Who

I doubt there is one motivation stratgey that speaks to everyone to light that fire, so to that end I simply offer my personal experiences and advice I'm following, and allow you to observe them as it best suits you.

What

I'm currently in a transition between jobs and as I build the skills I'll be proud to show off, I'm also in a sprint to fill this gap ASAP. The biggest hurdle for me now is proving I'm a worthwhile hire, both to myself and especially an employer. Cut to; the essence of this post and the advice I wish I had followed before I needed it:

- Always stay involved with your career and up to date on the latest as if you were trying to impress a prospect employer and land a job.

- Always network with people in your space as if they're the connection that can land you your next job.

- Always keep a portfolio or some sort of record of your career progress.

- Always stay hungry...figuratively speaking

When

The best time to start is yesterday, the next best time is today. You may be thinking, "Well..duh, didn't you know to stay hungry?" Well...yes, but let's be honest we all know something we SHOULD do, that we don't. We should eat right, exercise, maintain relations, not buy another 3D printer because we already have 3... the list goes on and we're all guilty of at least one. We differ in how we falter and this happens to be my, fault.

Why

In the event of a lay-off or down sizing, or just seeking the next logical career step, whether within your company or outside, you'll be glad to have this backing. I should have been doing these things all along and I feel way behind and honestly kind of a fraud, that I'm just now putting in the effort, but I have to assume the best mantra here is, "better late than never".

How

A bit gets a little meta but; this post itself is a means to my own self improvement. The goal here is to both exercise my written communication skills -please critique this post and help me improve- and also networking in the way of leaving a piece of me behind others can find, use, or start a conversation over.

Where

A good general place to start is Reddit's subreddits, where you'll start seeing a trend/pattern of sources to the post, you may want to bookmark and visit regularly. Wholely dependant on your focus but some such frequent fliers are; TechCrunch and Wired. HackerNews and REddit are both communities where you can not only get your news but also interact/network. Furthermore hands on, you have: Github which could alos serve as your project portfolio. "Talk is cheap, your GitHub history speaks valuable volumes", he says with a grossly neglected GitHub history...I'm working on it.

The above resources are a great way to:

Keep your finger on the pulse of your field and industry

Connect with peers

Showcase your journey

Again, all important stepping stones to keeping yourself relevant and this I wish I had done earlier but aim to be better about going forward. Cheers and thanks for sticking around, I hope this helped and you were able to gain from this. Don't forget to like and subscri...jk, wrong platform ;) But please do drop me any feedback you have, looking to imporve!