Career Capital
Hey!
Welcome back to another week of musings.
I've been trying to get out of a reading slump and cut back on my doomscrolling, which feels weird—grabbing your phone whenever you're bored—and now I'm consciously aware of it.
I hope you had a great weekend and managed to rest!
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Things I enjoyed in the past week
- This post, "Maybe you’re not Actually Trying", was everywhere on my Substack feed last week. It offered a good lesson on being resourceful in many aspects of our lives.
- With all the AI-generated code, one thought I've had is this: Vibe Code is Legacy Code.
I've been listening to So Good They Can't Ignore You*, and I noticed that the part about career capital describes what has happened in my career.
In brief, the idea of career capital is that you gather it by mastering rare, marketable skills—you become so good they can't ignore you. You leverage that to get better opportunities, influence, and autonomy.
Stretch Tasks
One way I've built career capital is by taking on or solving problems that no one had the time or effort to address. This helps you build knowledge, and eventually, people see you as the go-to person for that area.
Not Only Hard Skills
The skills you develop don't have to be only technical. Soft skills matter, too. If your team and another team struggle to agree on a solution, create a document that outlines the context and possible options.
Such opportunities help you develop skills that also build trust with management, paving the way for leadership and ownership roles.
Do the Work
If you want to make changes, such as switching your company’s deployment technology, you'll probably need to put in more hours than just your 9-to-5.
This doesn’t mean working long hours on tickets or similar tasks. It could involve reading documentation, books, listening to podcasts, or searching YouTube for related topics. Not everything fits into a 9-to-5 schedule.
These skills are transferable, and your effort will ultimately benefit your career.
Think of Intersections
Another way to gain career capital is by working at the intersections no one else does—becoming the only person who truly understands two or three key topics and can help craft solutions in that space.
Your Turn!
Have you ever thought about "What can I do to get more autonomy?" or maybe you already have plenty? Or have you considered how to gain more leverage at work? Let me know your thoughts by replying to this email!
Happy coding!
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