Pragmatic & Systematic Career Development

Carnegie Mellon University

Trading Summit: Keynote

CLEMENS WAN

APRIL 2015

Who am I?

What to Expect

1. Your Career Approach

2. Creating a System

3. Life Decisions

Your Career Approach

Planning your future and looking at opportunity costs

Life as an RPG

Life as an RPG: Rules

○ Skills take time to learn

○ You have a limited amount of time

○ You can only learn 5 skills at a time

○ We’re all given different opportunities

Communications

Relevance: 10Value: 10

How to Practice:- Toastmasters- Prepare speeches- Mock interviews- Mentorship

Effective Writing

Relevance: 10Value: 10

How to Practice:- Learn from concise emails- Read req docs- Summarize

Diff Equations

Relevance: 0Value: 0

How to Practice:- Apply to real-world problems- Practice questions- Ask for mentorship

Playing Piano

Relevance: 2Value: 4

How to Practice:- Practice fun songs- Take a class- Learn from a professional

Finance

Relevance: 7Value: 7

How to Practice:- Read articles- Take classes- Learn from coworkers

Coding

Relevance: 7Value: 7

How to Practice:- Write code- Test libraries- Take online classes

Project Mgmt

Relevance: 7Value: 8

How to Practice:- Take classes- Use relevant tools- PM your life

Table Tennis

Relevance: 3Value: 6

How to Practice:- Take a lesson- Play every day- Buy a robot to help with different spin

Level of Knowing

Mastery

1. You can only work on 5 skills at a time

2. Pick 2 strengths, 2 intermediate, 1 weakness

3. Look for improvement: weakness -> less weak; intermediate -> strength; strength -> mastery

4. When you believe you’ve reached mastery, swap out the skills)

My Rule of 5

Limit your Works in Progress (Tasks/Projects)

Read this book...

Things to Do

○ Work hard

○ Know your stuff

○ Understand your environment

○ Take on new challenges and tasks

○ Ask Questions!

Things to Avoid

○ Being stupid

○ Being a typical Gen-Y

○ ... (there are a million)

Drivers It’s important for you to...

Material Rewards Have possessions, wealth, and a high standard of living.

Power / Influence Be in control of people and resources.

Search for Meaning Do things which are believed to be valuable for their own sake.

Expertise Gain a high level of accomplishment in a specialized field.

Creativity Innovate and be identified with original output.

Affiliation Nourish relationships with others at work.

Autonomy Be independent and able to make your own decisions.

Security Have a solid and predictable future.

Status Be recognized, admired, and respected by the community at large.

Career Drivers

Drivers You enjoy...

Influencing Persuading and leading people.

Organizing Tasks that monitor structure, procedures, and processes. You like staying organized and looking for efficiencies.

Helping Working with other people and helping them.

Creating Innovating something new and expressing your own inner vision.

Analytics Researching and analyzing data. You develop models that solve problems.

Producing Making, maintaining, and repairing physical things.

Adventuring Taking risks (physically or financially).

Interests and Daily Tasks

Example: My Drivers and Interests

1. I don’t care about material rewards or security

2. I value creativity / engineering / design, building relationships, and leading by example

3. I love contributing to a community

4. I love mentorship

Banking IT

Req:- BS in Finance/IT/CS- Communications- Financial Knowledge- IT Knowledge

Expectations:- Decent hours (~45)- Decent pay (~70k)- SDLC

Trader

Req:- Connections- Trading experience

Expectations:- Heavier hours (6AM)- Great pay & Greater bonus- Rewarded based on prediction skills

Banker

Req:- Communications- Hard working / Team work

Expectations:- Ridiculous hours (~80)- Great pay (but not enough for hours)- Risk of burn-out

Research

Req:- Written Communication- In depth analysis

Expectations:- Ridiculous hours (~90)- Travel conferences- Always on-call and always reading

Entrepreneurship

Req:- Skillful diverse team in business, law, software, accounting, etc- Initial Capital- Clear vision (problem)

Expectations:- However long it takes- Basically 0 pay- Wear many hats- Refined pitching- Constantly asking for $

Technology Companies

Req:- BS in CS- Tech knowledge- Team work

Expectations:- Decent hours (~55)- Great pay (~90k)- Jeans and perks- Projects where you may be the customer

Not listed?

