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FacebookGoogle CEO’s Advice for People Entering a Technology Career: Stay Engaged, Keep Learning and Trying Things
March 31st, 2007 | Posted in Technical Writing 5 Comments »
This podcast from iinnovate features Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google and, according to PC World, one of the most important people on the web. Around the 17 min. mark in the podcast, the interviewer asks Schmidt if he has advice for people entering technology and business in general.
Schmidt responds:
I think there’s a relatively simple rule, which is that you have to be engaged. When you think about someone in their twenties, who is smart and capable, they’re still learning how to run businesses, and there are many, many formative business experiences that they have. The more at bats you have (using the baseball metaphor) the better your luck. The more you’re engaged, the more you’re learning, the more you’re trying things.
When I think back to what I did 20-25 years ago, when I didn’t know anything at all, I practiced, I learned something, I learned here, I learned there, and so forth. And in some way I incorporate all that learning and knowledge today in my every day life.
The people who prematurely exit this, the people who say I’m going to do this for 5 years and then I want a better balance of life, for example, are not going to perform at the same level as the people who are systematically and coherently approaching the business learnings of their generation.
And so it seems to me that if you spend not a 5 year time, but rather a 30-40 year time, saying to yourself in that period of time, what are the business lessons I’m going to learn, how am I going to make sure that I am well situated fo the opportunities that come to me, then that’s a much better approach.
Schmidt’s advice contrasts a bit with that of the MySQL CEO, Marten Mickos, who says “It is dangerous to hire someone who has too much experience.” In Schmidt’s view, the more “at-bats” (experiences) you have, the more situated you are to make good decisions for opportunities at the present. You can review the many previous experiences and apply what is best for the present situation. Rather than taint or bias your perspective, experiences enrich your perspective.
What is the evidence of engagement? How can you tell when one person is engaged and another isn’t? How can you turn on the engagement switch?
I think a person is engaged when you see him or her writing, publishing, presenting, trying new tools, participating on listservs, blogs, and other new media — in short being visible in the community. When you’re thinking about technical writing in your free time, you’re engaged. Experimentations are not always successful, but even failures give you more knowledge for success in the future.
I am not sure why some are engaged and some aren’t.
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Some people are engaged in other things, like family or hobbies, while they work at a job that isn’t really their focal point. They can still do really good work at their day job, but they won’t usually try to expand that work. I was engaged in trying to be a musician while working as a music librarian and later as a technical writer, so I didn’t really put time into those jobs after work hours.
Now that I’m an editor, though, I’m not as interested in pursuing music as much–I find the various aspects of cognition, communication, and learning so absorbing that these fields pretty much take up my free time too (when I’m not doing stuff with my family).
Thanks for listening to iinnovate and analyzing Eric’s thoughts. I agree that experience is important, and dependent on one’s smarts, can train or hurt one… my two cents
Anyway, thanks for the post, and stay tuned for more cool speakers.
Min, on behalf of the iinnovate team.
Harry,
Thanks for your comment. The topic of engagement intrigues me. When I was studying creative writing and exploring post-graduation options, one professor explained that I could do “shift work,” an 8-hour job that I simply did for pay while I fueled my creative energy into literary writing. That struck me as a strange life, leading a dual existence: shift worker by day, novelist by night.
It seems difficult to be engaged in multiple things. One only has so much time, and the Leonardo Da Vinci’s of this world (one who excels at everything) are disappearing. I respect all types of engagement, so long as one is at least engaged and passionate about something — even if it’s just family.
Min,
Thanks for the comment. I really like the iinnovate podcast. Can you share any details about your setup? A couple of people have asked me about video podcasting, and I like your method. Do you just use a regular video camera? What mics do you use to record the sound?
I thought the Schmidt podcast contrasted nicely with the Jung podcast on the point about experience. Schmidt says a wide range of experience serves you well; Jung says a lot of experience can limit your ability to succeed in a new marketplace.
You guys really interview cool people. Keep it up.