Career Development Category Archives - General Assembly Blog | Page 30

4 Exercises To Help You Unlock Your Dream Career

Live your passion. Follow your bliss. Do what you love.

You’ve probably heard advice like this when it comes to finding and achieving your dream career. But what if you’re not sure what your passion is? Or what if you have many passions? If either scenario is the case for you, then this advice remains vague and largely unhelpful.

I’ve worked with thousands of creative people on their dream career development since 2008, and what I kept finding was this:

It’s not about doing what you love or loving what you do. It’s about getting clarity on your lifestyle goals, and then figuring out what you need to do to bring them to life.

Simply put, a “dream career” is one that allows you to wake up in the morning, think about the day ahead, and look forward to at least 70% of it. If you’re doing work you enjoy with people you like being around, and it leaves room for your personal priorities, then you’re in the sweet spot.

Do you want your lifestyle to allow you to pick up your kids from the bus and spend quality time with them until bed? Then that’s a piece of your dream career puzzle.

Do you want to be able to work from anywhere, filling up your passport quickly? Then that’s a piece of your dream career puzzle.

Do you want to be able to attend a lunchtime yoga class every weekday? Then that’s a piece of your dream career development puzzle.

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An Artist’s Journey with Code

By Matthew Epler

Matthew Epler is a creative technologist specializing in creating one-of-a-kind interactive projects with an emphasis on the Internet of Things.

His work, which blends digital and physical design practices with computer programming, has been featured in museums and a variety of media outlets around the world including The Milan Triennale Museum of Design, mudac Lausanne, and on Wired, Huffington Post, Newsweek, Reuters, Vice, and Creative Applications.

Some of his most well-known pieces include the Netflix Switch, Levi’s Station to Station, Grand Old Party, and Big Bats.

Matthew describes himself as a designer who can code, and a coder who can work with his hands. Read on to see how learning to code transformed his passion for art and film into a thriving career in creative technology. Continue reading →

How to Define “Brand”

By Kevin Sandlin

When we deliver the Digital Marketing class at General Assembly, we start off with branding. Not digital branding — just branding. Digital marketing is, after all, still marketing, and in order to market effectively, you must first define your brand.

Early in the very first day of Digital Marketing, we ask the class to define the word “brand,” and then we offer up several other definitions from people who are much smarter and much more experienced than I am.

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5 TED Talks to Help You Discover Your Passion

By Ritika Puri

Are you finding it hard to finally resolve to do something new in your career in 2016? Maybe you’re starting the year bogged down in endless work that you don’t enjoy. Or maybe you’re dealing with something more permanent, and you feel like you’ve lost an important spark in your career development.

Regardless of your situation, it’s important to take a step back and remember: everyone goes through these dips and spikes in their careers. Even more? The power is in your hands to course-correct and find the right path forward.

You need inspiration. But contrary to the popular saying, inspiration doesn’t just ‘strike.’ You need to go out and find it. Get in the right mindset for 2016 with the following TED talks.

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Top Personality Traits of Every Successful Startup Founder

By Kevin Sandlin

women in tech discuss product management skills

Photo: WOC in Tech

A recent University of Phoenix survey showed that 63% of 20-somethings have a strong desire to start a business. That’s a great first step: desire. But what else does it take to start a business that is sustainable? Since 1999, right around the time many of these 20-somethings were born, I’ve started seven businesses. Five of them failed. In that time, I’ve learned from experience what it takes to be a startup founder.

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Father of “The Lean Startup” Movement Clarifies His Message: Don’t Bulls— Yourself

By Todd Stone

Eric Ries discusses his lean startup methodology at General Assembly in New York City.

“Lean Startup is not a religion,” said Eric Ries, the 37 year-old author of The Lean Startup (2011), which is the handbook for what has become a cult-like movement embraced by entrepreneurs and innovators worldwide.

The core philosophy of the book – and of its practitioners – is to test ideas early and often by getting feedback from potential customers. Before investing very much time and money into a product, the idea is to quickly create an MVP (minimal viable product) and put it in front of potential consumers. This avoids wasting time and money developing products that people may not want.

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4 Ways to Prepare for Negotiating Your First Offer As a Developer

By Neda Jafarzadeh

Many of our graduates from the Web Development Immersive program take our course to find work in the tech field as junior developers. As I support them with negotiating their first offers for those roles, there are certain steps that I cover with them, as a Career Coach, to make sure they set themselves up for success. Half of the negotiation process is the prep work you put in prior to negotiation. If you, too, are interviewing for your first role as a developer, here are 3 steps you can take to position yourself for a well-negotiated offer.

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Series D and Looking Forward

By Jake Schwartz

General Assembly started as a small project in the heart of NYC—we set out to build a community of entrepreneurs and creators in our city’s burgeoning ecosystem. I’m in awe of the evolution we’ve seen take place—in 5 years we’ve become a global organization, now equipping tens of thousands of students with the skills they need to succeed in the new economy.

At this time of great debate around the future of higher education and workforce development, our worldwide team has succeeded in creating and scaling a model solely focused on bridging education to employment. But we are even more ambitious about our future goals: To make a visible dent in the skills gap, clearly connecting education and employment to show an ROI positive model of higher education, and build our alumni community into one of the most powerful professional networks in the world.

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How To Win Your First Product Management Job

By Brian de Haaff

Nice work. You just scored an interview for a product manager position—one of the hottest and highest-paying roles right now according to Glassdoor. Companies know that product managers play a key role in their success or failure. And they are making sure that hiring the best is a top priority.

You probably have no idea what to expect from this first interview—especially if you are trying to transition into the field from engineering or marketing. How can you pivot into this new role? What qualities are they looking for, and how should you present yourself?

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4 Mental Blocks Preventing You From Landing Your Dream Job (and How To Get Over Them)

By Allie Armitage

In today’s ever-changing economy, searching for a job is hard work. The number of jobs, types of jobs, and even pathways into jobs are transforming at a pace that can feel impossible to keep up with. Add the desire to find a career that feels meaningful and fulfilling, and the job search can becoming a maddening task.

The path to a successful job search often starts with your own mindset. Consider how you think about yourself, your options, and the process to landing a job. These answers will help you form the foundation for the results you can achieve.

As a coach, educator, and practitioner, I work with clients to help them overcome common mental hang-ups that may be preventing them from landing their dream job.

Below are four of the negative mindsets that I see most often, and strategies you can use to overcome them.

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