Highest and Best Use of Skills

I'm currently a database administrator, programmer and architect.  I trained to be a chemical engineer and chemist.  What happened?

This post is for the very young (pre-career), or those considering a re-tread of career later in life.

You have undoubtedly heard aphorisms similar to these:

Follow your bliss!

Do what you love, and the money will follow.

Be passionate about what you do.

The first is an invitation to follow a Bohemian lifestyle.  I tried it, for a long enough time to get the flavor of the consequences.  Good luck getting stably married or supporting a family.  Very few people find their bliss in being a welder or working in a chemical plant.  Most bliss-followers want to pursue the fine arts or play in rock bands.  Marketability: 0 (zero) or negative - you'll have to pay for the right to practice your bliss, like working at a fast-food place.  There are better choices available.  Ignore this advice.

The second one is a false syllogism for the great majority of people.  The conclusion ("the money will follow") does not follow from the premise ("do what you love"). 

The job market is brutal, and reality doesn't care about anyone's likes or dislikes, even the very rich.  There are many examples of once prominent people who experienced a huge crash and never recovered.  The few examples of successful people doing this should be regarded as just dumb luck, almost certainly not repeatable. Wrong!

The third is problematic in a professional setting.  Passionate implies emotion, and emotion is one of several things I would caution newbies in industry to avoid completely.  Perhaps passion can drive cool, calm problem-solving and extreme patience in chaotic situations.  That is acceptable and useful, and even politically advisable. Otherwise, never allow yourself to get emotional at work.  You LOSE!

On the other hand, passion that causes blame, emotional outbursts, raised voices, arguments, defensiveness, poor thinking and foolish choices cannot be productive in an industrial setting.  Observe the irritating behaviors of the people around you and learn from their mistakes.  Quiet passion that drives careful behaviors might be a good thing.

So much for aphorisms.  What to do?

In this blog, I comment about a segment of a particular job market, the Austin high-tech market.  Old-style jobs and organizations are now being replaced by newer technologies and organizations centered around managed services.  A participant in this market who is unaware of the larger scale changes happening right now will lose the ability to compete, perhaps suddenly.

Thus, before choosing a career path, everyone must read about what is happening, get a gauge on what was, what is now, and what is likely to be.  I'm painting a part of the picture here, and many other writers are painting their parts in other places. I am in the process myself of re-treading again into a Cloud World, and have to read lots of stuff to figure out where my next niche will be.

We're all placing bets.  It's important to realize this, so that you will research the bet well before placing it.  You basically get one shot, and it needs to be a good one. I haven't worked this up into an aphorism, but my basic plan is highest and best use of skills. I think it is worth trying.

What does it mean?  It means: figure out the highest-paying market slot you think you can do long-term, and go occupy it (get needed training, exposure, experience). Put another way, it means: do what the market wants you to do, not what you want to do. Learn to market your new self, for it will be different than marketing your old self.