Life Cycles

Introduction

This post is the seventeenth part of a ramble-rant about the software business. The current posts in this series are:

This post is about life cycles.

This is also a professional development post for SQL University – my second!

Everything Grows 

It’s Spring in Farmville, and everything is growing. The grass in the yard, tomato plants in the garden, trees, the chickens – even the kids! 

Careers grow too. Just like everything in nature, your career experiences a life cycle. Those who’ve been in a career for a while can tell you – you don’t just start at the top, or even near the top. Everyone starts near the bottom and works their way up.

It’s no fun starting at the bottom. The pay is less and the work is usually mundane at best. You get the crappy shift and are the least senior person on the team.

Enough Whining!

You have the most opportunity to learn and you’re surrounded by people who can teach you things about the job. Your whole future is in front of you. This is a very cool part of your career! If you’re new to the field and job, you are likely experiencing the lowest expectations of your job and/or career. Enjoy this time – cherish it.

You wouldn’t plant a fruit tree one day and demand fruit the next. Sure, fruit trees require water, nutrients, and sunshine to grow. But the most important element is time.

Time Part 1: Paying Your Dues

When you start into a new career, you have to earn your chops. You may be very smart, eager, inspired, even zealous. That’s nice because you’re going to need some of that to keep going sometimes. Not now, mind you… but later. It takes time to pay your dues. In fact, time is the essential ingredient.

Time Part 2: Time to Grow

Having time to grow is important. Time for training, whether self-paced, seminar, event, or classroom; is valuable. You’re in knowledge work now. Stasis is not an option.

A couple warnings. First: If you are uncomfortable working when you do not know every step of every part of the project, you may be in the wrong field. It’s not uncommon for software projects to “evolve.” Change is a constant, one of the few in IT projects.

Second: IT is “bursty.” You can get stuck in a repetitive position for a while, and then things can change in rapid succession. This isn’t the way most fields operate.

 

:{> Andy