People have “feelings”
How to act corporate. It’s something you kinda have to just pick up after a while, it can’t be taught.
Do you have any tips for books, websites, or whatever on how to get started? I love computers and the whole topic of programming is fascinating to me, but I don’t have the money (or time (or energy)) to go to back to school.
I work in a dead-end retail job and I really really really need to get out. Lol.
I got out of a 7 year retail streak and into technology through support. Many organizations or BPO’s see a lot of churn in technical customer support and have on the job training to get your feet wet. Then the ones who stick around and learn the product move up or laterally within the organization. A good org will farm from support. A good org will provide up-skill and training opportunities, subsidies etc to help people progress their career and stay at the company.
Find a local call center or look for remote support jobs if you are tired of retail and then use the company perks to progress.
Source: I left retail for tech support in 2012, 2 years at a BPO, 8 years working with varying tech and progressing titles learning new things and getting free certifications. Now I manage a support team of 14 because I like helping people. Former colleagues from the same BPO are now directing program management, engineering teams, development etc.
That sounds like a great idea, but I get serious anxiety from phone calls so I don’t know if that’d be a good fit for me. (I have an anxiety disorder and phone calls are a bit of a sore spot with it.)
Thank you for commenting with it, though! I really appreciate the advice!
I basically double majored in international affairs and economics but ultimately became a software engineer. I actually think both my courses of study were valuable. I’m basically self-taught as a developer (though I had mentors) and other than Comp Sci or Physics, there’s probably no other majors I’d pick as a base.
For international relations, it’s just always good to know about diplomacy and history. We had courses where we studied successful negotiations. The military history wasn’t so useful but there’s way more history made without guns than with them.
Econ is a good default major for a lot of fields. You learn to make statistical models and there’s strong math requirements with more of a focus on practical math than theoretical. (There’s even a little coding involved.) There’s classes on how businesses are run at a high level. Behavioral econ is helpful in small, but important ways (like designing little user interface nudges and prompts).
If I could redesign college, I’d make everyone in STEM majors do a minor in one of the humanities (and vise versa). We’d all be better off.
The military history wasn’t so useful but there’s way more history made without guns than with them.
I’d argue that a lot of people have found Sun Tzu useful way outside of a military context, but also it’s useful IMO to see where force fails or succeeds, and not just militarily. I might argue (as just an armchair person) that hostile takeovers etc might have some analogs. Stuff like comparing how various empires handled integrating conquests might sort of apply to mergers (though maybe that’s not exactly military)… Even just the importance and limitations of morale in sprints etc.
