Why Altruism Really Pays as Does the Right Work-Life Balance with Simo Ahava
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Simo Ahava
Simo Ahava is a recognised expert on customizing web analytics and tag management solutions to improve the entire “life cycle” of data collection, processing and reporting. His main areas of expertise lie with Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, and Google has appointed him as a Google Developer Expert in these fields. He is also a partner and co-founder at 8-bit-sheep, a prolific blogger and an experienced conference speaker.
In this episode, Phil and Simo Ahava discuss how helping others sharpens your skills and keeps you in touch with the fundamentals. They also talk about how compromising your personal values usually have a negative impact on your career. Simo also shares how to prepare for entrepreneurship and when to make the switch from being an employee.
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Resources
Simo Ahava – Check out Simo’s website!
2 Top Career Tips
1) Find a community around a topic you are good at or would like to become good at. Share, guide and be proactive in that community. You will gain a reputation for being altruistic. This in itself comes with a big payback but helping others will also enable you to stay proficient and appreciate the importance of the fundamentals. In the podcast, Simo shares a hidden benefit of doing this.
2) Help others. It is a really effective way to hone your own skills. You can do this in all kinds of communities, including those that cater to the tools you use. Opportunities are everywhere.
Show Notes
Worst Career Moment
When Simo first started public speaking, he felt he needed to get some experience under his belt. As a result, he took on work that he now regrets doing. The problems were interesting. But he was working for payday loan and alternative medicine companies. Both are industries he is extremely ambivalent about. Worse, looking back, he now realises that working for them was completely unnecessary.
Career Highlight
Becoming an entrepreneur instead of being an employee. At the time he made the move, he was scared out of his pants. Fortunately, it has turned out to be a great journey. Partly because he had put a lot of hard work into his career before making the move. Building a good reputation and a strong network. In the podcast, Simo explains how he prepared himself for becoming an entrepreneur.
The Future
The fact that there will always be a new technological challenge to surmount excites Simo. There is a lot going on in virtually every field, especially quantum computing, IoT, AR, VR, AI, electric cars and autonomous vehicles. With this constantly developing blue ocean of possibilities in front of us, there will be challenges. The fact we are facing some huge problems like climate change adds even more. What is exciting is that we have the potential to solve these with computation or technology.
The Reveal
What first attracted you to a career in I.T.?
The opportunity to turn his hobby into a profession.
What is the best career advice you’ve ever received?
As soon as you feel you cannot learn anything else, it is time to move on.
What is the worst career advice you’ve ever received?
Work hard, maybe in 5 years you will be promoted to management.
If you had to begin your career again in today’s world, what would you do?
Simo would work towards becoming an entrepreneur faster.
What career objectives are you currently focusing on?
Becoming a more effective problem solver by learning even more skills.
What’s the number one non-technical skill that has helped you in your career so far?
Blogging has opened far more doors than anything else he has done.
What do you do to keep your own career energized?
Having a healthy life. A happy family, hobbies, friends and enjoying other activities all of gives him energy.
What do you do in your spare time away from technology?
Simo plays board games, cooks, plays guitar and the ukulele. He loves spending time with his family.
Contact The Guest
Contact Simo Ahava through the following social media platforms:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SimoAhava
LinkedIn: http://fi.linkedin.com/in/simoahava
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