What kind of work I want
I was inspired by Sean Geodecke’s post to write something similar. Not that I am looking for a job, but it seems like a good exercise to do regularly, as part of shaping my own career.
What Do I Want to Do for Work?
I care about values. I am a Christian and live and teach Christian values, and I care that my organization allows me to live out my values at work and does not engage in business or practices that go against my values.
I want to work in a technical capacity. I enjoy building things, designing solutions, and solving problems, and I find the most fulfillment doing these in a technical role.
I want to have strategic impact. I want to work on things that have strategic impact to the company, and in companies that have strategic impact to society.
I want to lead. I am committed to leading with accountability in any capacity, but I believe my impact can be multiplied if I am trusted with authority and autonomy.
I value culture. I like working with people who have diverse skills and opinions, engaged in energetic and collaborative striving toward a common organizational vision.
I am open to SG or remote work. I live in Singapore, have a young family, and will not migrate in the near future. Remote or hybrid work that allows me the flexibility to travel with my family for periods of time would be ideal.
Recruiters and hiring managers can stop reading here if you aren’t interested in my rambling.
Reflecting on My Career So Far
Since I began my career, my personal goal has been to stay in one that allows me to create things, bless people, and speak truth. This is central to my identity and my life goals.
This led me first to an R&D team in Autodesk, which felt like a true dream job — working on cutting - edge technology right out of university.
The last time I did a really deep evaluation of my career was 5 years ago, and that led me to leave my very stable job at Autodesk, even taking a more junior position at my current company.
This was difficult, but ultimately I moved for a few key reasons:
- I wasn’t interested in the technology that my team was building, and internal transfers didn’t seem to be panning out as an option.
- I saw what the Principal Engineers and Software Architects were doing, and it just didn’t excite me. I also felt that I could come back to these leadership roles later in my career.
- I really wanted to work in an innovative or research capacity, which I saw as R&D (from within Autodesk, this looked like working in CTOO or in Pier 9).
For what it’s worth, I really liked Autodesk, and still do.
The other thing I wanted to try was to work in a smaller (in the range of 100–500 pax) but global company. I observed that there were several such companies that were interesting in this sense: small enough to be nimble, lean enough to be selective about talent, large enough to do serious work.
(There seems to be something about company sizes that characterizes their speed and profitability; I wonder if there is a ‘law’ about it.)
In the last 5 years, plenty has changed, but the biggest change is that I now want to lead.
About 7 years ago, I began to seriously study leadership. As John Maxwell says, if you spend an hour a day on any topic, in 5 years you’ll be an expert on it. Now I teach leadership for Christian discipleship, and I occupy leadership roles both at work and in the communities I am part of.
I recognize that my style of leadership is not like others. I’ve known this for 20 years, and I’ve had to learn how to lead in my own way. As a result, I am also convicted that it is better to be a first-rate version of myself than a second-rate version of someone else.
I lead by being transparent with my team, by being problem-focused over people-focused, and by being as genuine as I can be. I am not a strong personality, and I don’t like to talk too much. This isn’t for everyone, but this is me.
Overall, I think my overarching goals haven’t really changed. My life goals haven’t changed, so this is expected. Times are more difficult now than they used to be, but I don’t see this changing who I am, and therefore what I want to do for work.