As we've discussed it can be hard to communicate with a project manager boss or teammates if you don't
have a job.
And if you've recently learned some skills through an online course and acquired some certificates it
can be tempting to jump straight to the next one and then get the next defecate and the next.
But what are you really chasing.
Are you after more certificates or more skills.
Now a thing you should remember is that no matter how good the course you can assume the skills you
learned there will be commoditization.
That means many other people will have gone through the same course acquire the certificates same skills
as you and then we'll be looking for similar jobs to what you are.
Now let's say Janet posts a job vacancy and receives six hundred seventy three applicants through an
online form.
You can imagine how hard it is for your resumé to stand out.
Now this isn't to say you shouldn't apply through an online form but if you are really serious about
getting a role somewhere start the job before you have it how by working on and sharing your own projects
which relate to the role you're applying for.
I call this the weekend project principal during the week you're building foundational skills through
various courses like the one you're going through now but on the weekend you design your own projects.
Projects in line with the role you're after and work on them working on your own projects helps you
build specific knowledge there what compound this type of knowledge that you're learning courses into
skill skill which can't be taught in courses.
Let's see it in practice Joe I'm Melissa apply for a data scientist role to Janet.
They both make it through the interviews and are now sitting in the interview room with Janet.
She looks at both their resumes and notice that they've both done similar courses.
This is great.
And she asked Joe if he's worked on any of his own projects and he tells a no.
He's only had a chance to work on coursework but has plenty of ideas.
Now she asked Melissa the same question and she pulls out her phone and tells Jana that she's built
a small app to help read food labels.
Now you see Melissa's daughter can't have gluten and got confused every time she tried to figure out
what was in the food she was eating.
Now the app Melissa has built isn't perfect but it helps her daughter figure out what foods she should
eat.
Now I want you to ask yourself if you were Janet.
Which candidate would you lean towards you see working on your own projects helps you build specific
knowledge I can't stress this enough.
Your own projects are what compound knowledge into skill.
Now what should you work on.
See the hard part is you've got a limited options but the best part is you've got unlimited options.
One method is to find out the ideal company.
As we said before you want to work for and then figure out do your research.
What does a person in our position do day to day.
Find out and then design your own six week project.
You might be wondering why six weeks.
Well the worst case is if it doesn't work out.
It's only six weeks and the best case is you're going to surprise yourself at what you can accomplish
in 42 days.
Now if you're still stuck you can follow your interests.
Use this same sort of timeline if you don't have an ideal company you'd like to work for.
Think of an ideal role you'd like to work for.
Design it yourself again.
The worst case is after six weeks you'll know whether to pursue something you're working on.
Okay set up another six week project or move on to the next thing now instead of only having a collection
of certificates you've got a story to tell.
You've got evidence of you trying to put in what you've learned into practice exactly what you'll be
doing on a job.
And if you're wondering where the evidence comes from it comes from you documenting your work writing
it down.
Where on your own blog you might be wondering why a blog.
I'm not even a writer.
We've discussed this before but it's worth repeating because writing down what you're working on helps
solidify your thinking at the same time as helping others on a similar journey to learn from you what
you've done.
What would you like to have known when you were at Week 1.
That's the things you can write about.
You could start with the post per week detailing how your six week project is going what you figured
out in week 1 what you figured out in the next week.
What you're doing in Week 3.
Remember what something you'd like to know sooner.
Probably the best type of post you can write is helping your past self because if you had a question
on something likelihood someone else will have a similar question.
Now again remember your project doesn't have to be perfect.
None are.
And your writing doesn't have to be perfect either.
But by the end of the six weeks a beautiful thing is you're going to have a series of articles detailing
your work as well as something that you can point at and say this is what I've done.
Now if you're looking for resources to start a blog I'll leave some in the resources section but at
the moment Dev Blog by hash node and fast template by the fast II team are both free and require almost
zero set up to get started otherwise.
Medium is the next place to get writing and to get sharing your own projects.
You can share your articles on Twitter LinkedIn or even if you're tactical enough send them directly
to the person in charge of hiring for the role you're after.
All right.
So now we've looked at communicating with your team and starting a job before you have it designing
your own six week projects to build specific knowledge and one of the best ways to communicate you and
share your work is documenting it on your blog.
Let's find out how you might communicate with people outside your team.
The kind of people who might be reading your blog.