Own Your Tech Career: Soft skills for technologists

by Don Jones

Overview

Own Your Tech Career: Soft skills for technologists is a guide to taking control of your professional life. It teaches you to approach your career with planning and purpose, always making active decisions towards your goals.

Summary
In Own Your Tech Career: Soft skills for technologists, you will:

Define what “success” means for your career
Discover personal branding and career maintenance
Prepare for and conduct a tech job hunt
Spot speed bumps and barriers that can derail your progress
Learn how to navigate the rules of the business world
Perform market analysis to keep your tech skills fresh and relevant

Whatever your road to success, you’ll benefit from the toolbox of career-boosting techniques you’ll find in Own Your Tech Career: Soft skills for technologists. You’ll discover in-demand communication and teamwork skills, essential rules for professionalism, tactics of the modern job hunt, and more.

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

About the technology
A successful technology career demands more than just technical ability. Achieving your goals requires clear communication, top-notch time management, and a knack for navigating business needs. Master the “soft skills,” and you’ll have a smoother path to success and satisfaction, however you define that for yourself.

About the book
Own Your Tech Career: Soft skills for technologists helps you get what you want out of your technology career. You’ll start by defining your ambition—whether that’s a salary, a job title, a flexible schedule, or something else. Once you know where you’re going, this book’s adaptable advice guides your journey. You’ll learn conflict resolution and teamwork, master nine rules of professionalism, and build the confidence and skill you need to stay on the path you’ve set for yourself.

What's inside
Personal branding and career maintenance
Barriers that derail progress
The rules of the business world
Market analysis to keep tech skills fresh

About the reader
For tech professionals who want to take control of their career.

About the author
Microsoft MVP Don Jones brings his years of experience as a successful IT trainer to this engaging guide.

Table of Contents
1 Own your career
2 Build and maintain your brand
3 Network
4 Be part of a technology community
5 Keep your tech skills fresh and relevant
6 Show up as a professional
7 Manage your time
8 Handle remote work
9 Be a team player
10 Be a team leade
11 Solve problems
12 Conquer written communications
13 Conquer verbal communications
14 Resolve conflicts
15 Be a data-driven, critical thinker
16 Understand how businesses work
17 Be a better decision-maker
18 Help others
19 Be prepared for anything
20 Business math and terminology for technologists
21 Tools for the modern job hunt

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781617299070
Publisher:	Manning
Publication date:	08/24/2021
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	7.38(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Don Jones is a PowerShell MVP, speaker, and trainer. He developed the Microsoft PowerShell courseware and has taught PowerShell to more than 20,000 IT pros. Don writes the PowerShell column for TechNet Magazine and blogs about PowerShell at PowerShell.com. Ask Don your PowerShell questions at http://bit.ly/AskDon.

