The first 2
Stay for 2 years. You don’t know what you don’t know. Sometimes the most mundane jobs can turn out to be the one that builds up your core skill set.
For myself this was my experience at a support center for hospital operations looking after their SAP systems. This gave me a much better view of hospital processes, SAP and how legacy systems work. The job sounded boring as hell, but I had a team of amazing colleagues that taught me a lot and gave me the guidance to be a better person.
At the same time, leave after 2 years. The learnings after 2 years tend to plateau as things become repetitive. This is a good time to head out, explore a different role (within or outside the existing employer) and grow new skill sets.
The next 2
The grass is always greener on the other side…or not. But it is always good to at least have 2 interviews a year:
- Are you still relevant for the market?
- Where is the industry moving towards?
- How do you future proof yourself
The last 2
This was a learning I took away from my time in IBM (I’m being mentored). Personally it’s always important to have 2 mentors:
- Career
- Technical
The career mentor should preferably be someone in the same organization but a different department. Someone you like, trust and relate to. This is the person that can guide you in your career and maybe even open doors you did not know existed before (I am grateful for my career mentors who coached me from a hot headed young punk to a less hot headed old punk)
The technical mentor should preferably be someone outside the organization and in the same industry. This is good to see if the organization you work for is keeping up with the latest technologies, design philosophies and best practices. (Technical goes beyond technology of course and looks at domain expertise).The technical mentor keeps you on your toes and makes sure that you keep up with the latest and the best there is in the industry. The person is essentially a mental fitness coach to keep you mentally in shape and ready for bigger challenges ahead.
