career

30 Things in the First 30 days

Random Observation/Comment #548: Relish the fresh start and nail the first impression. Why this list? I haven’t “started over” at a new company for 6 years. Sure, I meet people all the time through networking and can hold my own conversations, but working somewhere is like being adopted into a new family. Other families may have liked you for “being a...

Career Counseling Pt 2: Key Next Steps

Career Counseling Pt 2: Key Next Steps

Random Observation/Comment #347: Careers are rarely cookie cut, and if they are, I don’t think the person is taking enough calculated risks. Given you’ve answered all the questions from part 1 of this career counseling session, you should have a general notion about which industry you’d like to work for and which strengths/transferable skills you have to offer in this...

Career Counseling Pt 1: Asking the Right Questions

Career Counseling Pt 1: Asking the Right Questions

Random Observation/Comment #336: Do you remember when someone asked you “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  I think we’re always growing up and this question never gets old. For some reason, the big talk of people in their 20’s is always around careers and aspirations. We ask people what jobs they have and see how happy...

Finding Your Perfect Career

Finding Your Perfect Career

Random Observation/Comment #278: Greed is such a terrible thing – especially greed for money. It causes so much pain and suffering around the world for no reason.  Money is such a terrible thing, except when you have a lot of it. When I refer to the “perfect career”, I mean the path you take through your life giving back to...

Core Skillset

Core Skillset

Random Observation/Comment #257: “Life does flash before your eyes when you die. It’s called living.” Health and happiness. Let’s be honest – I’ll always be an engineer and a geek.  Nothing can undo what Cooper, A.I., robotics, and Anime has done to me.  But there’s something that I felt was missing from my bottle cap collection and food photography obsession...

Why a Business Analyst?

Why a Business Analyst?

Random Observation/Comment #253: The advancement of society is a ridiculously complicated and an intriguing topic.  Think about the billions of individual minds teaching and learning new things in order to contribute their piece for finding something… or something else… or whatever it is – that is, if there is a goal or meaning to life.  In any case, society evolves...

[Toastmasters] Top Presentation Tips

[Toastmasters] Top Presentation Tips

Random Observation/Comment #251: The number one fear in the US is public speaking. Number two is death. This means that in a funeral, you’d rather be in the casket than performing the eulogy. Ever since that embarrassing speech during high school, I’ve made it my duty to prevent future occasions of embarrassment. I tried my best through public speaking workshops...

Networking No-no’s and Yes-yes’s

Networking No-no’s and Yes-yes’s

Random Observation/Comment #250: When you grow up, why does it feel like there are so many fewer hours in the day?  I can barely do anything, yet I still want to do everything. Productivity-wise, this sucks. Networking is one of the most important (if not the most important) parts of expanding in your career.  The one thing that I found...

Early Career Advice

Early Career Advice

Random Observation/Comment #247:  When a hobby becomes stale, the best way to handle it is to find take small steps to reinvigorate your passion towards it.  Take it one step at a time and it will come back. There are four main things that I learned from the past 9 months of working.  I feel like not sharing it would...

My Mid-year Review: Needs Improvement

My Mid-year Review: Needs Improvement

Random Observation/Comment #243: I spend a lot of time re-evaluating my life and making sure I can: 1) look in the past and nod approvingly at my decisions, 2) predict the future career steps so I can nod approvingly at the image of myself in the future, and 3) follow my routine to make sure it has a happy balance...

Guiding My Career Choices: From Soldier to Worker

Guiding My Career Choices: From Soldier to Worker

Random Observation/Comment #242: The month-long gap of writing was a test to see how much I could get done when I didn’t write.  The answer, surprisingly, is that I didn’t do anything – well, that’s not true, but I didn’t get as much as I wanted done.  I didn’t know this before, but writing in a blog about what I’m...

The Social Butterfly

The Social Butterfly

Random Observation/Comment #240: Every event is a networking event.  I’m not the typical engineer with pocket protectors, protractors, and graphing calculators available in my utility belt (although my phone, can do all of those).  I rather wear a smile and chit-chat about random things to work on a closer relationship (Relater on StrengthFinder!).  Some people say it’s a waste of...

My Last Last Hurrah

My Last Last Hurrah

Random Observation/Comment #220: There’s nothing more exciting than planning a trip.  It keeps me on my toes, and the constant research through travbuddy and flickr makes me anxious to explore even more destinations with my camera.  The drive to take pictures is even greater than ever with my new Canon Powershot S90.  I think it is the best purchase I...

In Search for a Career

In Search for a Career

Random Observation/Comment #219: The waiting period after the interview for a response is the most nerve racking experience.  All I can do is think about how I answered each question and try my best to see how the interviewers could have interpreted my answers.  In many cases, I find my own faults and smack my head, but there is absolutely...

Life is All About Side Projects

Life is All About Side Projects

Random Observation/Comment #213:  The more time I spend in New York, surrounded by the wonderful, fast-paced life style, the more I also begin to miss being in Europe. There were so many quirks there that made me happy, but I should realize that I was on vacation; and a vacation lifestyle is definitely not the productive one.  I grew in...

Engineering Pre-Crisis Rant

Engineering Pre-Crisis Rant

Random Observation/Comment #195: I feel like I’m always trying to stay ahead of my age. When I saw that Tony Stark video from Ironman, it made me wonder why I didn’t do all the awesome shyt that he did.  Realistically speaking, I’m not smart enough to graduate from MIT at the age of 18, and neither is 99.9999999% (I might...