I believe that investing in our knowledge is among the best things we can do, but I’m unhappy with our current methods.

Courses and training are highly accessible for us. They are cheap, and we can take them from home at “our own pace.” However, after completing a course, we rarely apply and quickly forget what we have learned.

In the end, courses represent lots of wasted hours (and money) that brought us no benefits other than a temporary ego boost.

What are the courses’ problems?

My first experience with IT courses happened 20 years ago.

I wanted a career as an SAP consultant, but I had no knowledge or experience. Unexpectedly, the perfect opportunity presented itself: A big company offered to hire me for their trainee program, giving me 6 weeks of full-time training on SAP ABAP. I was going to be paid to learn what I desired so much.

Of course, I accepted.

The day after finishing the course, I joined the software factory. After such intensive training, nothing could go wrong. Except it went.

My leader asked me:

Do you know anything about forms?

No

Have you learned the purchasing-related tables?

No

Did they cover interfaces?

No

Ok… You wasted 6 weeks learning useless stuff. Before touching anything, let’s spend 2 weeks dealing with real-life scenarios.

And that’s how it was. Even after completing an overpriced training, I had to begin from scratch.

Similar situations repeated during my career. The issues I identified are:

• Broad content: Most courses are generic enough to meet different needs. That means a big part of the content doesn’t apply to you. Another problem with the broad content is that you can’t go deep. If you don’t go deep, instead of acquiring valuable skills, you just get an idea of it.
• Too much input and too little output: Even when the courses are hands-on, the balance between input and output is insufficient. The consequence is that we attend the course nodding with our heads (because we understand), but we can’t do it alone.
• Short period: We need time to digest what we learn. If we squeeze 30 hours of theory into 2 weeks, we don’t have enough time to figure things out, incorporate the concepts, question them, and find answers. We can capitalize the 30 hours better during 5 weeks instead of 2.
• It’s not the hard way: We usually join a course as the first contact with a specific topic. So, we go to learn about it. The problem is that the professor gives us answers to questions we have never asked. So, we can’t fully understand the potential of what we learn and can’t relate it to any experience yet. Therefore, forgetting that lesson is easier, and it won’t be accessible in our toolbox when needed.

However, courses aren’t always a waste of time, and we can control it.

How do we make them work?

We can get the most out of a course by overcoming the difficulties described in the previous section.

Pay attention to:

• Content: Generic courses are OK if we want an overview of an unknown topic to decide whether to invest more time in it or identify sub-areas that appeal more to us. But they won’t be game changers in our careers. So, it’s better to choose a course about a specific topic we are already interested in and willing to spend time learning.
• Course type: There is no doubt about it. Hands-on training is the best. We learn by doing. A course will only change us by pushing us to face and solve problems. Additionally, we must practice on our own. I had a tennis professor who suggested I spend 3 hours playing matches for each hour I spent in lessons.
• Timing: This is a personal opinion, but the best moment to enroll in a course is when you have already worked and know about the topic. You will use the course to connect the dots, get some foundational knowledge (lots of aha moments), and go a step further to cross that plateau. You will find lots of answers to questions and difficulties you already experienced.

Conclusion

Courses are an excellent alternative for learning but always pay attention to their content, type, and the moment of your journey before spending time and money on them.

Resigning from our jobs is always difficult, even in a toxic environment.

The reason is that we are used to it. We coped with it for a while and think we can keep doing it. But we have a limit, and it’s better to identify it before it’s too late.

This difficulty multiplies when we are highly dependent on our jobs.

Current situation

A high dependence on our jobs usually means 2 things:

• It’s our single source of income
• We don’t have enough savings to cover our 3-month expenses (i.e., we can’t live 3 months without a job)

That leaves us in a situation where we can’t take significant risks. Keeping our job seems the safest option, but we must re-think that assumption when our health is at risk.

To determine our best alternative, we should first perform a self-assessment and then make a decision.

Self-Assessment

1- List every toxic aspect of your work environment

You have only 2 options to deal with unagreeable situations at work: You either change/avoid it or ignore/accept it. It would be ideal to change everything we dislike, but we can’t. And even when possible, the effort we need to put to change it is not worth it. That’s why the next step is so crucial.

2- Think about each issue

This analysis will be uncomfortable because you must explore your pains and identify the actions you could take. You are accepting responsibility for what bothers you.

• How severe is it?
• Can it be changed/avoided?
• How much effort and time would it take?
• Are you willing to make that effort?

We often don’t know how to improve some aspects (or if we can do that). However, I usually follow these principles:

We can change some external factors in small environments. These include relationships with specific colleagues, processes within a small team, and the roles we occupy. This doesn’t mean we can always do something about them, but we can at least try and quickly learn how it works.

But our influence is limited when the problems are spread and affect many areas. An excellent example of that is the companies where people work with fear. We can’t solve anything because we always need someone else’s action, but our colleagues don’t want to assume responsibility.

3- Compare your situation with your industry

You may have identified a few pains that you can’t do anything about or require an excessive effort you are unwilling to do.

The next introspection level is to ensure that those pains are related to your work environment and not to yourself. In other words, “Are they going to disappear if you change your job?”

Maybe the same happens at other companies in your industry, and it represents a problem for you because of the moment you are going through or another internal factor.

Reflecting on it is essential to avoid directing your attention and hope in the wrong direction.

