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There are countless technologies, tools, and frameworks to learn as an engineer. As a job seeker, this makes it extremely difficult to decide where to invest. You don’t want to spend a bunch of time learning something that employers don’t care about. So, how can you determine what to learn with your valuable time?
The answer to this comes from the realization that your goal is to find exactly one job. Ultimately, you will accept one job offer; you cannot hold multiple full-time jobs concurrently. Instead of appealing to all potential employers, your goal is to be an exceptional fit for one specific job.
Said differently, you should aim to be polarizing. A hiring manager should look at your resume or LinkedIn profile and have one of two reactions:
- This person is a great fit (“I don’t see many developers who know Rust so deeply. We should definitely interview them”)
- This person is clearly not a good fit (“We use Python, which they don’t mention at all”)
You want to avoid the “maybe” bucket, which is unfortunately where the majority of job seekers end up. These borderline engineers dilute their resumes by mentioning too many buzzwords and technologies. If they followed a 2-hour YouTube tutorial, they’ll list that technology on their resume. These resumes don’t strongly appeal to anyone because they try to appeal to everyone. The logic of the hiring manager is, “They’ve listed Python along with 10 other programming languages, so they’re probably not good at any of them.” In a difficult job market, this results in poor outcomes.
As you become increasingly senior in your career, you should become increasingly polarizing. When you have clarity about the technologies, people, and companies you want to work with, you dramatically increase your chances of landing a role that meets your criteria.
So how should we decide which technology to invest in? The answer is that it doesn’t matter, as long as you pick something and commit to it. When we embrace the idea of polarization, we can remove the second-guessing that plagues many job seekers. Too many engineers agonize over which JavaScript framework to learn or which AutoCAD toolset to master.
Instead of getting stuck in decision paralysis, simply commit to a technology for a few months based on what you or your friends find interesting. You can always change course later, but the learning starts only when you commit. When you go deep enough in one area, you’ll find it significantly easier to translate that expertise into adjacent areas. Your confidence will grow, and you’ll have more fun.
Depth in one domain will significantly increase your chances of landing a job that fits your background.
-Rahul
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