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It's time again for New Year's resolutions. Here are 10 ideas for how you can live a happier life and have a better career in the coming year.
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Every year, many Americans make a New Year's resolution. Chances are, IT Pros are among them. But just like everyone else, you are probably making resolutions to lose weight or work out more. Those are great, but I've also got some suggestions for resolutions that are maybe a little more fitting for an IT pro.
I've got a mix of ideas that I think will make you happier, better at your job, and help you advance your career. Of course, I'm not expecting you to make all 10, but a few of these really ought to be in your plan for the New Year. Take a look at the list:
10 New Year's Resolutions For IT Pros
1. Dust off your resume. Even if you are happy at your job, looking for a new job is good practice to keep your interview skills sharp for when you do want to leave. It also helps you get an idea of what skills are in demand so you can increase your skillset. Plus, this is a surprisingly good time to look for a job.
2. Say "thank you" and mean it. According to this article by Dr. Christine Carter of the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center, "thank you" can be very powerful. "My favorite happiness booster," writes Carter, "is to give thanks: to a higher power for the abundance that surrounds me; to my dad for taking my kids to ice cream; to my husband for all the ways he makes me giggle." And really, who wouldn't rather work in a place where truly appreciating each other is the norm? Start a wave of gratitude and appreciation yourself.
3. Go to the bathroom. A recent survey of 617 adults working at companies of 500 employees or more conducted by Workfront and Harris Poll showed that 52% of those taking the survey had delayed going to the bathroom in order to make a deadline. And among those respondents, 21% said they did so five times per week or more. This simply does not seem like a happy job situation. The company's stock really won't go down if you take time out to tinkle.
4. Kill something every day. Virtually. Please only kill virtually, but do it. Video gaming can reduce stress. And sometimes getting your frustrations out on virtual people is so much better than yelling at your co-workers. Of course, if killing isn't your thing you can always try crushing some candy or something. But I just think Stormtroopers die in a more stress-reducing way than candy.
5. Treat Gen Z, those born between 1994 and 2010, better than you treat Millennials. All the fuss about Millennials is about to go away, because believe it or not, next year, a new generation enters the workforce. We don't have a name better than Gen Z yet (though MTV is trying "Founders"). The oldest Gen Z folks are seniors in college. You have just a few months to resolve to tolerate them before they invade.
6. Be a maker. 3D printing, a changing economy toward open source and algorithms, and a number of other factors seem to be pointing to a maker economy. Nothing is more suited to the IT pro than this. It is literally the way Silicon Valley was founded -- in a few garages where geeks toiled away on big dreams.
7. Learn to love robots. Gartner predicted 3 million people will be managed by a robot or AI by 2020. Gartner may or may not be right about the timing, but this is happening. Learn to welcome our new robot overlords.
8. Try to feel like this rabbit. Try it. At least once per week. You deserve it.
9. Stop living life through your phone screen. Obviously, this is cultural thing, and to a certain degree, an age thing. But nothing saddens me more than going to a live concert or event and watching most of the crowd holding up their phone through the whole thing. You are there. You paid a lot of money to be there. The event is always available later on YouTube. Some fool other than you will record it. Be the guy who sees it in real life first and let some other fool make a small screen copy for you to see later.
(Image: PongsakornJun/iStockphoto)
10. Learn an old programming language. Try Cobol. Or another language, even if you are 20. Having knowledge of an older language can sometimes be very lucrative. More importantly, getting in touch with the roots of your profession is never a bad thing. Imagine if you designed cars for a living, but you had never seen a Model T or a '57 Chevy. Would you be better or worse at your job?
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David has been writing on business and technology for over 10 years and was most recently Managing Editor at Enterpriseefficiency.com. Before that he was an Assistant Editor at MIT Sloan Management Review, where he covered a wide range of business topics including IT, ... View Full Bio
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"I agree. A friend of mine who is a senior developer would always visit interviews for developers and see what questions they are asking. He has an extremely satisfactory job and I don't see him leaving it anytime soon but the way he keeps himself updated that incase he leaves the job, he wouldn't have to have a training in a programming language to even be eligible for an interview."
SachinEE, I think most of the enthusiastic peoples used to do like this. Sometimes it can have a bargain power too with your employer at the time of annual appraisal for better package.
"To me, interviewing falls under the classic Judge Judy comment: If you tell the truth, you don't have to have a good memory. Being a great interview but an incompetent fool at your job probably won't work out too well in the long run. And if your communication skills are so poor you can't interview well, that is also going to catch up with you in the long run."
Terry, if you don't have all such (technical & communicative) shills then you won't be able to through the interview process and it's totally wastage of time. But if really interested, these factors can be taken as a feedback for further improvement.
"I think leaving away from the computer screen is excellent it could be applied to looking fo new job. Try to attend your school alumni event or meet with a person of a industry of interested. A person will gain a lot of insight by talking to them in person instead of trying to constantly emailing them or communicating via online chat."
Pedro, face to face communication has better effect than either email or telephonic conversation. When you talk to a person by looking to his/her face, you can have personal touch and express the feelings in full sense with emotions. The same for response from other end too.
@Technocrati - it's so bizarre it almost belongs in a movie a la Office Space. By far the craziest example I know of "I'm too busy to take a bathroom break!" Glad you enjoyed it!
Technocrati, User Rank: Ninja 1/7/2016 | 8:39:25 PM
Re: 3. Go to the bathroom
"...If we thought millennials were entitled and hyper-ambitious (in many cases without warrant), wait til you meet these kids. Kidding, kidding! I am sure they will bring a welcome breath of creativity and energy to the workplace."
@Broadway Since when have you become so PC ?
You and I know that this Gen Z will be just as worthless as all the rest of the generations before them.
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