David P. Currie

The Career Story

I have worked for a variety of organizations. I was in the military (Naval Reserve), I worked for several small businesses, from a tiny father and son operation to some slightly larger SMBs, then onto Canada’s largest software company. Since becoming self-employed, I have done consulting work for privately held software companies, their well known Fortune 500 clients, two tiny start-ups, the Canadian government, a crown corporation and a government agency. The industry and technical work aside, each type of organization had different things to like about them and some equally weird idiosyncrasies.

I value the variety of experiences. In hindsight, I can string this all together into a coherent career story. The different jobs and assignments, it all makes perfect sense how one thing led to another. Today, as I find myself at another career crossroad, I am reminded that in real-time, it is not at all obvious what the next step should be. Here is my advice to myself and anyone facing a career decision:

     - Let go of what you think you know.
     - You are not your professional history.
     - Forget trying to weave together the perfect bio or curriculum vitae. Your career story can be written later.
     - Listen to your instincts. There is a good chance that you already know what you need to do. 
     - A decision without risk is probably not a decision.

Making choices

Two thoughts on the choices we make:

From Mark Forster, on “Taking the easy choice”:

“One of the most common characteristics of bad time managers is that they have a definite tendency to take the easy choice.”

From “Management Debt” on Ben Horowitz’s blog:

“Every really good, really experienced CEO that I know shares one important characteristic: they tend to opt for the hard answer to organizational issues.”

The concept is applicable beyond management and personal productivity. I am thinking about the decisions we make for ourselves, our families and our careers. The easy way out comes with a “debt” that must be paid at some point. Like money debt, the trade-off can be worthwhile, but it needs to be managed. Always choosing the short term solution to avoid unpleasantness will lead to more difficult choices in the future.

Resolutions for 2012

I gave my resolutions much more thought this year, and I made a conscious effort to decouple my goals for 2012 from my resolutions. Goals are specific achievements, like run the Ottawa half-marathon again this year. My resolutions are limited to three and vague by design:

1. Trust my gut.

2. Write everything down. Publish some of it to a blog.

3. Take charge of my career. Think entrepreneurship. Plan, do, iterate.