The Early Impact #2

Welcome to the second edition of The Early Impact, the newsletter for emerging professionals!

Author

Noah Pincini
April 01, 2024 • Est. Reading Time: 9 minutes

👋 Hello!

Welcome to the second edition of The Early Impact, the newsletter that provides you with news, updates and resources on how to build your career as an emerging professional.

Thank you to everyone who messaged me about the newsletter's first edition. It’s great to hear that people have found the resources useful and look forward to reading future editions.

…so here’s the content I found throughout March!

Let’s get into it!

📰 News & Updates

The monthly roundup of emerging professional news and updates

  • The 30 jobs earning surprise spots in the $100k club (AFR)

  • The Fastest Path to the CEO Job, According to a 10-Year Study (HBR)

  • No degree required: Canva, WiseTech and Culture Amp’s new workforce (AFR)

  • The No. 1 trait bosses look for when promoting employees, says ex-CEO and Harvard expert (CNBC)

  • 10 work hacks from the guru to CBA’s Comyn, Nadella and Branson (AFR)

  • Many Gen Z Workers Say They Get Better Career Advice from ChatGPT Than from Their Manager (LinkedIn)

📑 Publications

Useful references, documents, and sources

  • Workplace Learning Report 2024 (LinkedIn)

  • The Future of Recruiting 2024 (LinkedIn)

  • ACS Skilled Journeys: Navigating IT Migration in Australia (ACS)

  • The Most In-Demand Skills for Recruiters in 2024 (LinkedIn)

  • Student Startup Funding Report '23 (NextGen Ventures)

📢 Opportunities

Limited-time career paths, educational scholarships, and professional growth opportunities that can shape your future

  • Devpost [various hackathons here] (Devpost)

  • Tech Council’s Virtual Work Experience (Tech Council)

  • Westpac Youth Challenge [age 16-21] (Westpac)

  • Data Science Case Competitions (Kaggle)

  • L’Oréal Brandstorm Innovation Competition (L’Oréal)

  • Unilever’s Innovation Challenge (Unilever)

  • Google Summer of Code (Google)

  • Global Case Competition at Harvard (GCCH)

  • Find your passion. Join a community. Explore new hobbies. (Career Diary)

Looking for more opportunities that aren’t time-limited? I’m slowly developing my Emerging Professionals Link Database containing links to job sites, career guidance, learning opportunities and more!

Coming in April!

🗓️ Events

Online and In-Person events for progressing your career

  • Interview Hacks: Secrets to Success [Virtual] (Microsoft)

  • Build Club [Multiple events listed here] (Build Club)

  • QPay: Discover and join university clubs and events [Multiple events listed here] (QPay)

  • Sydney AI, Data and Tech Events [Multiple events listed here] (Syd Events)

  • Melbourne AI, Data and Tech Events [Multiple events listed here] (Mel Events)

🧠 Thought Leadership

Expertise, insight, opinions and experience in careers

  • What’s the right way to find a mentor? (HBR)

  • How to increase your influence at work (HBR)

  • You Don’t Need to Meet Every Qualification to Apply for a Job (HBR)

  • 5 Ways to Make Conference Networking Easier (HBR)

  • When You Make the Leap to Manager (HBR)

  • How Do I Balance My Career Goals with My Company’s Needs? (HBR)

One great career tool you need

There are a lot of online courses out there on the internet, and it can take a lot of work to figure out which one is right for you. This is where Skill Finder can help you, Australia's FREE online course marketplace, giving access to over 3000 online courses provided by the world's leading tech companies.

The project, funded by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources through the Digital Skills Platform Program, offers many courses in 14 categories, including AI, coding, computer basics, design, marketing, security and more.

AWS, Canva, Google, IBM, LinkedIn, Microsoft and more; there’s something for everyone!

🃏Quick Extra

A bonus from me

Following last week’s TEDx talk I shared, I thought I’d share another funny talk. “Thought Leadership“ by Pat Kelly is another short talk that showcases again what excellent presentation skills can do, covering how to talk with your hands, get a standing ovation, and inspire people by saying nothing at all.

It’s a great comedy/satire skit by a ‘Thought Leader’ that will surely inspire your thoughts!

👤 Featured Profile

Spotlighting an emerging professional

For this week’s Featured Profile, it’s my friend Marcel Qayoom-Taylor, a software engineer passionate about climate and social impact-driven projects. I won’t give too much away and will let him introduce himself.

Working on and talking about your projects is the most powerful way to enter any industry. Building in public may seem daunting at first. It can be very scary to share unfinished work as it isnʼt a common sight. But, sharing the journey of your passions and how they manifest into projects, no matter the stage, can be the stepping stone to landing your dream job.

In late 2022, I often stared at my near-empty portfolio, uneasy about how I would become a professional software engineer. After starting and stopping many different projects that I thought employers would like, I gave up. A few weeks later, I remembered a prototype app that Iʼd made in the past that suggested recipes based on ingredients you already own. As it was an interesting premise and I still had the issue, I revisited the app. It was pretty bad but it worked. From that day, I decided to rebuild the project as it was directly aligned with my passion for cooking. Wanting to keep a diary, I started creating content around the development of what has now become PantryPal. While I didnʼt know it at the time, building in public led to significant benefits toward the success of the project and eventually my career too.

Sharing content around your project creates a personal system of commitment. By setting a goal of content frequency, e.g., a weekly LinkedIn post, you become accountable to yourself to make progress, as you'll want to share new developments. Getting into the habit of keeping yourself accountable is key to your project's success and getting noticed in the industry.

While no one may be listening in the beginning, sharing your journey helps build a community of early adopters for your project. Posting progress updates reminds people of you and your work, provoking them to try and share what you're building. Before PantryPal's release, building in public helped grow a group of 150 beta testers, contributing to the quality of the end result. When it comes time to launch, building in public provides an initial user base that you wouldnʼt have originally had.

The community you build early on, especially if posting on LinkedIn, will be those already in the industry. Connecting and getting to know this community will drastically increase the likelihood of future opportunities. Early on, when first talking about PantryPal, I remember I caught the attention of a startup that liked my work and offered me a position that merged software and content creation. By building and sharing, youʼre demonstrating that you possess communication, creativity and technical skills better than anyone could express over a resume. When a job or collaboration opportunity occurs, youʼll be one of the first people that come to mind.

Building commitment, community, and unlocking future opportunities are benefits of building in public for your early career. Do not fear potential negative feedback, as the benefits far outweigh them.

Marcel Qayoom-Taylor (LinkedIn) (Pantry Pal)

…, and that’s all for this month’s edition of The Early Impact. Feel free to hit 'reply' and let me know how I did!

Cheers,

Noah

P.S. I post on LinkedIn biweekly about cybersecurity, emerging technology, careers, and learning & development.