Embrace Open Source
Open Source Software might be just the thing to get those creative juices flowing when you have a creative itch to scratch. Conventional wisdom will tell you that web product development needs to follow specific steps; industry standard prescribed phases and deliverables may prove valuable, but also can impede creativity. The cost of starting without pre-developed tools can switch focus to building the tools and not the product. The product manager may then elect to work in the abstract and put ideas on paper in a technical vacuum before making choices on platform or functionality. Buying a technology platform before you know what you need is expensive, but open source platforms might just be the thing that frees the web product mind from cost and constraints get the ideas on the screen as quickly.
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How often do you feel your talent is wasted where you are? Or how do you know someone who flourished upon a job change?
Recently, I visited a few colleagues of mine at their new place of employment. We all worked together in the past and I was struck by what I noticed and what I observed in my meeting with them. I have a deep admiration for all three folks to whom I am referring. They are rock stars at what they do. They are highly engaged, proactive professionals who amaze me constantly and they are simply great and kind people. But, when we all worked together in the past, it seemed that something was holding them back. They did their jobs well, had great attitudes…great employees. The difference became clear to me when I saw them together in this new place…a new job.
Believe it or not, being unemployed for an extended period of time may make you less employable. I recently was speaking with a colleague of mine about a hiring manager who was less likely to consider a candidate for a position if he/she had been unemployed for an extended period of time. Both my colleague and I thought this state if mind was short sided and actually flat out wrong. Why would a hiring manager eliminate a candidate from the interview pool because he/she was unemployed for an extended period? Is this simply recession think?
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I have these uninhibited moments of inspiration from time to time that I call “Jerry Maguire Moments.” They are highly idealistic thoughts that are stripped of social repression and doubt because they come to me when I am completely alone, in the midst of a sleepless night, listening to music in the car or on my motorcycle. I know that many of us have these, but we typically repress them because out social environment indirectly regulates what ideas are acceptable. Great ideas disappear with what we think are constraints to possibilities. In large corporate environments–innovation is often decapitated because of existing power structures, role identity, idea ownership and arbitrary conventions.
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Have you ever had pre-interview wardrobe anxiety? Has the question of what to wear to a job interview caused you to lose sleep? When you are not in a position of control, small details such as what to wear seem like possible make or break decisions. In a recessive job market, it gets even more extreme as people step up efforts to make the best possible first impression and “clothes make the man/woman,” right?
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