Red Pill or Blue Pill series: You’re The One

$ What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets?

$ No, Neo. I’m trying to tell you that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.

I’m glad to know that you’re still following us and our tumble down the rabbit-hole. It’s been almost three years of this incredible journey called Landing Festival where we’ve had the opportunity to coach and mentor closely hundreds of candidates into their next step. We’d love to leave you with five key pieces of advice on how to better manage your tech career:

1. Seek mentorship​. Approach highly skilled professionals that have walked that road before. They’ve been doing what you do for 10–15 years, and doing it well. Nonetheless, they’re bound to have made many mistakes down the path upon which you’re embarking. Why not cut corners and learn from them. How to go from career point A to career point B, and how to take the smartcuts that will allow you to growth hack your career? Not to mention they can be helpful Keymakers for the future, when it comes to opening doors.

2. Get your brand out there.​ Most tech professionals are a bit introvert, but that shouldn’t stop you from being viewed as an authority on that thing you do professionally! As you build expertise, you will largely benefit if you begin a regular habit of making people aware of your passion for and knowledge of your particular field. Take a chance and go social: leverage tools like LinkedIn, Medium, or even Facebook, to post articles, pose questions, and share news about what you’re doing. “It is not enough for the wife of Caesar to be honest, she must also appear to be.” — To be a master at your craft you need to be perceived as such.

3. Be thirsty for knowledge.​ It doesn’t matter if you have 5, 10 or 15 years of experience, you need to put your actions where your words are. It’s not enough to think you’re skilled, you actually need to know and prove you are. Be at the top of your game: always be learning, growing and updating your knowledge. There are plenty of free resources out there like Coursera, Udemy, Codecademy, and many others. You could even get together with a group of friends and enrol in a hackathon. Don’t allow yourself to get stuck on a plateau. Pick your next step always bearing in mind that whatever you are doing today, you probably won’t be doing tomorrow.

4. Networking, it’s also about people.​ Get yourself out there. Staying top of mind is half the battle for all of us as professionals. Start early, and stay on people’s radar as one who knows your stuff and loves what you do. Why? Because people just might think of you first when great opportunities related to your area of expertise come their way. We’re all human, and there’s nothing more enjoyable in life than working with friends.

5. Be humble.​ Such a powerful construct, yet, so simple. Do us all a favour and check your ego at the door. In a world where tech professionals truly are the new rock stars, it is not uncommon to witness or experience the “prima donna effect.” Nothing good can come out of a team where ego is leading the charge. Be assertive, take and share credit but above all be humble. Your hard skills will get you to the door but your soft ones will get you through it.

Landing Festival will be your playground to work on those 5 important aspect of your professional and personal growth. We won’t only empower you to believe that you are the one, we’ll let you test it yourself.

Apart from our Kung Fu boot camp (Workshops) and Oracle 1-on-1s (Expert sessions) we’ll bring Berlin’s 50s hottest companies under the same roof.

We’ve also prepared a special treat — Company Open Days, a tour around top tech companies in Berlin. Places are limited!

Register today and check out everything we have prepared.

Slay that FOMO beast inside you!

It’s time to make a choice​.

$ I’m going to hang up this phone, and then I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.