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Advice to young people seeking IT careers
I was asked for some advice to pass along to a class of graduating young people. It wasn't bad for something I pulled out of my butt, so I thought I'd post it somewhere before it got lost in the outbox.
- Neither a borrower nor a spender be.
- Consume not, lest ye be consumed.
- Avoid shipping metaphors. You and what you make are nobody's "content."
- Avoid industrial metaphors. You are not a "product" of anything, including your education.
- The only career paths that go anywhere are the ones you blaze for yourself.
- Companies have souls. DNA. Basic natures. What was a company's first business? Guess what? It still is. Even if the founder is a dead white guy on the wall of the lobby, the company's going to keep doing whatever that guy was all about. Make the most of it or get out.
- Everything a company does is a project. Sign up for one at a time.
- Look at what "Information Technology" really means. "Information" derives from inform, which derives from the verb *to form*. So: to inform somebody is to form them. Therefore, we are all authors of each other. Information is how we make up other people's minds.
- Publish your passions. Publish a weblog on *anything* you care about. Make that your daily diary and keep it up. Answer every email response. Respond to other people's 'blogs. Your path will be blazed by buzz.
Also remember what Skoop Nisker says:
If you don't like the news, go make some of your own.
Copyright 2009 The Doc Searls Weblog
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