Progress in public — How it helps you in your career?
A few years ago, I once had an intellectual conversation with a prominent individual from the tech industry who had made his name across the globe. My curiosity heightened as he continued describing his developer journey and how he landed in the top jobs across Silicon Valley. Upon trying to decode the so called “secret sauce” behind his profound journey, he mentioned the key term “learn in public”. However, I consider it now as “progress in public” which has been a driving force for many people’s journeys including my own.
It is to be noted that this blog focuses solely on the self progression and does not direct towards any other conventional forms of recruitment.
With that being said, in this blog, we’ll be diving deep into:
- Why is it so important?
- The common methods.
- The best strategies and practices.
- The general questions.
What’s so special about “progress in public”?
This term can be described in a single sentence which I learnt not too long ago:
How do people know HOW good you are, if they don’t even know WHO you are?
Let the line above sink in for 60 seconds. Now imagine you’re a skilled engineer who has all the tools, resources and experience that can potentially lead you into a good role and you actually apply for a role. Surprise, surprise! You’re not the only engineer in the world and you’ll face competition of all sorts. In fact, for just one single role recruiters receive at least a 1000+ emails or CVs/Resumes.
You may get rejected once, twice, or even multiple times and you assume that you’re not just skilled enough. You then ask for tips and tricks from your peers and seniors to hopefully get a heads up for the next time you head to a job interview. However, yet again the conclusion remains the same and you bury your head in depression.
Though some particular individuals come out on top regardless of amount of skills or years of experience and you’re left wondering how that came about?
This is where the quote mentioned earlier comes into play. It’s all about others knowing how skilled you are and what value do you add to their organisation/company and for their products and initiatives.
If I were to sum it in a few points, then generally the benefits are that:
- It helps you make a mark at an early stage.
- You are under the radar of people and companies who want to work with you.
- Opportunities galore!
How progression in public works? — The common methods
So far, you may have concluded the fact that “oh we should just share everything we do in public”. No, that’s just spamming. There are ways of how one can progress without being completely irritating for others because the key word to focus on here is “public”. Hence, whatever you do, it’s for the public to view.
The ways or methods can be jotted down into the following:
Learning
Around two years ago, I met this individual through social media who showed this profound interest in Flutter (app development). He was a mere student just getting to know what it was. Within the next few months, he studied the fundamentals and immediately shared what he learnt through projects. Long story short, his passion for learning and letting others know what he learnt allowed startups and companies to reach out to him. Pretty amazing, right? The main key thing here to notice is, he wasn’t a prodigy, he was starting out probably like you are today.
In a nutshell, the first method is all about what you learn even if it is the most basic thing in your discipline or just a recent interest. Give yourself that pat on the back every time you learn something, at least you tried! We spend so much of our time procrastinating and letting people know what Netflix show we finished that we shy away from the actual things that improve us.
With this step, you not only make a difference in your own knowledge but you impact so many people. Imagine that!
Creating
A professor of mine once quoted the following during his lectures which really had an impact on my mindset and played a valuable role in my work:
Knowledge without implementation is meaningless.
The quote explains itself quite perfectly. However, this is the next step to progression. It just doesn’t stop with what you learn but what you do with that knowledge gained counts.
You could be building a robot or a website or initiating a program, it can be anything that has your interest. All in all, it’s a unique way to let the public see your abilities without the need of emailing your resume to HR. You could mention what you work on with all the fancy details on your resume maybe but remember that countless individuals before and after you may have done the same. When sharing what you create, it is advised to mention the thought process and key takeaways of your work.
However, creating does not limit to just building something rather it extends further to your experiences which ultimately leads to content creation. Content creation can be in the form of podcasts, video tutorials or even blogs. This ultimately helps you learn better and the experiences you gained in life do not die out with you rather its passed on.
Feedback
A common fact of life is, we aren’t perfect. That’s just the way the world works. Anything we work on or build, will have flaws or loopholes that others may point out. This comes to our final method that is feedback.
If you shared your work on social media, generally you’ll get comments of all kinds. Some reviews would be primarily praises and thumbs ups while others may place in negative reviews. Upon looking at those negative reviews, your ego probably kicks in and you’re just aching to reply that critic with a fiery comeback. However, instead of doing the usual, reflect and ask yourself the following:
- Is this comment/review giving me an idea to improve my work?
- Is the comment/review enhancing my existing knowledge?
Based on these questions, you can determine how to take the critics as potential feedback. Even for this blog, I would potentially receive the similar.
Summing it up
- Share what you learn and engage.
- Share what you create with key takeaways and challenges you faced.
- Be open to all forms of feedback.
The best strategies and practices
Now that we know the methods, let’s talk about strategies because doing what we discussed initially without a thought process is similar to spamming someone’s inbox.
Engage in your community of interest
In almost every discipline, field or domain, the heart of engagement is community. Whether you’re a developer or an artist or even a startup founder, there is a relevant community for every domain. It’s all about finding the correct one and being open minded. Who knows, you might even find your next company or partner in that community. The sky’s the limit. However, the best approach is by:
- Joining relatable events.
- Engaging in different social media groups and channels.
- Partaking in live audio conversations in topics of your interest.
Crack the social media algorithm
Progression in public would not be complete without mentioning social media. There are numerous platforms to showcase your progress but what will matter is how you utilize the platform and how are you cracking their algorithm. For almost every platform, there exists an algorithm that enables you to gain your targeted audience. If I were to go and explain this then this blog would mostly wouldn’t have an ending. However, do keep in mind that what you share depends on the nature of your work and interest.
Support your close peers
Support goes two ways generally, you can’t expect others to support you if you haven’t even supported them. While most don’t go out and say “hey support me please” it’s a common sign of goodwill to support your peers and colleagues in their work. This enables them to make accelerate themselves and if you’re starting out then your peers would also support you at your initial stages.
The general questions
Throughout my time in the tech community ecosystem, whenever this topic was discussed I would receive countless queries on this. Today I mention a few of them, but I’m always open to more queries:
1. Is sharing certifications a form of progress?
It depends on what the certification was. Before sharing a certification ask yourself the following questions:
- Was this certification earned through work and effort?
- Did you learn something?
If both of your answers are a “yes”, then evidently you worked to earn the certification hence its something worth sharing.
2. Can failures be shared aside from success stories as a progress?
Of course, however it all depends upon your comfort zone. Most individuals are not comfortable in sharing their losses which is completely fine.
3. Which is the best platform to progress in public?
If you’re someone advancing in your professional or academic life, two platforms are highly recommended
However, the difference to be noted is that the audience in Twitter varies from topic to topic and overall engagement. Whereas LinkedIn is more open and diverse and is dependent upon how you crack the algorithm and what do you actually share.
Conclusion
You can learn everything and work the hardest but what will matter is how the public sees the work you put in and how it accelerates you.
For any questions or queries or just for a random talk, feel free to hit me up on my socials:
Social handles (linktree): https://linktr.ee/usmanaslam712