Similar to this, consider the positive characteristics of your current job and how common they are in your industry. Will you find them at another company, or will you resign from them to eliminate the negative ones?

Making the decision

You may have a clear picture at this point.

You identified the issues you can and are willing to work on, the ones you won’t change, and the benefits you won’t find if you go to another company.

1. If you find that you can work out most of the difficulties, it would be better to stay at your company and take action on them.
2. When you have 2 or 3 pain points for which you can’t see a way out, you need to leave. But, unfortunately, you can’t do it right away without money. So it’s better to use them as your motivation for saving money and leaving your job soon. The best alternatives include a side hustle or cutting expenses.
3. However, if you find problems that you can’t solve and that drain your energy to the point that you can’t stay at that job (because of either the high number or severity), then it’s better to leave it immediately and find a way to live with someone until you are established in a new job.

It’s worth highlighting that the lack of savings limits our freedom to choose. It may be late now, but that’s the most important lesson we can learn from this experience.

Conclusions

We usually don’t dedicate enough time to reflect on our situations and feelings.

But we need to do it before reaching our limit.

This self-awareness exercise is hard because we will face some uncomfortable thoughts. But it helps us create a clear image of our problems and an action plan to solve them.

However, we can’t change everything. We must pick our battles and make the right decision in each situation.

Savings and alternative plans give us more freedom to design our paths.

The "Long Path" is usually the shortest one.

It was 5:30 AM. I woke up, took a bath, had breakfast, and ran to find a place in the crowded classroom. Nothing bad for an 18-year-old. That was my second month at university, and I was already tired.

My tiredness didn't come from what I went through but from what had to come.

That was only the beginning of a 6-year career (at least). I had planned (and had the opportunity) to focus entirely on my studies. My plan was to seek a job only after completing some years, to avoid relegating the university when my work demanded more time.

Some of my friends were already making decent money. Something that, according to my maths, I would experience only 6 to 8 years from then. That seemed like an eternity to me.

A few years later, that feeling repeated after I began working at a big company. Smaller consultancies offered higher salaries, and most of my colleagues joined them.

But I kept going (in both situations) because I was convinced that time dedicated to proper education and continuous experience at my job would pay better.

I think I made the right decisions.

Education

Education for working in IT is like salt for baking bread: It's not mandatory, and you can't perceive it, but the result tastes better with it.

I dispense stacking certifications and specialization courses for IT workers. However, I particularly respect the skills you gain at university. There, you get foundational technical knowledge and cultivate your self-discipline.

Leverage those 2 skills, and you will build a thriving IT career.

Technology changes continuously:

• We must be up-to-date and learn new tools, frameworks, and paradigms.
• We need to adapt to new environments by applying our experience and being open to receiving new concepts.
• We need to change the way we work and interact with each other.

Some years at university won't give us all the technical answers or hard skills. But they will provide us with a good foundation and the character to find them independently.

Again, Education is optional, but it will make it easier for you to become a specialist.

Experience

Experience, on the other hand, is the flour of your bread.

Introduce yourself as an IT specialist before completing 5 years in your area, and you will come across as arrogant at best. That's not only about time; you must go through different situations (experiences) to reach that level. And it does take time.

Skillful people can solve problems at an excellent level. Experienced people can see the problems coming and their possible solutions almost unconsciously.

The only way to:

• Apply the best practices
• Come up with and weigh different alternatives, identifying pros and cons
• Use shortcuts in problem resolution because you were already in this situation

is by carrying a good amount of experience with you.

The good news? It's simple to build your experience:

• Dedicate time and focus on your work.
• Be open to learning.
• Assume responsibilities.

Conclusion

An outstanding set of skills can't make all the work for you. Complement them with education and experience, and you will become a specialist sooner than you think.

Being (unintentionally) unemployed is one of the most frustrating feelings we can experience.

We have one primary objective, but we can’t achieve it. We have a lot of time, but we don’t enjoy it. Our self-esteem hurts, and we keep repeating the same mistakes and blaming our misfortunes for our failures.

At least, that happened to me 10 years ago. If you are experiencing something similar, this article may help you.

My sabbatical year

My first freelance project is successfully ending.

The previous year, I left behind 10 years of working as an employee at big consultancy firms to start my freelancing career. I had said “NO” to the big companies’ low salaries and bureaucracy but also to the comfort of always having a project waiting for me.

I should find my way now. And it’s more challenging than I thought.

It took me 9 months to get a good project. During that time, I could only participate in specific contributions for a few days or weeks. I used to blame the cold market and my bad luck, but I learned I was responsible.

Let me share my insights from that experience.

The 4 stages of getting a job

I ideated different theories while dealing with the frustration of not getting a job. Once I stopped blaming external factors, I broke down the job-searching process into these 4 stages:

1. Applying for the job
2. Being contacted for an interview after the application
3. Going through the interview process
4. Getting and accepting the proposal

These stages demand different skills and deliverables to succeed. As I knew I was doing something wrong, I wanted to identify what and how to improve it. So, I started paying attention to my performance on each one.

Where do you fall short?

The general result was clear: I was not getting a job.

But that didn’t give me any real input on how to improve my job-seeking skills. Analyzing each stage helped me make minor tweaks in the areas I needed the most.

