Always value your professional achievements

My last medium post dates from August 2020, a sign that to write regularly you need real discipline! As far as I’m concerned, I find that producing content on the Internet is easy and complicated at the same time. Easy because I always have content somewhere, whether it’s photos, videos or written notes. But complicated, because I have this old habit of favoring quality over quantity. If this requirement for quality content was quite understandable ten years ago, it is much less true today, because we are in a war of attention launched by storytellers of all kinds. In short, it was only a few weeks ago that I started to think about the interest of producing content online and to consider a calendar of regular publication, and that’s why…

Last week, I had a call with my great friend Nicolas Bermond, whom I also consider my mentor since he recruited me as a UI Designer in his web agency back in 2009. He has helped me evolve into a Digital Project Manager, and we’re still working in the digital field, but now on Web3 projects. Nicolas has just acquired a small island in Marseille, in the south of France, and he has a fantastic project in mind: building a micronation powered by blockchain. People who hold an NFT from his project can become e-citizens of his island and participate in his micronation’s life through his DAO.

During our conversation about the launch of this great project, we talked about the past and realized how early adopters we were. In 2009, the same year as the Bitcoin Genesis Block, we were working with our friend Glenn Rolland and his crew on an alternative currency using a hashtag on Twitter. We didn’t know how to decentralize an asset at the time, so we created a website called TweetBank, where all transactions appeared for transparency. We talk a lot about the metaverse at the moment, but for us, the metaverse was Second Life, which Nicolas was already using in 2009 to do recruitment interviews directly in the game.

We were in an ecosystem of doers and beta testers, so although we were ahead, we weren’t really aware of it. It’s only now, with all this excitement around web3, that we realize that nothing really surprises us, since we were already a bit into it. However, our only little regret is not having documented all of this since we didn’t communicate that much. We were in the action and not in the communication. We experienced all of it, but it would have been great to show the world that we were there when no one believed it was possible.

If I had to do it again, I would document my achievements by keeping track of my accomplishments to reference old but attractive work in the eyes of potential clients who can see my added value. So if I could give you 4 tips to enhance your experience it would be these:

• Have a personal website to introduce yourself
• Keep an up-to-date blog to optimize your SEO
• Talk about your expertise to show your skills
• Work on innovative projects to be at the forefront

All the people I have met at the start of my career are those that make my job exciting. We are in a world where everything happens faster and faster, and the more you procrastinate, the more opportunities you will miss for the benefit of people who may be less competent but more effective in storytelling. Today I give conferences and I co-organize the WebTalentFair with my friend Benoit Kulesza whom I have known for more than 10 years. And through this event, we aim to help people find a job in our industry.

So, if I have to give you only one piece of advice, I would tell you to take the time to meet people, having a professional network is undoubtedly the most valuable asset in niche trades, because most job offers are hidden jobs that require cooptation to access them. I have been an entrepreneur for about ten years now and commercial canvassing is not an activity that I like, if I am lucky enough to be able to work regularly, it is precisely because I value my expertise with people that I meet in real life. And since a network only works if it is constantly active, I have trusted people who bring me opportunities and to whom I give back afterwards.