Category: Work

This is the second post in a series called Making it Count about getting things done and using our precious hours wisely¹ .

I have the opportunity to talk with people starting new careers every day. They are at different points in their journey: some are looking to attending our code school as a way to pivot their life on to a different path, while others have graduated from the program and need input on where to move, which job to take and which challenge to take on next.

In those conversations the initial question has almost always led to deeper questions. Answering “which of these is a better job offer?” can be really straight-forward, but more often than not my response is, “what do you want out of your career,” or “within this field, what things are you passionate about,” or “what about your job will make you excited when you get out of bed in the morning a few years down the road?”

Continue reading Making it Count: Values, Beliefs and Precious Hours

1. You can read more about the series and view links to additional posts here.

This is the first post in a series called Making it Count about getting things done and using our precious hours wisely² .

In the last few weeks I’ve had the privilege of rubbing shoulders with a handful of new people on a daily basis. They are students and instructors we’ve brought into the fold of the intensive code school I run at work.

My interactions with them have produced the same question enough times for me to think there might be value in answering it comprehensively on this blog. Here’s the inquiry:

How do you get everything done?

Being asked about productivity and work gave me pause for a few reasons. First, we do get a whole lot done at The Iron Yard—more than average, I’d say—but I don’t generally feel like we’re some super-productive anomaly. I feel like we’re people who put 110% into work that we love.

Secondly, and more importantly, the question made me think about the non-work aspects of our lives that most people don’t see, like family.

Continue reading Making it Count: Introduction

1. You can read more about the series and view links to additional posts here.

When I was a kid my dream car was a vintage Jeep CJ-7. I had Matchbox car replicas and books on classic off-road vehicles. It wasn’t an obsession, but it was a passion.

In our family, though, my parents didn’t buy us nice cars. We drove old road warriors whose odometers had seen six figures more than once. Even having a car that I didn’t have to pay for was an incredible privilege, so I didn’t let my dreams of a Jeep get too far past “maybe one day.”

I’ll never forget that one day when my dream actually came true. My dad drove home in a beat-up, bright-orange CJ-7. I was a freshman in high school.

Continue reading A Kid, a Jeep and The Meaning of Greatness

A few years ago my friend posted a quote about procrastination:

The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life. –Jessica Hische

Upon first read the concept was interesting, but it’s full weight didn’t hit me until much later. I think the delayed reaction was due to my professional youth – at the time I was earning spurs on my first national brand and consuming knowledge from my veteran boss like a dry sponge. The specificity of the industry (marketing) was far less important to me than the unique opportunities I had to carry more responsibility than normal for my age.

After a good while, though, my rate of absorption began to slow. As a wise man once said, “in this department of life, as in every other, thrills come at the beginning and do not last.”

Continue reading Follow Your Procrastination (Or, How I Changed Careers)