From: IT Career Coach <kingsleytagbo@it-career-coach.com>
Date: Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 8:18 PM
Subject: How To Become A Rockstar In Your Industry
To: Peter Lutz <lutzpf@gmail.com>
Top performers, rockstars or successful professionals have a mindset or a way of thinking.
They practice a code or follow a set of principles that helps them achieve the best results in their industry.
Read the rest of this post to learn more about their philosophy and other actionable strategies for becoming the best at what you do.
Always Be Learning
According to the Japanese Kaizen philosophy, consistence and commitment to studying, getting more information or improving your skills is better than sudden bursts of efforts.
So become a lifelong learner and not someone who learns solely to get a job or or achieve some other short term professional goal.
Read this post titled: "Always Be Learning".
Become An Expert In Your Industry
Acquiring knowledge is not enough. You must strive to become the best that you can be by sharpening your skills.
Improve your skills or become an expert by using practice tests to remember, learn more effectively or understand new material.
Keep taking practice tests until you become highly skilled and then gain a lot of handson experience by solving the problems or challenges facing others in your industry.
Remember that you can get experience outside the boundaries of an 8 to 5 job and note that becoming an expert does not mean that you know everything or that you have become the smartest person!
Read this post on How To Become A Technical Expert.
Become Inspired
There are skills or attitudes that can't be passed along to you except by working with more experienced professionals.
So go find a mentor or coach who believes in you and is willing or able to work with you one-on-one towards your professional goals.
Make a habit of reading the blog posts or books of written by those that inspire you.
Read this post on How To Become Inspired.
Read Professional Books In Your Industry
Audio coaching is good and Video training is even better but books are still the most universal and widely accepted format for passing information across.
So, supplement all your video training with some good, old-fashioned textbooks!
Though many technical textbooks are boring or hard to understand, they are an indispensable part of your career development.
And do not hesitate to spend a lot of money on professional textbooks because the best investment that you can make is in yourself.
A long time ago, I formed a habit of spending Saturday evenings in Borders or Barnes & Noble Bookshop. While my kids are playing, I would survey or read the latest books in my industry and buy those that presented new or interesting information.
I would spend as much as 200 hundred dollars in one visit and I reckon that I made back the investment by getting top paying jobs usually offered to those that stay ahead of developments in their industry!
Read this post titled: How To Self Study Effectively.
Stay Ahead of Developments In Your Industry
Don't bury your head in the daily grind of your 8 to 5 existence and become extinct like the Dodo!
The world around you and your industry is constantly changing, so you have to change too!
Be the first to learn new skills, processes, technology or tools and you will never lack a dull moment in your career!
Read this post on How To Stay Ahead of the Technology Curve.
Experience Is King!
In the Information Technology (IT) world, hands-on experience is King!
Experience counts more than certifications or college diplomas and degrees because experience is the currency of the Industry.
Experience matters because hiring managers are of the mindset that your past performance on previous jobs is the best predictor of your future performance (if hired for the job).
So, trying to convince a hiring manager of your suitability for a job without providing the experience to back it up is doing things backwards.
Give hiring managers what they want by getting handson experience with your current employer or building experience outside your 9 to 5 existence through working on leadership projects.
Read this post on How To Get Handson Experience At Your Current Employer.
Connect With Other Professionals on Social Media
Don't look inwards until you implode into nothingness ... Network with other professionals online!
There are tools like LinkedIn, Twitter or FaceBook that make it easy for you to create completely new relationships with total strangers, so get to know other people!
The success of LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook proves that we are transitioning to a world where new jobs, opportunities or clients will be increasingly referred to us by our Social Media Network.
You may start by connecting with me on Twitter.
Success Comes By Helping Others
You will never know a skill like you should, until you teach it to someone else.
The questions that you have to answer and the extra research you do to be sure of your facts, will in the end help you as much as it helps the person you are mentoring.
Besides, when you help others, some of the them will reciprocate by referring opportunities that you won't have gotten by keeping your knowledge to yourself!
Becoming a leader by helping others improves your standing, value or reputation in an increasingly networked online community as a leader which means that you will find it easier to get full-time jobs or consulting offers.
Read this post On How To Become A Leader In Your Industry.
Work On Projects Beyond Your Comfort Zone
Accept responsibilities, projects or tasks that stretch you beyond your comfort zone.
There is really no safety in the comfort zone because that is not how life works.
Cultivate a mind that is willing to try new ways of doing things and you will never have to be afraid of the unknown!
In your Quest For Knowledge, Get Certified
Get some professional certifications. The process of getting a certification will improve your skills and stretch you beyond your comfort zone.
It will also ground you in the facts you need to know for your job. However don't be like those who desire to get certified so much that ... they are willing to cheat their way to through.
The true goal of certification is to make you a smarter, better, more knowledgeable person, so if you cheat your way to a certification, you have gained nothing!
In your Quest for Knowledge, Take Practice Tests
Use practice tests to boost your skills or get to your knowledge to expert level quickly.
Repetition in training is the key to skill mastery. So, to master any new skill just repeat the same set of tasks multiple times until it sinks in and becomes second nature to you!
And guess what? That is the same conclusion reached by "Daniel Coyle in Talent Code" and "Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers" in their ground-breaking, best-selling books!
These authors discovered that the top performers in any industry put in hours of practice into sharpening their skills and that constant skill-sharpening, passionate practice is essential for world class performance.
Read this post On How To Boost Your Skills Using Practice Tests.
Do it NOW!
The real purpose of knowledge is action.So take a pen and write down on paper, actions that you will take based on the information I have given you in this post.
Then, DO IT NOW!
I wish you the best in your career.
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