Closed swanson closed 10 years ago
jonfuller
commented
10 years ago I'm not sure who your audience is in the last paragraph. Is it the general public? Internal SEP folks? It sounds like it's waffling back and forth between freelance/independent type folks, and folks here that "get placed" on a project.
The rest of it, spot-on. I like it. (I also really like the breakdown at the top, pretty sharp. I think there are more, but I don't think you were going for 100%).
swanson
commented
10 years ago From MMM:
The last paragraph conclusion (doing stuff -> good for me) does not follow from the original premise (doing stuff -> good for business).
emphasis that networking is a mindset and that most engineers aren't that "far off" from doing it already (same as with BD pipeline).
Diagram is interesting but maybe doesn't fit with this post
swanson
commented
10 years ago shipped
venn diagram: technical - biz dev - marketing
roles: tech => developer bd => sales mrkt => marketing? tech + bd => dev evangelist bd + mrkt => conf speaking tech + mrkt => recruiting
There are activities other than programming that provide direct business value.
If you want to do, e.g. Ruby web development, you should be:
This leads to increased leads for Ruby work, demonstrates your ability to ship Ruby apps, expands knowledge of Ruby throughout the company.
Producing artifacts (blogs, screencasts, comments/discussion posts, open source) is a form of marketing that requires development chops. The folks in The Marketing Department can't do this. Think about who you would seek out for Ruby needs if you were a business. Chances are it will be the local company that sponsors the Ruby meetup, the independent contractor that gave a conference talk, companies with well-known community presence (Thoughtbot, Hashrocket, Pivotal Labs).
Networking is not just for LinkedIn bozos or business mixers. Having a discussion on Twitter about a blog post is networking. Going to local meetups is networking. Playing table tennis with other developers is networking. Building these kind of connections aids in recruiting ("hmm, that company has a lot of people I like interacting with, maybe I'll apply"), business development ("We don't have capacity to do this work, let's steer this qualified lead over to them"), and marketing ("Oh, FooBar Co? Yeah, I know a couple people there that are really sharp").
Participating in these kind of activities allows you to gain more influence and control about your professional life. If you just sit back and wait to be placed on a project, what you work on is largely the luck of the draw. If you want to work with some particular technology, doing business development and marketing improves the odds that your company can win those kind of projects - and that you will be staffed to them.