Apr15th

Keeping Your Eye on the Market While Outperforming Internally By: JeffIgnacio

Under: Experienced Hire, Now What?, Workplace

Remember this concept. One of the best ways to keep track of your career is to understand where you are relative to your peers not just within your company but with competitors as well. Reason being that your competitors are most likely doing work similar to your own company. Following that thought would allow you to understand a few things:

 

1) Your firm’s career track velocity against the industry

2) Your standing relative to internal peers

3) Your standing relative to external peers

4) Incorporating external ideas into your own company

5) Validating internal career track

 

In my experience interviewing dozens of software developers at an intermediate level from different companies I have discovered that your experience and environment play a largely influential role in career acceleration. If you’re wondering in your mind ‘hey but I’m not going into software development, I’m a (insert profession here)’ then let me respond by saying “SO WHAT.”

No matter what you do you’re going to have peers whether they work with you or against you at another company.

 

One developer I worked with shared an insight into his company’s culture. His company has a slow and deliberate culture. They pride themselves on their methodical approach to resolving a problem. One thing he noticed was that while getting the job done he was able to focus in on the fine details. His skills were sharpening based on the current set of skills used on the project, but he noticed that some of his peers in faster environments were not defining their skill sets as well but were widening their toolbox.

 

Another professional I interviewed worked in a firm focused on getting their product to market more quickly in order to capture first mover advantage. In this case quality was prioritized below market release. Those not in software development could probably relate in being the first to get an RFP (Request For Proposal) out to a client, getting a written offer to a principal, or having an initial ad sketch to the committee for review. Being the first mover in economic studies has in many cases shown to provide considerable market share to the bold. In this environment this particular individual was learning quickly while learning a wide variety of skills. He shared with me that although his expansive skill set appeared impressive he was concerned that he was not an expert in one or two particular areas like his peers.

 

I interviewed dozens of people but I decided to share two stories that covered both ends of the spectrum. What each of these stories highlighted was that both of these gentlemen were cognizant of what was going on across the street at their competitors. It was pretty amazing to see that they had an insight to their competitor’s work styles. I imagine that both of these professionals are going to be very successful in what they do because they have the drive to understand where they stand in the marketplace. Internally they are going to find ways to compensate for their environment’s weaknesses, or perhaps they may find another opportunity seeking to develop that balance. Whatever the case may be, keeping your eye out on the market while performing with excellence at your firm could take you a long way.

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