248: Own Your Career Use a Mentor Set Goals and Make a Plan with Bob Belderbos

<p>Phil’s guest on this episode of the IT Career Energizer podcast is Bob Belderbos. He is a software developer at Oracle, co-author of the 100 Days of Code in Python course and co-founder of PyBites, a community for those wanting to improve their Python skills.</p> <p>To date, Pybites has hosted 50 code challenges, published more than 100 articles and built a Python exercise platform.</p> <p>In this episode, Phil and Bob Belderbos discuss owning your career and how to choose the right skills to acquire. They also talk about how to turn a mistake into a positive situation.</p> <p>Bob also covers how the CoVid crisis, AI and automation are going to change the industry.</p> <p>He and Phil talk about why you need to push yourself and learn how to market yourself effectively and share what you are doing.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>KEY TAKEAWAYS:</strong></p> <p><strong>(2.30) TOP CAREER TIP</strong></p> <p>You have to own your career. It is a mistake to rely on your manager or superior to be in charge of your development.</p> <p>Choose the skills you learn strategically. It is not enough to just focus on things that you feel passionate about.</p> <p><strong>(3.35) WORST CAREER MOMENT</strong></p> <p>In his first role, Bob made an error that caused invoicing issues. It was a serious mistake. Fortunately, he was able to quickly solve the issue. Taking ownership of his mistake and quickly finding a solution enabled Bob to turn a bad situation into a positive one. In the podcast, he explains how that can be done.</p> <p><strong>(5.46) CAREER HIGHLIGHT</strong></p> <p>Bob´s career highlight has been developing his blog, which led to him and his business partner, launching courses, developing a coding platform, and building a huge community. It has opened a lot of doors for him. In the podcast, Bob explains how he gained traction and shared everything with the world.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>(7.54) THE FUTURE OF CAREERS IN I.T</strong></p> <p>The CoVid situation has demonstrated that working from home is viable. So, there is l