Many years ago, I heard a career counselor talking about the time between jobs. He said never to call them “jobs” but rather “successes.” Using the word “success” to describe employment is a way to keep your outlook positive and convey that same positivity out to others. Ever since I heard that career coach, I have always used that term – “I’m looking for my next success” or “I’m in between successes.” As luck would have it, I am currently in that period between successes now.
For the past five and a half years, I have had my head in the clouds. Not literally, nor figuratively either – virtually, I guess would be the term to describe it. I have been championing the advantages of cloud computing, cloud infrastructure and cloud computing company GoGrid. Almost six years ago, I was hired to bring GoGrid’s cloud infrastructure service to the public marketplace – talking about cloud, explaining the characteristics of cloud computing, and showcasing the benefits of using GoGrid’s cloud infrastructure services.
One of the biggest challenges that I faced in this process was describing what cloud computing actually is. So back in the day, at the beginning of my new “success” at GoGrid, I came up with something called the “Cloud Pyramid.” Here’s an article of mine from 2008 on the GoGrid blog that explains it (as well as one here on HighTechDad.com).
So, I thought that it was appropriate as my successful tenure at GoGrid came to an end that I did a White Board video that explains cloud computing and the different layers of the cloud. This video was published the before day I left GoGrid. The video is available directly on the GoGrid YouTube channel and it is below as well:
Also, early on at GoGrid, I conceptualized and scripted another video, “Cloud Computing Explained,” which has over 600,000 views to date.
The Career Pyramid – Layering Successes
Similarly, one needs to think about your career as layers of successes that expose new opportunities. You build your foundation, much the same way within the Cloud Pyramid, the infrastructure layer can be built upon for other cloud layers. Each job that you hold, contributes to your career success – the good and the bad jobs. You learn from the experiences you have, the people you meet and the projects that you complete. So, I present you with my next pyramid – the Career Pyramid.
As you build that foundation with your success history (jobs), it gets stronger and you lay a wider base which allows you to move upwards as well, exposing more and better opportunities. It’s important to keep building that foundation by taking on new challenges. However, if you don’t build, you cannot grow.
I just completed laying down another success layer of my career pyramid. And now, I’m looking to move the apex even higher.
When it comes to finding your next success, it is all about your connections – who you know, who listens to what you say, who you engage with. So I’m looking to you, my readers, to help me uncover my next professional success. If you know of a company or brand or organization looking to hire a technologist, writer, strategizer, thought-leader, marketer or content purveyor, please have a look at my LinkedIn profile, fill out my contact form or connect with me on social media. And, I have a lot of additional information on my About page.
I’m excited for my next success to continue to build on my career pyramid!
HTD says: Where are you on the career pyramid?