Ask yourself the following questions to understand how you are doing at each stage:

1. If you fail in “Applying for the job,” which means that you don’t find enough jobs to apply for or don’t send enough applications:
   - Are you searching in the right places? Can you be more proactive?
   - Do you have the required skills? Are there particular ones you don’t have and see it is repeatedly requested?
2. You have a low reply ratio when you send your CV. This means that you find and apply for several opportunities, but they don’t call you:
   - Could you adjust your CV to fit each opportunity better?
   - Is your experience adequate for the position you are looking for?
3. You get to the interviews, but they never call you back:
   - What’s your feeling about the meetings? Are you comfortable with how the conversations go?
   - Do you request feedback and follow up with them?
4. The proposal they sent doesn’t match your expectations:
   - Are you asking for compensation according to your expertise?
   - Do you try to negotiate a package?

When I did this assessment, I found ways to improve in the 4 stages.

Changing my mindset was enough to find improvements for all of them. I was extremely passive and realized I needed to be more aggressive to show the companies I could be valuable.

Some examples:

1. I stopped limiting myself only to the positions where I covered 100% of the requirements.
2. I researched the company more and adapted my resume for each application.
3. I identified they usually asked me the same questions. So, I came up with good answers for those, prepared some questions to ask them back, and tried to shift the meeting from an interview into a conversation.
4. I prepared alternatives to negotiate other than the hourly rate. Although I never used them, I had created mixed packages in case they didn’t have enough budget to cover what I wanted.

Your case may be different, and no one is perfect. But we can always improve.

Small changes can make a huge difference. The proof is that I’m not a better consultant now than then, but from that moment on, I’ve never been unemployed for 1 single day in the last 10 years.

Conclusion

The whole process of getting a job is long, and it’s hard to understand what you should improve.

If you are not as successful as you would like, try to divide it into smaller pieces.

This will help you make the correct adjustments and increase your chances of success.

Good look.

Education for working in IT is like salt for baking bread: It's not mandatory, and you may not perceive it, but the bread tastes better with it.

No one will request a diploma for hiring you as a developer. Even worse, no one will give you a raise after completing a course. However, a degree puts you in a better position to go through your IT career.

Education benefits

First of all, let's classify education into 2 different groups:

• Long courses, such as University.
• Certifications, which may or may not include a short course and a final exam.

I dispense stacking certifications and specialization courses for IT workers. Moreover, I'm not impressed by someone who claims to possess N certifications.

The reason is that passing a test or completing a course has nothing to do with actual knowledge and how to apply it.

Certifications are nothing more than a marketing tool today. I've met many entry-level developers who got certified by only studying questions and answers from other people's tests.

However, I particularly respect the skills you gain at University.

This is not about the diploma but the path to get you there. You get foundational technical knowledge and cultivate your discipline during your university years.

Leverage those 2 skills, and you will build a thriving IT career.

Formal education is optional, but it will make it easier for you to become a specialist.

On the other hand, experience is mandatory for becoming a specialist.

Experience

To continue with the baked bread analogy, experience is the flour of your bread.

Introduce yourself as an IT specialist before completing 5 years in your area, and you will come across as arrogant at best. This is not only about time; you must go through different situations (experiences) to reach that level. And it does take time.

The good news? Experience is simply built:

• Dedicate time and focus on your work.
• Be open to learning.
• Assume responsibilities.

Conclusion

Although not required, a university degree will help you to build your IT career.

Keep in mind that an outstanding set of skills, certifications, or courses will not do all the work for you. Complement them with experience, and you will become a specialist sooner than you think.

My boss and I were in the elevator at the Client’s offices. The manager and director were waiting for us. Due to the short notice and our clients’ lack of time, we held the meeting right there in the hall.

My boss opened it:

Leandro has something to tell you

That was my last day in the company. I had communicated it a few weeks back to my boss, but he didn’t share it with our clients (and didn’t allow me to do so). He was waiting for the “right time.”

The problem is that he chose the right time for him, but asked me to deliver the news.

Nevertheless, I did it. There were plenty of things I would have loved to mention. I kept reasons and explanations for myself. Partly, because they were subjective, and partly because we are not supposed to share that information with our clients.

After the meeting ended, I had the chance to speak in private with the director, who looked at me as if he knew most of what I had refrained from telling them. After we talked for a while, he told me:

You were professional from the first until the last day you worked with us.

And that’s something beautiful to hear.

The temptation

If our boss is the main reason for leaving the company, I can tell you that we feel overwhelmed, frustrated, underestimated, and victims of injustice. So, being tempted to spill everything out on our resignation is common.

We are full of negative feelings. The resignation is when we release that valve and let the pressure flow out. But let me give you a piece of advice:

Put your ego aside 1 more day.

Working for a boss we don’t respect is one of the most challenging situations. The frustration and disappointment stay with us daily, but we cope with it through resilience.

We need to extend that effort one extra day and resign professionally.

Nothing to win. Too much to preserve.

We can’t change the past. Once we’ve decided to resign, we should focus only on our future.

Of course, we must express our pain and the reasons for leaving during the exit interview. We should do it with professionalism and respect. This will help our former team members, boss, and company.

A lousy reaction or offensive behavior won’t make us any good, now, but precisely the opposite.

Our reputation, self-esteem, and every good action we did in the past will be at risk if we succumb to that temptation.

