I recently read The Passionate Programmer by Chad Fowler, and gotta say, I'm a raving fan. It will probably come up a lot, largely because I think it's good, solid advice, and because I'm fairly confident most people know a lot of it already, they just need the push.
One of the essays in it has a topic that's been pretty central in my mind lately:
"Be the worst one in the band."
Sounds like really bad advice, huh? I mean, who would want to be the worst in their group? Not really an enviable position.
But Chad makes a clarification that completely turns this on it's head. If you're always striving to be the worst person in the band, you're constantly going to be surrounded by great people.
I mean, think about it - would you rather be the most talented person in Nickelback, or the least talented person in The Beatles? The best person in your local quartet, or the worst violinist in the London Symphony Orchestra? Best player on a minor league team, or the worst in a major league?
Chad points out that this almost necessitates you change bands; after all, you're not trying to stay the worst. So, as your skills grow, it makes sense to move on.
To me, this is incredibly inspiring. I faced pretty much this exact choice around October of last year: I could either stay on at the company I was with and be a 'senior network engineer' (if not in title, definitely in practice) straight out of college or I could start applying to other places and expand my skills. A big deciding factor for me was that I was already doing the work I would be doing after school; I had gotten as high as I could there.
In reflecting on it, I had realized that in terms of skill set, I was at the point where I had wanted to be upon entering college. So, I decided to make the leap and look around.
There were a few places I applied, one of them being thesixtyone. I had loved their mission, and I loved the site itself for a while at that point. When I had heard they were looking for candidates, I was thrilled. Not to mention, they were pitching a wanted ad that spoke to me - no resumes, no cover letters, no degrees. Here's a set of problems, work on them and send us your code.
So I did.
I got turned down, and in looking at my code now, nearly a year later, I can definitely see why. But, even in that attempt, I enjoyed what I was doing, and there was nowhere to go but up in terms of programming skill. Thankfully, my current employer recognized that, and things have been going well. I get to work on interesting problems, and I'm surrounded by incredibly intelligent people. At this point in time, it's an excellent band for me to explore and learn.
So, the next time an opportunity comes up to join a 'better band', don't be put off because you think you'll be the worst. In reality, you'll probably surprise yourself and find out you aren't. And even if you are, so what? That only means you're at the ideal place to take risks and grow.
