Career reflections
Communication is a skill that can be learned. It can amplify your career so much but is often overlooked. In the earlier stages of my job at Gusto, I focused on leveling up my technical skills. It's now the phase where I should put more work into the people skills.
Are there ways that you can build relationships with people in the company that are mutually beneficial?
Find a way to be useful to them (interview, contribute to an essay, work together on a project)
Increase exposure (all-hands, cross-functional meetings)
What are you known for at work?
Technical skills (excel, modeling, spreadsheets, SQL)
financial metrics, business impact
What are some projects that you can do outside the core job that impact the company?
process improvement (BD deal execution)
teaching (finance 101 at Gustie onboarding)
documentation (accountant channel knowledge bank)
mentoring
Do you ask for constructive criticism?
This is painful but it accelerates personal and professional growth
turn feedback into action items, after understanding the problem
Who do you model after?
L, M - communication, influence, can tune up or down, read the room, address people by their names
- mental models, frameworks
J, B - storytelling with data, interpret data, statistics, caution
S - making bets, moving quickly
What skills do you want to learn that you think you will be good at — Game design? Robotics? Video editing? Think like a hobbyist and start playing around to build up a portfolio.
Who can you do project-based work for, for free, to build a client list and experience?
What can you research and publish your findings on? Who can you send that to?
Where do other people go, online and off, who are interested in the same thing you are?
Who do you know in a leadership role at a company where you could intern?
Who are 40 interesting CEOs you don’t know, that you can cold email and ask for advice?
How networks form?
Frequency - the higher the frequency the stronger the NFX
Density - clustered nodes, easier to form NFX
Identity - go through experiences with someone else deepens the NFX
Proximity - decreases friction
Difficulties - the more difficult, the deeper the NFX
Three network levels - physical, people, digital
Dunbar's Law - we can interact with ~150 people (familiar) - out of those, we know ~45 people quite well (acquaintances) - out of those, we know about ~15 (friends) - then we know ~5 people really well (family)
Dinner Party - if we have 6 guests, we'll have N* (N-1)/2 = 15 individual conversations
7 crossroads or pivotal life events
Family
High School
College
First Job (location, network, people, momentum, academia -> workplace)
Life Partner, Children
Where you live
Reassessment