We can only keep them safe by controlling our emotions.

Avoiding reaching that point

Any disagreement with your boss should be (respectfully) expressed during your time on the team. This brings many benefits:

• You may change their behavior and improve your experience.
• You may understand their point of view, change your mind, and learn something.
• You will feel better after releasing part of your frustrations.

They are difficult conversations in the short term, but they are mandatory if you want to work happily.

If the situation is so bad or you don’t want to invest time in reverting it, no problem. Walk away.

Only keep this in mind:

Keep your reputation safe. Be professional until your last day.

If you think that two people with the same level of expertise performing the same activity always work under the same conditions… You are wrong.

I'd been working for a few years at the biggest consulting firm in my area. Small agencies were popping up everywhere, taking my colleagues away. I trained new people every 4 months to see them leave short afterward.

One of my collaborators explained what she was leaving for:

“I’ll do the same job you do but earn twice as much.”

While working at a big, established company means security and a good CV, small consultancies offer other benefits to attract talent.

These are the advantages they have:

1. Salary

"We work with better margins," a startup owner once told me. And that makes sense. Although they charge less than multinationals for the same services, they also have smaller machinery to maintain, giving them considerable margins for investing more in their people.

These companies don't need to invest much in buildings or back-office. So, it's easier to pay higher salaries.

2. Contribution

Our actions in big companies get lost in the bureaucracy. We know what our job is and how it benefits our teams. But it's tough to translate our actions into some way of contribution that feeds our souls. As a colleague used to say: "We are just numbers in here."

On the other hand, we feel we are important pieces at small companies. We relate to the people we help and clearly see our actions' impact, making our contribution more significant.

3. Growth Perspective

If the startup takes off, the early contributors will likely occupy a higher position.

This is not only related to the principle of reciprocity ("You helped me when I was small, I'll help you when I grow"), but also because in a small company the hierarchy is flatter.

They usually have simple structures where we can freely move, either laterally or by changing our roles in different projects.

As a plus, it's common to perform diverse kinds of activities, which gives us a better understanding of how the Business works.

4. Broad Learning

When selling a project, you find out how skilled you are (or how skilled you should pretend to be). Your boss tells you: "Whatever they ask you about your knowledge, you know it. We'll figure it out later."

Although that situation is uncomfortable, it makes us learn. And learn fast.

During my first year in a software factory that hired time & material programmers, the following situation happened:

A guru sent from a consultancy was hesitant. He didn't ask any questions but also didn't look confident. On his first day, he went out for lunch and never returned.

It didn't happen once, but twice. We got worried the first time. But we laughed the second one. Then we started to bet whether the new "experts" the consultancy would send would stay with us.

I don't support that strategy, but you will acquire extensive learning experience if you survive.

5. Networking

When you work at a big company, you will work on a single project for many years. This will allow you to make some strong connections and eventually be hired by the client.

However, small companies work differently. You attend to requirements and small projects for several clients. You get to know many people, and many people get to know you.

Those extra connections translate into multiple opportunities for your future.

6. Flexibility

Processes in small companies are more relaxed. So we can adapt our work to our needs better.

As one of the essential traits we should possess to succeed at a startup is a high level of independence and self-management, it is easier to balance our personal and professional lives. They trust us more.

This probably means that we will work more hours, but under our own administration.

Takeaway

There are plenty of benefits to working on a startup.

Some of them are immediate, and others are investments for the future.

Now, it's your turn to make the decision. Do you want to be part of a startup?

There is no doubt that losing our job is frustrating.

Our ego hurts even when we weren't enjoying it. Leaving is one thing, but being dismissed is different. However, we can't change the past once this happened.

So, better to collect our learnings and focus on the future. Consider this mind shift to discover new opportunities.

Changing our careers while working is hard

We spend some (or plenty of) time complaining about our jobs.

I'm not talking about the cliche of the programmer who dropped everything and opened a bar at the beach (however, it's also a possibility). But I'm talking about less drastic changes to make our lives more exciting—different industries, roles, or responsibilities.

While we feel "safe" in our jobs, we daydream and fantasize about new roles. But to explore them, we need to release what we earned:

• Salary
• Respect
• Confidence in our skills
• Something we know we can live with (although we don't enjoy it that much)

In hour heads, we have too much to lose. So we keep going and cope with whatever situation we face.

Until someone else decided for us, and we were fired. What a blessing for us.

Less to lose

There is no better moment than this to change our career direction.

This is when we should go after that job we've always been curious about or that one that will give us that particular skill we would love to have.

Being unemployed clears our canvas again. Let's make our first brushstrokes and start designing the future we want.

Some practical ideas:

• Apply for entry-level positions in that area.
• Enroll in free courses.
• Join communities related to that topic.

I know what you are thinking: "But hold on… I've just lost my only income. How am I supposed to start something new that will take time to flourish?"

And you are absolutely right. There are some requisites you have to fulfill before embarking on this adventure.

Homework (in advance)

You can't make long-term decisions if you have short-term needs. It's not going to work.

Before succeeding, we must repeatedly fail. So, we need some margin for failure. You can call it what you wish, but I like to save at least 6 months of my expenses.

This doesn't only apply to career changes. It's required for any slap we may receive.

If you don't have enough savings, you should start building your emergency fund (or freedom fund) so you can think long-term. Once you've lost your income, it will be too late to create it.

