Prepare to Fight from the Bottom

So you finished that degree, boot camp, or course work and are ready to enter the workforce. It’s the day you’ve dreamed of for years or perhaps just the day you hoped for as you transition roles in your career. That feeling of excitement and exuberance is met with the dull and increasingly painful feeling of resistance.

If you were lucky enough to land a role, those first few months can make you feel like a fish out of water. You are gasping for air and trying to find your place. The dread of not knowing enough and not being good enough starts to set in. And if you aren’t careful, you will start to believe it and allow these irrational feelings to erode your self confidence and sap your productivity.

Or perhaps you weren’t fortunate to get that first or next gig. You are stuck in the meat grinder that is application tracking systems, job posting voids, and endless cycles of put yourself out there only to receive absolutely zero feedback.

I wish I could tell you that this is uncommon. But it’s not. And I wish I could tell you that on the surface my 25 years in this industry wasn’t filled with days, months, and years of disappointment, but I can’t. I started my career with a $9 / hour job in landscaping because my college degree scored me exactly zero job offers. I ended up landing my first out of college gig writing COBOL for $9 / hr. Was ecstatic when I was given a raise to … $10 / hr. But here I am before you an example of what can become of you if listen to this one piece of advice. “Quit tomorrow”.

Some call this philosophy grit. Some call it “stick-to-it-ness”. Many others have different names for it and how to measure it. But bottom line is this. If you want to have a job in the tech industry, you’d better be prepared to be disappointed. You’d better be prepared to be knocked down. And you’d better be prepared to fight from the bottom. Nothing will be handed to you in this harsh tech world, so you’d better find out why you really want it and hold to that when times get tough.

My Opinions

I think it’s important that before I continue, I make clear. These are my opinions. This is my perspective and some advice coming from my journey. I’m not a psychologist or studied in the human brain and emotions. But I do have experience in this industry. I’ve held every seat up the IT chain outside of Quality Assurance. I can tell you that it hasn’t always been easy but I’ve always found joy in the grind. I’ve always found joy in the journey and not the outcome. This article is about why I’ve been recently reflecting on my career and to offer you some advice as you navigate yours.

Jiu-Jitsu

OK. So how did that end up in this article. What in the world does the combat sport of Jiu-Jitsu have to do with a tech career? Let me tell you so that you can understand.

I’m a 45 year old man. I have 2 kids that are aged 11 and 13. Both boys. And needless to say, are both highly competitive like me in pretty much everything they do. Going back 3 months from this article, my youngest asked if we could learn Jiu-Jitsu. Up to this point in my life, I’d never done any martial arts, nor did I do any wrestling as a kid. I’m in pretty good shape, but had no previous training. Of course I jumped at the chance to do something different with my boys.

Here I am now 3 months later, bruised and sore, but enriched with new knowledge and a budding obsession with my new favorite sport. But again, what does this have to do with a tech career.

OK, fine. Let me tie it together. With Jiu-Jitsu, the sport gives you nothing. It’s brutal. You get beat up, knocked down, bruised, and suffer opportunities to learn every time you step on the mat. It’s like being a junior developer in a room full of seniors night after night. I know what I’ve been taught, which is what my body has been able to do in it’s 45 years. But Jiu-Jitsu is designed to be able to take advantage of those “norms”. Much like a computer science or boot camp education. You’ve learned. But what you’ve learned isn’t very applicable to the real world. They just happen at 2 different speeds and take time to adjust.

With Jiu-Jitsu the number one predictor of improvement is just showing up. And when you show up, doing the following.

• Be humble.
• Be open to learn.
• Be open to feedback.
• Respect others

Notice that I didn’t mention the secret to success? Well that’s because success is measured differently in Jiu-Jitsu depending upon what YOU want to get out of it. (Also, just like a tech career) For me, the benefits are simple.

• Learn a new skill
• Stay in shape
• Bond with other humans in person over something I enjoy

Now if you are into the sport, you might have a different goal. Have a belt target in mind. You might want to win a tournament. Or you might want to have so many submissions in your arsenal. None of that though fits into my why.

An now for the tie in. I find that in my life I tend to embrace things that are hard. Things that make you want to quit because there are constantly roadblocks and sometimes even logical reasons why I should move on. I find the things that require much of me, are those things that provide the greatest benefit in return.

Such is a tech career. It has been hard. There have been days that I wanted to quit. There have been days that I wanted to just retire. And there have been days that I questioned why I ever went down this path. But at the end of those days, I took the mindset of “I’ll quit tomorrow”. Because if I’m always quitting tomorrow, I’ll never quit. And I know deep down, I don’t want to quit because again, the benefits outweigh the struggle.

Like I mentioned in the beginning, this journey is going to be hard. But like I just shared, it will be worthwhile. And to provide some hope for the future, here are 3 tips for navigating this journey.

Tips for the Journey

1. Find your Why

I’ve written and talked about this before. But you need to find your why. Why is it that you are willing to take the heartache and struggle? This why will give you an anchor point to hold onto on those days that you are wanting to quit. For me, the why is my family. I do everything in support of them and the life that we want to build together.

Perhaps there is an under theme though as well. If I didn’t have a family, would I still do tech? Yes, probably. Because ultimately I love it. I love solving problems through programming. My father always told me to “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”. And I tend to believe that.

2. Get a Circle

As in draw one or buy one? What I mean is that you need a close few people that you can rely on. These people need to be the mentor type. They need to either have walked your path before or walked similar paths. You need to be in community with those that you admire and respect. I use these relationships in my professional life to bounce ideas and strategies off of. I also leverage them to gain reflection on steps I’ve taken and how they perceived them.

Just like Jiu-Jitsu and getting smashed on the mat, it’s feedback I’m seeking. I want raw, honest, and healthy feedback. It’s easy to get lost in the suck, but good mentors tell it to you straight but also with a dose of support. They’ll give you just enough of a lift that you can “Quit Tomorrow”.

3. Find other “Hard” Things

This last one I didn’t even realize I was doing until the whole Jiu-Jitsu thing. Looking back on my career, the game of golf has always been a constant. Outside of the physical aspect of it, golf is equally humbling to Jiu-Jitsu. It’s lonely. It cannot be mastered. It’s different each day from the weather to my performance. And what it has taught me is adaptability. When so many things are variable but the goal of lowest score is still the same, it requires me to adjust and adapt.

These same skills are so applicable when I’m asked a question in an interview or need to pivot when a piece of code doesn’t perform how I expected. So my tip here is to find something in your personal life that you enjoy but that is also hard. Learn the taste of disappointment and failure. Learn how to overcome and adapt. And remember, if that hobby gets hard. Just “Quit Tomorrow”.

Conclusion

Life is hard. Maybe I’m just the product of the 80s where we had no bike helmets, trophies were only given for excellence, and PG movies still included an “F” word. I like to think I’m more the product of just being raised and prepared for things to be hard. Which I’m most thankful for because a career in tech is hard.

But with that degree of difficulty comes an equally high degree of satisfaction. I want to leave you with this encouragement.

A career in tech is not impossible. If you want it bad enough. You can have it. But no one will give it to you. You have to earn it. You have to show up each day and put in the work. And if you ever need one of those mentors or someone to give you a boost along the way. Reach out. I’m here to help. And I’d love to see you succeed.

Thanks for reading and happy building!