How to become a grandmaster of your own career
Like everyone else, I binged The Queen’s Gambit. Here’s what I learned.
It was another quiet night in lockdown, well past the city curfew. But my wife and I were awake and staring at the coffee table. There was silence in the living room and the tension was palpable. You could have heard a pin drop.
All of a sudden, my wife moved her hand and yelled ‘checkmate!’. A silly victory dance and some loud cheering quickly followed. As I reminded her not to wake up our toddler, I looked at the chess set again and resigned myself to another defeat.
Playing chess became an obsession for both of us during the gruelling 15-week lockdown in Melbourne, Australia last year. And once The Queen’s Gambit began playing on Netflix, it seemed like the entire world picked up our new hobby.
Chess not only entertained us both during the long hours at home, but also gave me lots of practice. During those 15 weeks, I went from being an admittedly bad player, to being able to analyse my opponents style and implement my own strategies.
Many people find that playing chess makes them a better decision maker, and I was no exception. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I realised how many similarities there are between chess and a career in tech.
Both require a strategy, some decision making, other players and ultimately, the need to enjoy it over the long run. So here are my tips for playing your career like a game of chess. Hey, it may even improve your game, too.
Have a long-term strategy in mind
Many new chess players are impatient and try to take as many pieces as possible early on, without thinking about how that will impact the rest of the game. Your opponent can easily take advantage of this aggressive play, and you could potentially miss out on opportunities further on in the game, because you’ve thrown everything you have in the first few moves. There’s an old chess saying that goes, ‘Tactic is knowing what to do when there is something to do. Strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do.’
Early on in my career, I was always chasing after the next shiny thing: a promotion, a raise or a role change. I was throwing everything I had at the next move. Eventually, I realised that I needed to think about my long-term strategy. Where did I want to end up? I needed to stop working as if I had 1000 years left. I decided my goal was to become a technical consultant, to help businesses achieve their potential. To do that, I needed both technical experience and business exposure. Working as a developer evangelist gives me both, so it’s the right move on my journey towards my goal.
With a clearly defined goal and a strategy to get there, you can be sure that your next move will get you one step closer to your career checkmate.
Stay focused, and double attack!
In chess, the goal is to keep making moves that will put you in a better position. Of course, there’ll be many situations that will force you to deviate from your strategy. But it’s vital to ignore any distractions and stay focused on your goal. Likewise, in a career there are likely to be a few role changes that will send you sideways or on a different path to the one you imagined (I’m sure COVID-19 has been responsible for quite a few career shifts!). But it’s important to remember the goal you set yourself and ask yourself if the job you’re applying for will help you get there.
If you’re focused, you’ll be able to use the ‘double attack’ method. This is where you use one piece to attack two of your opponent’s pieces, forcing them to make a choice that will make more of an impact in the long run. In your career, it’s about taking on initiatives that will help you achieve more than one career goal. For example, last year I joined my local Toastmasters club as a way to improve my public speaking. It not only helped me become a more confident presenter, but I ended up gaining some leadership skills by getting involved in the running of the club.
Stay focused and always make a move for two reasons. That way if one doesn’t work out, you’re still making an impact somewhere else.
Learn from others, but be yourself
Like Beth in The Queen’s Gambit, I used to rely a little too heavily on memorising the most famous opening and closing moves so I could win faster. But I realised that by copying other people’s moves, I was bypassing the hard lessons and not playing the game that was in front of me. It also reduced my ability to improvise and adapt to change, so I ended up more likely to lose. Many chess grandmasters like Garry Kasparov have warned players not to do this. He says that to really master the game, you must know yourself and stay true to who you are along the way.
The same can be said for your career. You can learn from the experts in your area of expertise, but you need to find a role where you can be yourself and stay true to your values. At Xero, I feel like I can bring my whole self to work and don’t have to pretend to be anyone else (especially during lockdown, with a wife trying to work in one room and a crying baby in the other). I can feel confident doing my best work, without worrying about what my tech heroes would say or do in a particular situation.
Reach out to others and learn from their experience, but remember that you’re in control of your game. Make sure you’re in a role where you can be yourself and do the best work of your life.
Are you ready to start the clock?
My wife and I still play the occasional game of chess, even now that lockdown is over and we’re living in the ‘new’ normal. But the lessons I learned along the way have stuck with me, and I can’t wait to see how they’ll impact my next career move (and the one after that, and the one after that).
I hope these tips will help you think about your career a little differently, and show how a compelling game (and a hit Netflix series) can make you a grandmaster of your own career.
