Long-Term Career Planning: Achieving Success in Technology

Taking 3 years to learn new skills can significantly improve one's career and financial prospects in the long run, despite initial sacrifices.

### The Power of Long-Term Thinking in Career Development
* 🕰 "We waste our time with **short-term thinking** and **busy work**."
* 💡 Making a significant career change often requires a few years of **dedicated learning and hard work**.
* 💼 By investing a **relatively small portion of your working years** in acquiring new skills, you can **significantly increase your earning potential and career prospects**.
* 📈 This long-term perspective can help you **break out of stagnation** and **avoid wasting valuable time**.
* 🚀 The key is to **set specific goals**, create a **detailed plan to achieve them**, and think more about the **big picture** than the immediate challenges.
* 🌐 There are abundant opportunities in the world of technology, and by learning **foundational skills that are not easily automated**, you can adapt to different roles and industries.
* 🧠 "Learning to solve problems, make decisions, and communicate ideas effectively are **harder skills** that can provide **long-term value**."
* 🛣 While the exact timeline and path may vary, taking a **proactive and forward-thinking approach to career development** can lead to **lasting success and fulfillment**.

most of us live so shortsighted. Let's say you have your Prime working years from say 20 to 50, that's 30 years. And at 25 years old, you fall in love with coding, or data science, or machine learning, or building a YouTube channel based around your personality, or a blog, or really anything. Maybe going back to school for a PhD. And you decide that you're going to do what it takes to shift careers and leave a job you hate. It's a big life decision, but it's one that will greatly benefit you in the long run. So you a lot three years of learning, sacrifice, and study. You have to cancel plans and cancel trips, maybe time with friends, late nights to make it work. And you do it. You spend 3 years learning to code, building projects, Making Connections, getting certifications, maybe internships. And then after 3 years, you've gained the skills to become very marketable. You know your algorithms, you've picked up Real World experience, and you land the job. Well, guess what, at that point, you're still under 30. In fact

you're just 28 years old. It only took 3 years out of your 30-year window, but now you're making three times the salary, and you have the baseline by which to increase that from here on out. Now, instead of doing something like this, we want quick results. We don't want to spend 3 years doing anything. We want to complain about the problems we have, about the economy. We don't create any plan of action. We spend our time leaving critical YouTube comments, jumping around to different tutorials, criticizing others, and guess what? 3 years passes you by. 3 years of completely unproductive and wasted effort. Now you've spent 3 years out of the 30, but you're in the same spot that you were before. There's 3 years to change your life, three out of 30, remember, or 3 years wasted, still at the starting point. If you've ever read this really helpful book, The Almanac of Novel riant, there's a quote in it that says we waste our time with short-term thinking.

and busy work. Warren Buffett spends a year deciding in a day acting that act lasts decades or in a case 3 years of hard work and then a day of life-changing action changing careers changing your life increasing your salary and that change has a lasting impact on your life for years and decades to come. When I learned a code over 7 years ago, yes, it was easier, but it was still hard for a person with no technical background outside of being good at computers. After 10 years at a job paying me a Max of $37,000 a year, I woke up, I put in the work, and was able to instantly triple that as a result immediately, and that set a baseline salary that all subsequent jobs would have to match or increase for me to take the role. Now it took me about 6 months of hard work, then I would say it's more like a year of hard work now, but I started at 34, and I was still 34 when I made the transition. I actually have a video on that story. I link to it above.

make some coffee. One day, take a drive. I think you'll find it encouraging. But my point is, is that we see 3 years as this long, drawn-out period of time. We think of it in terms of all the things we miss out on in that period of time. But I'm here to say that if you don't create a game plan for what you want in life and put it into action, those three years will pass without having made any significant improvement in your position. People work decades moving up the corporate ladder, and then when they're 50, they finally become a manager or have taken some significant step that they're happy about. In all those many years of hard work has paid off. They're so thankful and they celebrate. But I'm here to say that that's a foolish way of thinking for many. And I say that because we don't really live in that period of time where you can keep a job for that long. But instead of increasing your pay by a th000 a year for 30 years, take some