Table of Contents

Preface xv

Acknowledgments xvii

About this book xviii

About the author xx

About the cover illustration xxi

Introduction 1

1 Own your career 3

1.1 Job, career, success, and self 3

1.2 Start at the beginning: With yourself 4

1.3 What does success look like for you? 7

1.4 Creating a career plan for right now 9

1.5 Action items 11

2 Build and maintain your brand 12

2.1 Brand building: Know your audience 12

2.2 Social media and your brand 15

2.3 Your brand has a wide reach 17

2.4 Professionalism and your brand 18

2.5 How to sabotage your brand 19

2.6 Further reading 19

2.7 Action items 20

3 Network 21

3.1 Why networking? 21

3.2 The problem with digital communications 22

3.3 Ideas for in-person networking 23

3.4 Ideas for online networking 24

3.5 Etiquette for networking 25

In person 25

On LinkedIn 27

3.6 Becoming a confident networker 28

3.7 Action items 29

4 Be part of a technology community 30

4.1 The value of community to your career 30

4.2 Yes, you're worthy of contributing 32

4.3 Ways to contribute and participate 33

4.4 Etiquette for participating 34

On Q&A websites 35

In open source projects 35

4.5 Action items 36

5 Keep your tech skills fresh and relevant 37

5.1 Fresh vs. relevant 37

5.2 Deciding what's relevant 40

Proficient, not expert 40

Where to focus 43

5.3 Building strong learning muscles 44

5.4 Learning media 45

5.5 Assessing your relevancy 46

5.6 Tips for lifelong daily learning 46

5.7 Further reading 47

5.8 Action items 47

6 Show up as a professional 49

6.1 Be your word 49

Never promise what you cannot deliver 49

Always deliver what you promise 50

Be easy to work with 50

6.2 Be detailed and precise 51

6.3 Cut your losses when the time is right 53

6.4 Let Blue Sky mode happen 54

6.5 Draw a yellow line 55

6.6 Action items 57

7 Manage your time 58

7.1 Discipline, procrastination, and laziness 58

7.2 Time management 59

Time inventory: The TimeFlip technique 59

Time rationing: The Pomodoro technique 61

Time catalog: Knowing your capabilities 63

7.3 Multitasking 63

7.4 Action items 65

8 Handle remote work 66

8.1 The challenges of being remote 66

8.2 Creating a space 67

8.3 Creating a space when you have no space 68

8.4 Working with family 70

8.5 Adopting a routine 71

8.6 Explicitly defining a culture 72

8.7 Networking like you're in the office 73

8.8 Remote work: Permanent or temporary? 74

8.9 Action items 74

9 Be a team player 75

9.1 The ups and downs of teams 75

9.2 A checklist for being a better team player 76

9.3 Dealing with less-effective teams and teammates 79

9.4 Contributing to an inclusive workplace 80

Help 80

Offer respect and support 81

9.5 Further reading 82

9.6 Action items 83

10 Be a team leader 84

10.1 The decision to lead 84

10.2 Leadership vs. management 85

10.3 The leader's path 86

10.4 Getting into their context 88

10.5 Leading positively 91

10.6 Mistakes leaders make 92

10.7 Leadership beyond leading 93

10.8 Before moving into leadership 94

Don't get promoted to your level of incompetence 94

Learn leadership 95

Measure your own success 95

10.9 Further reading 96

10.10 Action items 96

11 Solve problems 97

11.1 Problem-solving vs. troubleshooting 97

11.2 Clearly state the problem 97

11.3 Identify your levers 99

11.4 Negotiating solutions 101

11.5 Action items 102

12 Conquer written communications 104

12.1 Communicating is telling a story 104

The rules of storytelling 105

Applying storytelling to business communication 106

What about mundane, everyday communication? 107

12.2 Facing our fear of communicating 108

Analyze the causes of your fear 109

Address the causes of your fear 110

Conquer fear in written communications 111

12.3 Applying structure to your storytelling 113

12.4 Practice, practice, practice 116

12.5 Common written defeaters 117

Avoid passive voice 117

Prune that flowery garden 118

12.6 Action items 118

13 Conquer verbal communications 120

13.1 Stepping up to verbal communications 120

13.2 Conquering your fear of speaking 121

Fear of not having all the answers 121

Fear of being judged 122

13.3 Common verbal defeaters 123

13.4 Finding the right amount of assertive 126

13.5 Persuasion and the art of listening 127

13.6 Action items 128

14 Resolve conflicts 130

14.1 Conflict can be healthy and even deliberate 131

14.2 Seeking context 131

14.3 Returning to first principles 134

14.4 Relying on data 135

14.5 Using decision-making frameworks 136

14.6 A win doesn't matter as much as the outcome 137

14.7 Action items 137

15 Be a data-driven, critical thinker 138

15.1 In business, never "believe" 138

15.2 Be a data-driven, critical thinker 139

15.3 Be data-driven 144

15.4 Beware the data 145

15.5 Further reading 146

15.6 Action items 146

16 Understand how businesses work 147

16.1 Businesses are people too 147

Businesses and their relationships 148

Customers and employees 149

One-sided relationships 149

Dealing with changes in the relationship 152

16.2 How businesses really make money 153

16.3 What does your business sell? 156

Example 1: Terri's International Bulbs 156

Example 2: Martin's Theme Parks 157

Example 3: Pat's Fruity Clothing 158

Know the details of the business 159

16.4 Understanding risk and reward 159

16.5 Further reading 162

16.6 Action items 162

17 Be a better decision-maker 163

17.1 Deciding who decides: Decision-making frameworks 163

17.2 Deciding what to do: OKRs, rocks, and pebbles 166

Rocks and pebbles 166

OKRs 167

Priorities, priorities 168

17.3 Deciding what to drop: Opportunity cost 169

17.4 Deciding what's enough: Good, better, best 170

17.5 Deciding what to believe: Being data-driven 173

17.6 Deciding together: How to negotiate 175

17.7 Further reading 177

17.8 Action items 177

18 Help others 178

18.1 Why help? 178

18.2 Yes, you can 179

The toxic relationships that keep us from teaching 179

You are definitely worthy of teaching 179

18.3 How humans learn 180

18.4 The value of repetition 181

18.5 Getting in and doing it 182

18.6 Why analogies work … and how they can fail 183

18.7 Do it like Socrates 183

18.8 The importance of sequencing 185

18.9 Rest time is crucial 186

18.10 Further reading 187

18.11 Action items 187

19 Be prepared for anything 188

19.1 What can happen? 188

19.2 Basic preparedness goals 189

19.3 Cash on hand and credit 189

19.4 Social safety nets 190

19.5 Insurance 191

19.6 Prestaged job hunt tools 192

19.7 Action items 193

20 Business math and terminology for technologists 195

20.1 How much do you cost? 195

20.2 Reading a P&L statement 197

Revenue 197

Expenses 199

20.3 Averages 200

20.4 OpEx and CapEx 201

Understanding the two types of expenses 201

Driving business decisions 202

20.5 Business architecture 203

20.6 Further reading 207

20.7 Action items 207

21 Tools for the modern job hunt 209

21.1 Job hunt tasks to do now 209

21.2 Review your brand 210

Your professional brand and the job hunt 210

Reviewing your public footprint 211

How would others describe your brand? 212

21.3 Update your résumé 213

Résumé rules 213

Starting your résumé 214

Every résumé is unique 215

Analyze the job posting 216

Writing your résumé 220

Formatting your résumé 224

Should you hire a résumé writer? 226

21.4 Nailing the interview 226

21.5 Understanding compensation packages 227

Compensation package elements 228

Negotiating your compensation package 230

21.6 Further reading 231

21.7 Action items 231

Index 233