I joined last Out in Tech‘s Career Talks, an event that includes talks about career topics and rounds with different recruiters. It is a great opportunity, especially for younger queer folks trying to start tech careers.
One of the speakers was Yeong Cheng (they/them), who talked about being empowered as individuals in professional environments. It was very inspirational and most focused on nonconformity, something I truly relate to.
One of their advice is to always keep job hunting, even if you are not unemployed or unhappy with your current job.
This is a complicated topic for me, because I have to make a conscious effort just to network, and I can not imagine how would it be to keep constantly job hunting.
But also because I enjoy contributing to team building and adding value outside my main duties when I join an organisation. This is a strategy that matches my personality and how I like to interact with my colleagues. It is also a strategy I have not had good results with in the past. To be more specific, this strategy has produced good short-term results for the organisation I was working at but has not produced long-term results for my career.
It is something I am conflicted about because on one hand not having results in my career development could be caused by not communicating or leveraging my experience adequately, and I would enjoy using this strategy in the future. On the other hand, as the saying goes, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.