Conclusion

Changing careers while working is hard.

But losing our stressful jobs puts us in better conditions for that change.

After caring for our ego, we can decide what we want for our future.

But before that, we need to create an emergency fund that allows us to think long-term.

Thank you for reading. See you next time.

Your employer is not doing charity to you.

If you work for a company, that means you provide more value than the cost you represent. Companies seek profit, so they won't hold a position that doesn't produce the expected return. You should keep that balance in your favor but as close to the tipping point as possible.

Therefore, diminishing yourself is not going to help you.

Underestimation consequences

That feeling of occupying a place we don't deserve generates several problems:

• We disrespect ourselves and allow others to do the same, violating our boundaries.
• We overwork to compensate for our perceived lack of skills.
• We don't ask for improvements in our conditions (salary or working methods) because we don't think we deserve them.
• We work afraid of being laid off.

And the list goes on…

For sure, you have already seen this happening to someone else. But it is much harder to notice it when we are in the center of the situation.

Why we feel that way

Some rational thoughts put us at a disadvantage to our employers:

• Our job is more significant to us than our contribution to them
• They can replace us more easily, as unemployment is so high
• We don't see any direct gain for the company from our work

The above affirmations are true. And I believe they are the root cause of our low self-esteem at work.

However, I disagree with how we interpret them. By changing our focus, we can also change our perception of the value we bring to the company.

Mindset Shifts

Let's consider the same statements but from a different perspective. The question is…

Who is "The Company"?

When sticking to the formal definition, our contribution gets lost among the company's hundreds of employees. However, if we consider only our micro-environment (our team or department), our incidence goes up.

Is it so easy to replace us? How many colleagues have you seen that couldn't handle the position formerly performed by someone else? If you lead a team, you know how hard it is to substitute a good member.

Coming to the numbers, it's clear that your leaving won't make any difference to the balance sheet. But what about your team's quality of service? Its internal clients will feel that difference in the team's deliveries.

As you see, that slight shift makes a huge difference. At least about how you think your employer sees you.

But what about your interests? There are also some habits you need to change.

Habits Changes

Developing a new way of thinking is not enough. We also need to support that mindset with tangible assets.

Savings

The absence of an emergency fund increases your dependence on the job.

This is why the job represents more for you than the company. It's your only source of income, and you can't live without it for long.

If you had savings equal to 6 months of your salary, you would work more relaxed.

Skills

While creating your emergency fund, you should also become a better worker.

Gain skills and responsibilities to make it easier to get a better job.

The more confident you are about your skills and independence, the better position for negotiating you will have.

Takeaway

Your job is not a gift from your employer.

That belief plays against your self-esteem and promotes your stress.

Although it's true that "The Company" survives better without you than you without it, you can change it by changing your mindset and assets.

As a consequence, you will gain both internal and external recognition.

Thank you for reading. See you next time.

Many people join a company with the clear objective of escalating positions but don’t know how to achieve it.

When starting in an entry-level position, the focus is on growing as fast as possible. However, just doing our job is not enough. We should give the company a good reason to promote us and increase our salary.

We need to provide more value.

Becoming more valuable

The only way of getting a raise is by creating value for the company.

The confusion comes when you want to show compromise and effort, and end up working overtime. That’s not a good deal. You can’t handle it for long. And it affects your health and relationships.

You should focus on giving more by working the same amount of time. So, instead of increasing the working hours, you will need to:

• Improve the quality of your work
• Perform more expensive activities.

These are the basic steps I took to increase my contribution and get promoted from Trainee to Senior Analyst. The path in your organization may be different, but these principles are universal.

Gain independence

There’s a first stage in which you can’t produce anything independently.

Or even worse, if they let you alone, there are more chances to cause damage than any good for the company. That’s normal. Indeed, the problem comes the other way around - when companies hire fresh people and want them to solve their issues from day 1.

That’s a recipe for failure.

I hope that’s not your case and that you receive the required support at the beginning of your journey. So, what happens next?

You need to start flying alone. That’s why you were hired, and that’s the first step you should take:

When you receive an assignment, you can solve it. When small obstacles appear, you can dribble them and finish your work. You also know when to ask for help to avoid delaying your deliveries.

Once you achieve that, you have some autonomy and deserve your first promotion. Congratulations!! Let’s move to the next phase.

Provide possible solutions

You work well on your own. You meet the deadlines and don’t flood your colleagues with questions on how to proceed. But there are certain situations you can’t manage.

You find difficulties on your task or discover potential problems you can’t address but require escalation.

There is a detail that will postulate you for the next promotion: you don’t simply forward or endorse your problems. You first analyze them and propose solutions.

Consider these 2 situations:

Situation 1

Hey, Boss… I’m running the report I created, but the SELECT is not bringing any data from the sales tables. Would you mind to have a look at it so we can fix it?

Situation 2

Hey, Boss… My SELECT from the sales tables is not working. I see that the data types are different, and that’s causing the issue. Do you see any problem if I change the data type in the client table? May it have any impact in other reports?

I hope you agree that situation 2 is better for everyone: You learn and save your boss’s time. These are 2 ways of giving value to the company.

Now that you got your second promotion, there is a third step you can take.

Recommend and justify

Your progress will be gradual: Your independence keeps increasing, and your possible solutions become better and better.

