Whether we’ve taken time off for personal reasons, or are just getting started in a new role, it can seem like everyone else is light years ahead of us, and we’ll never catch up.
They have years of experience or deep expertise, while we’re rusty.
Trying to catch up, means investing more hours, hours that we may or may not have.
Trying to compete against those who understand the ins and outs is even more challenging because they have years of intuition and the credibility that comes with it.
So what can we do?
Instead of trying to catch up or compete, we’ve got to figure out how to jump to the front.
Jumping to the front means learning about new approaches, processes, languages, or frameworks in your industry that others aren’t familiar with.
It can be risky if the approach is highly controversial or the adoption rate is very low.
But the upside to taking the risk is that you’re the one at the forefront, and within a short period of time you become the go-to person. While those who were supposedly light years ahead of you, now have to play catch up.
Years ago I had a friend who took some time off from coding to start a family.
When they came back they were considered “behind” the times in web programming and found it incredibly hard to convince an employer they were qualified for senior level positions.
Instead of focusing their efforts trying to push ahead, my friend decided to focus on learning what was the new and cutting edge, which happened to be Swift programming and the ins and outs of iOS development.
Within 3 months, my friend had become proficient is Swift. And within 6 months had developed multiple apps. By the end of the year, they had so many offers, including ones for senior level positions.
Now it’s your turn. How are you going to stop playing catch up and jump to the front? Let me know in the comments below!