time and learn a hard technical skill that will put you in a new Financial brand especially with this growth of AI many see this as a threat. I see it as a bunch of new opportunities not just in coding or software development or engineering but many new doors opening in the broad scope of Technology. Choose a path and become the best. Added but Travis the economy is hard now it's too late it's too much work the chances are slim. I can barely pay my bills. I hear you but I respond in that the opportunities are actually endless. You won't land a Fang job. You probably won't hit six figur years in your first job. You'll have lots of rejections and frustrations but you could land a job at the local College IT department or the local Factory or a small web agency or a freelancing role or perhaps you carve out your own path with some app that you build or a YouTube channel that you grow or whatever. We all look to the same job boards but that's like 1% of the

opportunity in the world, especially with the world at their fingertips or literally in their pockets. Take time to learn the foundations that allow you to do a vast number of things in a particular field. What if, in addition to learning programming, you learned how computers work and sharpened up your math skills, and then applied those to how programming actually works? In doing so, you're not just a JavaScript developer or a python developer, but a technician who can shift around as the industry changes and evolves. Learning the actual programming is easy; learning to solve problems, making decisions, and conveying ideas well, those are harder. But if you spend additional time on these skills, skills that can't be automated, then who really cares about AI taking over? You're able to pick up whatever you need along the way. And say it takes 3 years. Again, if you're 30 and it takes 3 years, you're only 33 when you've achieved what you want. Now, I'm not saying you need to do this. I'm not saying it will take exactly 3 years, but

I am saying stop living so shortsighted. Expecting things to happen so quickly without putting in the hard work or taking the time needed to do it. First, make a plan. What do you want? Second, how do you get there? You need to create very specific steps that you can stick to, that progressively guide you to your goal. And third, how long will it take you to get there? This is the step where you need to actually zoom out and look at the big picture. Spend more time in the big picture than the immediate state you're in when it comes to career planning and life goals. I'll leave some resources below that may help you out. But if you found this video helpful, give it a thumbs up. If you haven't subscribed, consider doing so. And I'll see you guys in the next video.

Why You’ll WASTE The Next 3 Years…

Hi, my name is Travis and I am a self-taught software developer of 7 years. 

I learned to code and stepped out as a full-time freelance within 1 year. Since then I have entertained full-stack development, DevOps, and Site Reliability Engineering and have documented my journey here on the channel.

Here you'll find coding tutorials, career advice, professional coding tips, life hacks, and the ups and downs of this highly enriching journey of software engineering. 

I make videos specifically for YOU and if there is anything specific you would like to request please don't hesitate to ask. 

If all this sounds like something that can help you on your own coding journey, consider subscribing and joining me along the way!

Kind Regards, 

Travis

Travis Media

The Long-Term Benefits of Investing 3 Years in Career Change

Making a 3-year investment in learning a new skill can significantly increase future earning potential, even within a 30-year prime career window.

Short-sightedness and a lack of long-term planning often lead to unproductive use of time and missed opportunities for career growth.

The importance of shifting from short-term thinking to a more strategic and goal-oriented approach is emphasized, as highlighted in "The Almanac of Novel Riant.

The Impact of Hard Work on Career Advancement

Learning to code and putting in hard work led to a significant increase in salary and set a baseline for future earnings.

The idea of needing years to make significant improvements in one's career is challenged, as taking action can lead to immediate results.

Rethinking the traditional mindset of slowly advancing over decades, and instead focusing on taking action to create a more rapid impact on career progression.

Embracing Opportunities in the Tech Industry

The growth of AI is creating numerous opportunities in the field of technology, beyond just coding and software development.

Despite the challenges and rejections, there are endless possibilities for employment in local IT departments, freelancing, or creating a unique path in the tech industry.

By focusing on learning the foundations of technology, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, individuals can adapt to the evolving industry and remain valuable despite the threat of AI.

Make a clear plan for your goals, with specific and achievable steps.

Focus more on the big picture and long-term perspective rather than immediate results.

Take the time to map out how long it will take to reach your objectives.