312: Communication Skills Are Essential and Life Goals Are A Marathon, Not A Sprint with Jessica Chan

<p>In this week’s show, Phil talks to Jessica Chan, a self-taught web developer who provides practical tips and tutorials for beginners in web development which she shares through blog posts and her YouTube channel, ‘Coder Coder’.</p> <p>Jessica talks about why communication skills are so important in an IT career. She also discusses the importance of patience when it comes to setting life goals.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>KEY TAKEAWAYS:</strong></p> <p><strong>TOP CAREER TIP</strong></p> <p>Communication skills are equally as important as the technical skills we need, in order to have a successful IT career.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>WORST CAREER MOMENT</strong></p> <p>While working on a website redesign, Jessica mistakenly deleted a huge amount of work and was unable to retrieve it. While it was touch and go for a while, Jessica learned to keep backups!</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>CAREER HIGHLIGHT</strong></p> <p>Being able to quit her full time job as a developer and focus on content creation, teaching others how to engage with coding and fulfilling her ambitions to become more independent.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>THE FUTURE OF CAREERS IN I.T</strong></p> <p>The growth of developer advocate roles, in which developers are asked to create content, is fascinating and is pushing the industry forward.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>THE REVEAL</strong></p> <p><strong>What first attracted you to a career in I.T.?</strong> – Jessica taught herself coding and programming and developed a love for computers from an early age.</p> <p><strong>What’s the best career advice you received?</strong> – Always keep your audience in mind.</p> <p><strong>What’s the worst career advice you received?</strong> – To become a teacher, which was not a fit for Jessica’s personality or skill-set.</p> <p><strong>What would you do if you started your career now?</strong> – Jessica wishes she had seen the potential in an actual career in IT a lot sooner.</p> <p><strong>What are your current career objectives?</strong> – To make Coder-Coder financially sustai