If you want an average successful life, it doesn’t take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths:
1. Become the best at one specific thing.
2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.
The first strategy is difficult to the point of near impossibility. Few people will ever play in the NBA or make a platinum album. I don’t recommend anyone even try.
The second strategy is fairly easy. Everyone has at least a few areas in which they could be in the top 25% with some effort.
There is a lot of advice out there of people saying become the best at something. Often these same people forget to explain what it takes to do that. If you want to become Olympic-class (top 1%) at anything you're going to have to put in a lot of time to practice.
To master any skill it take about 5000 hours of practice to get to that level. If you work at it full time 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, it will take you about 2 and a half years to get that time in.
Most people don't have the capability to do that, but you may be able to squeeze in 1 hour a day. That will take 20 years.
On the other hand, if you just want to get really good at a skill (top 25%) that can take only 1000 hours or less. That will only take 4 years at 1 hour per day. A college course often is only about 50 hours of study and you end up knowing quite a bit.
Becoming good at two or three things and presenting it as a package can be a really great way to break into a market. Look at Ben&Jerry, there were lots of big ice cream companies, so they dual-classed with organic-ice cream. Haggen-Daas went with gourmet-ice cream.
What is your dash?
I am an engineer and I also write. I am an engineer-writer. Can I dominate in a market with that? I think I can.
How about you?
2 comments:
This is my direct client opening for a Embedded Software Engineer - Van Nuys, CA - This is a Full Time Position or Contract-to-Hire - Salary: $80-120K - Client needs only US Citizens who can get DOD Clearance - My client will pay relocation assistance, if necessary.
Job Description
Candidates will develop radar applications software for Air Defense systems. In this capacity they will define software requirements and generate software requirements documentation.
Perform high-level design of real-time, multi-threaded, embedded software radar applications and document these designs.
Device new approaches to resolve technical problems encountered.
Serve as a technical expert and advisor to engineering management, superfision, design personnel, and business development in matters within their area of expertise.
Generate and conduct effective customer presentations and provide technical coordination with customer representatives and subject matter experts.
Lead the development of improved software development processes applicable to their field of expertise leading to a CMMI level 5 assessment.
Provide technical guidance and mentor less senior software engineers on complex problems and difficult designs.
Experience
Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Math, Physics, or comparable fields required. MS in the same fields desirable.
Thirteen years experience in software development, required, over three years experience in real-time, embedded radar software development of multi-threaded applications desired.
Full lifecycle software development experience from software design through software integration required, full lifecycle software development experience from software requirements analysis through support of system integration/test desired. Software development experience using processes assessed at CMMI Level 3 or higher highly desirable.
C programming experience required, C++ and JAVA programming experience desired, particularly the JAVA Graphical User Interface (GUI).
Familiarity with UNIX, Linux, and/or Windows development platforms using an integrated development environment such as Visual Studio required.
Please complete and copy/paste this completed skills-matrix to me with your response:
Full name:
Degree Major, if any:
Total Embedded exp:
Total multi-threaded applications exp:
Total CMMI exp;
Total C exp:
Total C++ exp:
Total JAVA exp:
Total JAVA GUI exp:
Total UNIX, Linux, and/or Windows development platforms exp:
Total Visual Studio exp:
Total radar systems exp:
Are you a US Citizen?
Are you open for full time hire or contract to hire or both?:
Specify:
Required Salary:
Previous Salary:
Day Tel#:
Eve Tel#:
Cell number:
Availability:
Current City / State:
reply me to prem@beyondtekit.com
Post a Comment