This was my first catch up with Alex as him being my mentor. Here are my notes..

Happy where I am now… Always wanted to be a software developer Can’t see the outcome of what you do - a lot of people struggle with that

Alex’s thoughts around what my brand is…

Alex’s thoughts around career path…

Career path has absolutely nothing to do with company, company is a mechanism for us to learn things and progress
Look outside the context of the organization for career progression
If you want to be a HOD, you need to be a HOD in any organization, not just at current company
Look at 3 or 4 companies that are looking for HOD’s, look at what they are looking for
Then ask what are the core skills they are looking for, what are the skills you need to develop to reach those

Work life balance is seasonal
The challnege at current company is people working at the right levels
Constantly asking if what I’m doing is at the right level, is this something that head of engineering should be doing or something that DM sould be doing
If people are not operating at the right level, they drive other people to work at the wrong level
Execs should be looking at 12 to 18 months
If the people below you are not operating at the right level and you need to pick up the gaps, then it forces you to pick people up below you
You should be helping them pick up so you can get that

list all the actiivities that you are doing over a period of time
Ask, is this something you should be doing or is there someone else that should be doing

Being a high performer means feeling uncomfortable all the time
We are always looking for bright people, if these bright people are not feeling challenge or being pushed harder then they will leave
You can’t be too uncomfortable so that work life balance is out of whack
You have to have an element of feeling out of control to push extra growth but it shouldn’t mess up work life balance

Put a written career development plan
Alex to take through process he follows
Look outside at what a HOD is for in the market
Job Description / Job Ads
Speak to a recruitment agaency on roles tht they have recruited
Look at current company’s PD for a HOD
Have a chat with a couple of people that are HOD’s today (Chat with Sohail, Tony Young, Grant, speak to Alex when we catch up)
Focus on identifying the skills that you need, document all of the skills
Create a skills matrix
Once you have compiled all these sources do a self assesment to make a plan
Next time we catch up for a big chunk of the time go through how we create a plan, how do we structure it, how do you plan for a plan