolio” view and start to grow and expand on it. Over time however, it also means we’ll need to grow your muscles for identifying and avoiding conflicts.

These conflicts can come about whether they’re internal role and/or team support efforts, as well as with external aspects. Just be cognizant, open and honest about it and it should avoid most the problems for the most part.

Your Messy Agile Career

What you can do about it -

Ultimately, our professional story should be about the skills and experiences we accumulate that matter to us, not about the titles we hold.

The jobs we’ll hold are all just shorthand for what’s important — what we know, what we can do, who we know (and who knows us), and what we believe.

Your Messy Agile Career

What you can do about it -

Maybe you’re doing this agile thing well and maybe your career is actually quite healthy?

But then again, maybe your career is already a mess –

or maybe it has the potential to be at a little messier –

and perhaps maybe that’s actually a good thing?

Your Messy Agile Career

What you can do about it -

http://founderdating.com/your-career-is-a-mess/

https://onlysoftware.wordpress.com/2014/02/07/my-advice-to-junior-developers-about-their-career/

Your Messy Agile Career

Resources -

Q & A

Business Solutions Consultancy For those who value... value.

Clients collaborate with us to solve business problems.

The first step is figuring out how we can either make or save them money.

BUSINESS AGILITY

Thank you!

Daniel Davis

ddavis@pillartechnology.com

daniel.davis.tech@gmail.com

@daniel_davis

linkedin.com/in/davisdaniel