Forget cheat sheets, work with people

You reading these blogs already shows initiative. To learn, to grow.

Already excellent—not everybody has it by nature. Some of us had to be coerced into being ambitious or wanting more.

I am firm believer that most people do not yearn for yachts and walks of fame—just stability and peace of mind. I know I do, but to the natural builders—all the admiration and appreciation, you make the world move. I think I ended up as one of you due to education, necessity, and a little bit chance.

Now that this is out of the way, let's address the AI-generated elephant in the room. Job searches have become an incessant, shameless, self-promoting part-time jobs. Full-time even.

The problem

People figured out that resumes are not enough anymore. You now need a track record of open source contributions and an XYZ number of pull requests on your personal GitHub account but not AI-sloppified ones.

But wait there's more! Even if you have an excellent track record of helping out struggling devlings for free (working for no money, let's be real here), where's your internet presence?

Post one witty and insightful post per week. A cheat sheet with trade secrets your peers already know but agreeably nod to, and a critique/defense of your discipline in the ever-present world of mass layoffs. If there's time, several random photos where you cringe-laugh at a conference but claim you are "having the time of your life" with random people who could put in a good word with the new prospective employer. All of it split into one to two sentence paragraphs for readability's sake—just like here. Familiar?

Audible sigh of exhaustion.

So what do we do

Give respect, get respect

Simple concept really. Not to go full woke here, but personal, cultural, and professional differences are a reality. Disagreeing and pushing back in discussions is OK-even a good review process for ideas. Doing it respectfully, kindly even, working towards a positive outcome together lets others see you as a mature, trustful person whose opinion they will ask for next time.

Listen more than talk

The words spoken last in the meeting frequently have more impact. Listening first to your colleagues also gives you more data to work with. Ask clarifying questions, push back if needed, but resist the urge to comment on everything said. Think about the timing.

Do not talk over each other

Very simple, and very human—the hallmark of communication. If everyone talks at the same time, no one listens to anybody.

The reason I include it in the list is that in online meetings this happens all the time. Try to get around it by orchestrating your meetings and using the raise hand functionality.

Educate not denigrate

Often, people will not know what you have going on. They might not even know what you do exactly.

Get away from comments like "You should know that", "It was in the PRD", or simply sending links to 20 page documents instead of answering the question.

If a person is making themselves vulnerable in public asking you for a clarification, acknowledging that not everybody is on the same page can be beneficial. Use the opportunity to align everybody, direct them to additional resources, and keep the topic of the meeting still the main focus.

If required, organize follow-ups like trainings or workshops for your colleagues. It will help everybody along the way.

Be responsive, but manage expectations

People protect their calendars. There is a reason for this—most of us are overwhelmed with the daily list of personal and professional tasks to finish.

However, taking the time to answer people's direct messages shows that it's worthwhile talking to you.

This does not mean dropping everything that you are doing and switching tasks. It depends on the job, but a balanced approach could be—if you can consult fairly quickly about something, do it instantly. This can be pointing them to the right person, the correct doc, or answering a simple question. If it warrants a discussion, maybe with a larger audience, it becomes a meeting at a later date.

Planning beats deadlines

Include different disciplines in the planning early on and try to have transparent timelines. Even if they are aspirational more than realistic. This gives people a chance to raise concerns ahead of time, avoids team capacity bottlenecks close to the launch date, and is overall a good chance to factor in different perspectives that could improve the project.

Conclusion

Publishing content into the social media ether is simply a reality. Your cheat sheets, training programs, and tips and tricks might get you noticed. Might even get you notoriety. This may or may not help your career.

If you're going to invest time into self-betterment and growth—consider that in almost every job you will work with other humans. Similarly to using cheap tools, invest into fundamentals of human communication and collaboration.

When the feedback suggests you've become the go-to person for something, or that people choose to work with you over someone else—you've hit the spot. Leverage that.