

Ask HN: What has been your career development experience so far? - daneuman

I have been a technologist for my entire career and a manager for more than half. I&#x27;ve actively managed my own career and find myself helping other technology professionals more and more with mapping out their career paths, evaluating what skills to develop next, and giving them feedback.<p>I would like to get feedback from others in the technology field on their experience with their career development. I would love to hear what you have to say on some of the bullets below:<p>- How often do you think about your career development?<p>- How much time do you spend thinking about your career?<p>- How do you plan what you want to develop for yourself? Is it based on trends or a specific goal?<p>- How do you keep track of all the skills and experiences you&#x27;ve gained through your career?<p>- How do you get feedback on your skills and strengths? What do you do with the feedback?<p>- Who do you talk with the most about your career development?<p>Thanks for your time and willingness to share.
- Dave
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33W
I'm just over 1 year as a developer in a large enterprise shop.

I've had some hiccups moving me a bit away from where I want to be ("needs of
the business"), and really make me feel like I'm the only one looking out for
my development. Things have been slow at work lately, so maybe I've been
thinking about it more than usual.

-How often do you think about your career development? Probably daily - making sure I'm learning the right things, meeting the right people, reading the right HN articles.

\- How much time do you spend thinking about your career? Too much- I'd like
to just auto-pilot for a while, but I feel like I'll end up on the path that
makes everyone else look good, rather than fulfilling my goals.

\- How do you plan what you want to develop for yourself? Is it based on
trends or a specific goal? A specific goal- I would like to move into our
information security area, specifically online threats/fraud.

\- How do you keep track of all the skills and experiences you've gained
through your career? I don't have that many to keep track of, so the resume
holds a good chunk at the moment. I should work on tracking the things that I
do more.

\- How do you get feedback on your skills and strengths? What do you do with
the feedback? This is probably one of the tougher things for me. Trying to
change fields, my management and peers can't give qualified feedback for a
different area.

\- Who do you talk with the most about your career development? This is the
most I've articulated it in a while, my fiance is a good sounding board from
time to time.

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caw
\- How often do you think about your career development?

At least quarterly.

\- How much time do you spend thinking about your career?

A days passively thinking about it. Maybe an hour or two actively sitting down
and writing notes.

\- How do you plan what you want to develop for yourself? Is it based on
trends or a specific goal?

It's based on trends but also what I'm interested in. For example, a trend is
cloud computing, and I do sysadmin so that's obviously a skill I have to learn

\- How do you keep track of all the skills and experiences you've gained
through your career?

Haven't needed to yet, so I guess mentally, and keeping my resume semi up-to-
date.

\- How do you get feedback on your skills and strengths? What do you do with
the feedback?

Coworker feedback, manager feedback. I have an "attaboy" or "good job" folder
in my inbox that I collect feedback in.

\- Who do you talk with the most about your career development?

Manager, significant other. Obviously not the same conversation with both.
Manager is more skills based development plan, SO is the "5 yr, 10 yr life
plans".

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AnimalMuppet
I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it.

But from time to time, my wife asks me "What do you need to be learning now to
prepare yourself for the next five years?" At the moment, my answer is
"Android".