Nothing can stop you.

Well… Almost… There are still many decisions you can’t make, knowledge you lack, and problems you can’t solve alone.

You go to your boss with less frequency and more complexity. In fact, they start to get nervous whenever they see you coming. If you are discussing something with them, it’s because it’s not easy.

However, there is something else. You are not only coming with your problem and a set of possible solutions. You are coming with your problems, recommended solutions, and why you think that solution is the best.

It will take some effort for your colleague to justify why there is a better alternative.

At this point, this is a 2-way discussion instead of someone asking (you) and someone answering (your colleague).

When this situation propagates, you come to the point at which you already know the best alternative, and your boss trusts you. So, you often only require their signoff: “I approve.”

Conclusion

There are many ways to increase the value you bring to your company. The path we saw here is a fundamental one.

• When you release your colleagues and free their time, that’s value.
• When you are so autonomous that you can learn independently, that’s value.
• When you find a way to enhance a process, that’s value.

Being more independent means assuming more responsibilities and letting your colleagues do the same.

Those are the kinds of results that companies want from their employees and justify the promotions.

Think about that.

I won't lie. It took me a few years to know about the Internal Clients. And many more to learn to deal with them.

When you work in a consulting firm, you have real clients. They pay for your services. But every person in your company who uses your outputs (products, services, information) is your internal client.

And it turns out that they are more than you think.

Multiple internal clients

No matter the size of your company, many people will depend on your services.

Each one will raise their requests on their way. But don't worry. They all have something in common. They are all certain their request is:

• Easy to do.
• The most relevant activity you have in your bucket.

Frederic, from the accounting department, wants you to fix the color in his report's header. It was supposed to be purple-blue, but not just blue.

While you are playing to be Michelangelo, Dinisia, the Procurement Manager, sent 5 instant messages in 4 minutes asking why her new sourcing module is not in production yet.

She already booked her vacation in the Caribbean and won't be able to relax until you implement it.

In this scenario, you get easily overwhelmed by the constant demands coming from everywhere.

Concurrency, stress, and frustration

I'm convinced that our stress has little to do with the number of hours we work. It's a direct result of the frustration we experience when we are incapable of performing our activities as we would like to do.

Some examples derived from the concurrent requests and high exigency:

• Not knowing what to attend first.
• Not being able to deliver in the time your clients want. You always feel you are in debt.
• Being incapable of attending to demands due to a lack of resources or because you depend on someone else.

Independent of the reason, the point is that you feel you move backward.

The only way to solve this puzzle is with proper prioritization.

Prioritize to serialize

The truth is that we have no idea about which demand is more critical for the company. And that's fine. The good news? We can rely on our Golden Client: our boss.

You have a single client from now on. And your job is to make that client happy.

I don't mean to be your boss's bootlicker or anything like that. But prioritize the tasks that will benefit them the most.

Every other activity should go to the queue. And you should not work on them until you have finished the main priority. We usually hop from task to task whenever a client's message pops up. That single action reduces our productivity, increments our stress levels, and creates false expectations in our client's minds:

• They think we are working on their request, so they can't understand why we haven't finished it
• We send them the message that they can make their requests to escalate the priority mountain by asking for it insistently.

You are not alone in this crusade. Dialog with your boss. Ask for their opinion and express your concerns. They will give you guidelines, and you'll reach a point when you can figure it out yourself.

In the worst-case scenario, they will be aware of your workload and will help you. In the best one, you will gain a tutor.

Your boss is the person with whom you need to work together to design your career. The better you express your desires, the longer you will go.

Takeaway

Multiple internal clients mean multiple requests on your desk.

They all think their demand is your highest priority.

You just need to satisfy one client: your boss.

If you don't know what is the most relevant activity, ask your boss.

Your well-being and future promotions depend on that.

Thank you for reading. Have a wonderful week.

4 years since the Covid pandemic began. 4 years since the Work From Home revolution took place overnight.

"Remote work came to stay," they claimed.

However, many companies are calling their employees back to the office.

Why is that? I don't know for sure, but companies are result-driven entities, so I assume their results are lower than expected.

On the other hand, we have the employees' words:

• "I'm 10x more productive WFH."
• "I can focus way better here."
• "There is no water cooler chat."

Being a WFH Lover, I never liked these affirmations. I like the comfort associated with it, but I never felt a boost in my performance. It was exactly the opposite.

If you don't feel your productivity skyrockets when you work from home, you are not alone.

Let's navigate some of the difficulties of remote working and why it is much more complex than working at the office.

Being objective

Our biases condition our perceptions. In other words, our productivity-o-meter may be inaccurate.

Nothing better than establishing some objective metrics to know how well we are doing.

This concept applies to both sides (those who think they're hyper-productive and those who think they are the worst employees).

A few examples I use:

• Time connected (Disconnection Time - Connection Time)
• Net time connected (Seated at my desk)
• Net time working (excluding breaks, chats, surfing the internet, etc.)
• Activities done.
• Hours spent in activities vs hours estimated for activities
• Time spent on unplanned topics (usually priorities that other people threw at me)
• Time spent in chat and meetings (aka, people pretending to work)

Tracking my time and activities is the most powerful tool I found to gain awareness of my productivity. It is beneficial not only for work but also for life.

After one month, we may know how productive we are, and our difficulties will become more apparent.