1. Network effectively and ask about someone’s career path

2. Before entering a job, know what skills are needed to excel

3. Find out which skills are transferable

4. Ask for connects and follow-ups (people know people)

5. Know the thresholds of entering jobs

Write your ideal job description.

Creating a System

Something that works for you

Your System

○ Routines - being productive, destressing

○ Setting Long Term Goals

○ Making difficult decisions - Weighing choices

○ Approaching problems / analysis

○ Your Accompanying Tools

○ Learning how to Learn (and from mistakes)

○ Staying in Touch - Meaningful Follow-up

Example: My Routines

○ Hygiene○ Picking clothes○ Morning commute○ First task in the office○ Follow-up on a meeting○ Method of stress relief○ Catching up with friends○ Working on side projects○ Meditation○ Cooking dinner○ Reflecting on progress

Defined Processes with specific end states

Example: Weighing Choices

○ Pro vs Con list○ Adding weights to

categories with more value○ Adding risks to each pro

and con○ Adding emotional factors to

each (gut feeling)

Quantitative Method of Choosing

Confidence of Decisions○ Remove buyer’s remorse○ Understand that there is no

“right” answer

Example: Approaching Problems

○ Pay attention to the right details○ Who benefits?○ Source reliable?○ Obvious Statements?

○ Keep your Objective/Scope clear○ Ask questions to clarify unknowns○ Keep an open mind from any biases○ Provide advice from your strengths and

expertise○ Provide multiple solutions

Defined Thought Process for

Seeing the Full Picture

Example: My Tools

○ Productivity○ Email - Inbox (0)○ Calendar○ Lists / Notes

○ Social Media○ Staying in Touch○ Creating content

○ News○ RSS Feeds○ News related to your expertise

○ Unwind○ Writing

Optimized Applications with Clear purposes

Example: How I Learn

○ Reading multiple sources (seeing it written in different ways)

○ Formulating a story○ Connecting new concepts to multiple

known facts ○ Repetition with different use cases○ Summarizing existing notes with lists○ Teaching similar concepts to others

Matching Interesting Things

to Known Constants & Practicing

Example: How I Stay In Touch

○ Setting reminders to contact people○ Remembering people’s brands and

contacting them if I learned something relevant or read something relevant

○ Sending cards or messages during given holidays

○ Meeting people physically to places of common interest

○ Remembering people’s latest status of important things (e.g. asking them if certain things happen)

Treating people as people

Life Decisions

It’s not a work-life balance. It’s just life.

Early Career

- Extra pocket money- Networking events- Lots of Coffee Chats- Steep learning curve

Dating Scene

- Spending pocket money- Improvement on small talk- Some nights of loneliness

Relationship

- Comfortable chats- Learning more about one person- Sharing similar goals- Building awesome memories

Renting in City

- Finding a place to rent- Getting a roommate- Furniture buying and home improvement

Golden Age of Fun

- Out of debt (finally!)- Getting promotions / recognition at work- Group vacations- Spontaneous awesomeness- Time for hobbies

Commitment

- Living together- Sharing bank accounts- Buying wedding ring ($$$)- Fewer group vacations

Adolescent Career

- More responsibility at work- Opportunities to move around- Growth of network of peers, mentors, and sponsors

Family

- Marriage planning- Kids- Bigger house- Important neighborhood- Crazy costs- Generally scary stuff

Quarter-life Crisis

1. So... now what?

2. Keep learning random things that interest you

3. Don’t compare yourself to others

4. Get involved with a community

5. Live in the moment and have fun!

Trading

- Start of investing- Applies knowledge about the market and trends- Gambling addiction

Blogging

- Love for writing- Creates an online presence and brand- Keeps me excited with projects

Photography

- Love for my DSLR- Great networking tool- Links well with blogging

Tech Philosophy

- Start Up advice- Meeting great minds- Love the topic and would chat about it for free

Coding

- Extend knowledge of libraries and upcoming technologies- Do it myself (instead of waiting on others)- It’s fun

Traveling

- Seeing new cultures- Once in a lifetime opportunities- Doing it while I still can

30 Day Challenges

- Making better habits- Keeping things interesting- Continuously challenging myself

Cooking

- Makes everyone happy- Great stress reliever- Increases my dating stock- Excellent skill to know

Example: My Hobbies

My Final Advice

1. Keep Yourself a Valuable Asset

2. Be transparent with your manager

3. Know how to maintain relationships

4. Ask questions

… ? Clemens.wan@gmail.com

seelemonslive.com