236: Why Altruism Really Pays as Does the Right Work-Life Balance with Simo Ahava

<p>Phil’s guest on this episode of the IT Career Energizer podcast is Simo Ahava. He is a recognised expert on customizing web analytics and tag management solutions to improve the entire “life cycle” of data collection, processing and reporting.</p> <p> </p> <p>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.</p> <p> </p> <p>He is also a partner and co-founder at 8-bit-sheep, a prolific blogger and an experienced conference speaker.</p> <p> </p> <p>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.</p> <p> </p> <p>Simo also shares how to prepare for entrepreneurship and when to make the switch from being an employee.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>KEY TAKEAWAYS:</strong></p> <p><strong>(4.36) TOP CAREER TIP</strong></p> <p>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.</p> <p> </p> <p>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.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>(7.01) WORST CAREER MOMENT</strong></p> <p>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.</p> <p> </p> <p>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.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>(10.06) CAREER HIGHLIGHT</strong></p> <p>Becoming an entrepreneur instead of being an employee. At the time he made the mo