Inherent challenges of WFH

Despite the comfort of avoiding the commute, working from home has some extra difficulties compared to working at the office.

If you track your time, you will learn which ones affect you the most:

Distractions

Every possible distraction is there at home—your couch, bed, food, TV, gadgets, etc. You can't ignore them. Your entertainment accessories take your focus off your work like your junk food takes your focus away from your diet.

Chores

Doctor's appointments, laundry, household chores, technicians' visits to fix your appliances, supermarket trips, picking up your children, etc.- things we used to do outside working hours are now part of our day. It's not every day, but they gradually fill our weeks.

People

Inside and outside. This includes our family and co-workers. We may need to interact with someone at home, unexpected visits, children, spouses, or relatives we care for. We also have our colleagues, who demand our time, set calls and meetings, tell us about their frustrations (virtual water cooler chat), etc. These activities also take time away from our productivity bag.

Energy

When you are at the office, everyone is (or should be) doing the same: working. That energy is contagious.
At home, you are alone (at best) and need to push yourself to work. If you feel low, that's enough to start thinking about something else or seek instant gratification.

Flexibility

The idea of having the whole day (a lot of time) to complete an activity makes us procrastinate. We don't need to leave the office; we live there. So we stay connected for many hours, which are not entirely dedicated to our work or personal life.

All the above items contribute to making your days shorter. You dedicate your entire day to work but don't accomplish that much. Every interruption costs you plenty of time switching between tasks.

This impacts your performance and synergy with the rest of the team.

Improving performance and self-esteem

That feeling of guilt negatively impacts our self-esteem. We think that we are not doing enough. We have what we always wanted but can't take advantage of it.

So, how do we keep on the right path?

The first tool is awareness. Knowing how we are doing and which pieces we need to adjust gives us some power.

The second one is attacking our productivity killers. We are different persons, so the ones that impact you the most won't be the same as those that affect my performance.

These are some actions I have taken:

• Defining my space: Desk, monitor, chair, keyboard, mouse, headphones, water, and that's it. I made it as similar to an office as I could.
• Turning off my computer: I used to leave my computer on so I could come back and finish something. Not anymore. I turn my computer on and off every day. If I can't complete some task, I live with that pain, knowing I should do it better tomorrow.
• Unflexible flexibility: I define my schedule: My start, lunch, and end times. This helps me to know how I am doing and how much time I still have. I used to go out and walk around the block before starting and after finishing my shift in an attempt to reset my mind.
• Disconnection: I disconnect my phone from the work applications, disconnect my IM when I need to focus, reject meetings that aren't good for me, and learn to ignore some messages that pop up until I finish what I'm doing.
• Priorities: I list my priorities first thing in the morning. I refrain from doing other activities until I finish what I started.
• Dopamine control: I avoid leisure activities like watching TV, planning my holidays, or looking for my next gadget on Amazon during my shift. I will have enough energy to do them later.
• Workday in one piece: I used to suspend my work to go to the gym and resume it later. However, the second period never ended. I couldn't disconnect, so I stopped doing this.

Include whatever you want on the list. This is a try-and-error. Make it easy enough to reduce the dependence on your willpower.

Takeaway

Working from home is challenging.

Many distractions and interruptions make us multitask.

Awareness is essential.

We can change our behavior to make our day better.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time.

There are only 2 situations in which we seriously evaluate to change our job:

• When some colleague leaves the Company.
• When we are contacted by some head hunter offering a position.

For the rest of the time, we keep going. We stay in our jobs by inertia, without analyzing whether that’s the best option.

The problem I see here is that we depend on external situations to reflect on our careers and lives. I don’t support constantly job-seeking and looking for the best conditions because they don’t exist. That would make us miserable.

But what if we regularly checked our situation to decide when it’s a good time to look for a new opportunity?

Some indicators can help us to recognize the need for change.

Hard Red Flags

When assessing the situation, there are some objective signs we can pay attention to:

The position you want doesn’t exist in the Company

After we gain some experience, we usually create a role for ourselves in our minds. The problem comes when that role doesn’t exist in our current Company. Then, we may find it somewhere else.

You don’t have a good time with your colleagues

We spend many hours a day at our jobs. We will rapidly lose engagement and interest in them if we don’t have a good social connection.

Your salary is too low

Companies are more likely to give higher salaries to new hires than to their employees. This doesn’t make sense, but it happens for different reasons. So, if you want a significant salary increase (say over 30%), you’d better try to get it in a new Company.

Soft Red Flags

Some subjective indicators are equally (or more) important. We can’t conclude that they are a consequence of our current jobs, but it’s worth keeping an eye on them.

It becomes difficult to get out of bed

This is directly related to motivation. Of course, there may be many reasons why you can’t get up. But if this frequently happens, mainly during the week, you may be fighting against going to work.

You easily lose your patience

Sometimes, you recognize that you are not the same. Some time ago, you were more willing to help others and give better solutions. But now, you get annoyed about your interactions (questions, answers, or requests you receive).

Lots of complaints

You find yourself complaining too often about your job. This could be about the Company policies, your boss’s decisions, or the projects you are involved in. In any case, changing your job will give you a new perspective and more energy.

How to Identify them?

It would be great if we could spot these situations as they happen, but we can’t rely on that. We often don’t see them right away.

That’s why we must frequently ask questions and reflect on how our job is going.

Check your self-esteem, mood, and motivation regularly. You will identify patterns that will help you better assess your situation.

Conclusion

We can’t wait for external events to realize it’s the moment to change our job.

There are many signals that we should listen to.

It’s hard to spot them as they happen. We need to check our situation proactively.

The next step is to identify what’s relevant and ask yourself regular questions to know how you are doing.

Thanks for reading. Have a wonderful week.

Among all the confusing and contradictory information about fitness and nutrition, only one concept has remained invariant all these years. I call it "The Bank Analogy" because that's how my doctor explained it to me when I was 13 years old.

It was my first visit after the pediatrician era—too many things going on in my body and many more inside my head. But there was something clear to me. I was feeling fat. My father warned me that he started gaining weight at my age and could never revert it.

So that was my only question to the doctor: What can I do to be in shape?

His answer was simple:

Our body is like a Bank. Money flows in and out. If more goes in, the Bank is full, but if more money goes out, the Bank gets empty.

He didn't tell me to count calories, but he made it clear that I needed to either eat less or do more activity.

Many years and plenty of theories later, that concept remains the same. Counting calories is the starting point for any weight control strategy.

Challenges of counting calories

If it is so simple, why do we still struggle so much?

Because it's not easy. There are some difficulties there:

1. We don't believe it will work
2. We don't know how many calories we should take
3. We don't know whether we are eating the right amount

Let's discuss them.

As you are reading this, I assume you already believe it may work if you do it seriously.

I hope you also know your target amount of calories by this time. Your doctor or trainer probably told you, or your favorite influencer or the plumber who worked at your place last week.

Suppose you still don't have that number. In that case, you can estimate it using the "Harris-Benedict Equation" (DISCLAIMER: This is only an estimation method, and I strongly recommend you consult your doctor about it).

But today's main point is item 3: Helping you determine whether you are hitting the target. Let me share an Excel Sheet I created some time ago that has given me great results multiple times.

Tools

There are many tracking tools, mostly mobile apps and web pages. Although they are helpful, I always preferred the DIY approach for these reasons:

• It's more flexible. You can customize it to fit your habits by loading the products/foods you consume most frequently.
• It's more likely for you to use a tool that you created.
• You practice your Excel skills.

Download for free the one I created.

After gaining experience and awareness, you won't need it anymore, but you may come back to it occasionally.

This is how to use it in 3 simple steps:

1. Configure your Target calories in the Objective tab. Also, the distribution among macros (Carbohydrates, Protein, and Fats) and how you would like to distribute those calories throughout your day (your meals).

2. Add the foods you consume most frequently in the Foods tab. The sheet has some records as examples.

3. Start tracking. Select the food from the drop-down list and the quantity you ate. You will see how many calories you consume at each meal and throughout the day, helping you stay on track.

If you would like to create similar sheets, stay tuned. In future posts, I'll show you how to do it yourself.

Conclusion

Counting calories is the only invariant principle about fitness and nutrition.

The concept is simple, but we need a tool to help us to track the calories we consume.

You can download my spreadsheet for free.

I'll show you how to build your own sheet in future posts.

Thanks for reading.

We often ignore little issues. They hold us back and waste our time. If we start doing something and we encounter a small problem we can live with, we ignore it.

However, that same problem may become annoying as it appears more frequently. So it’s better to invest some time in fixing it. And who knows? You may find an unexpected benefit from it.

That was my case last week. My screen had been presenting a defect for a few months. Nothing critical, and I could still work. But on my worst days, it drove me crazy.

I decided to dedicate a few hours to fixing it, and this is what happened:

My small issue

My desktop setup has a notebook in the vertical position and an external monitor. I never felt comfortable with 2 screens, so I prefer it that way.

Some time ago, after restarting my notebook, the following message appeared:

Long story short, when I tried to use only the external display, my PC automatically set a resolution unsupported by my monitor. So, I kept using the “Extend displays” option, even when my notebook was closed.

I don’t like it because of 2 reasons:

1. Unnecessary consumption having the notebook’s screen turned on all the time.
2. Some applications and popups appeared on the notebook’s screen (that was annoying).

After a few months of shutting my eyes to it, I took it personally.

Solution

The solution was simple. It’s still a workaround, but I can use only my external display with no issues:

• Defining a shortcut to set the proper resolution.

So, while the error is on my screen, I press my shortcut key combination, and the resolution changes.

This post shows how to create that shortcut (requires an external portable exe file).

Bigger application

Solving an issue that was there for a while feels great. But why should we stop there? The possibility of creating a shortcut for changing my screen resolution gave me an idea:

My colleague had just bought a bigger monitor with a higher resolution. Whenever he shares his screen, he needs to go to the settings and lower the resolution in the middle of the meeting. And when he is done, he needs to revert the change.

This solution would be great for him so he can switch between the 2 resolutions using 2 different hotkeys (one for presenting mode and one for his regular use).

Disregarding this specific case, I learned that one issue can lead us to one idea that will solve multiple problems. And that’s how we grow our skills, performance, and Business.

Takeaway

You can fix an insignificant resolution issue using a keyboard shortcut.

But you can also improve your performance on a presentation using the same shortcut.

Any minor issue can lead you to a new idea, which you can use to solve multiple problems and grow your skills and Business.