Why I’m leaving a job (and people) I love
On Friday, I left the greatest job of my life. I was the Student Community Lead at Flatiron School London.
Not only do I believe it’s the best of my life, it’s the best job at the Flatiron School. I get to see students realise their potential, make a massive change to what they’re doing right now and become software engineers. I also get to run some really cool events, which is totally a professional benefit…
It’s amazing because I get to see ppl go from an egg to an master of their domain (which is mastering learning to learn.)
What happened, you bloody loved this gig?
Well yeah, I certainly do.
If I’d have stayed with Flatiron School, there would have been multiple opportunities for growth. WeWork have invested stacks into the brand, and the team over at HQ (and let’s not forget, the incredible folks at campus) are growing at an awesome rate.
Personally, I've been watching others realise and actualise their potential for quite some time. It began, I guess, with HHH (a cool founder tech community), moved to TechLondon.io (where I saw startups get funded, build great products), then moved to Makers Academy, and then to Flatiron School. I’ve been part of a story.
And that’s the thing, I’ve been a part of it. A supporting actor.
I’ve learnt almost everything I know about community by osmosis. Just being around brilliant people that are great at what they do. Mark/Jess from Jellymedia, Ben from Claremont PR, Rob from HHH, Jon/Simon/Joost/Gus at TechLondon.io, Andrew/Marcus from businessesforsale.com, Jordan/Dana from Makers and about 50 people from Flatiron School (highlights including Melissa, Joe, Katie, Avi, Michelle, Rishi, Ryan, Niky , Brooke, Bhav, Emilys, Eric, Steven, Sarah and more).
I think my shortcoming is that I haven’t learnt anything that’s been hard. I’ve kind of just picked things up. Core skills wise, I’ve picked up the minimum needed to get by, and relied on what I’ve picked up by osmosis for the rest.
I believe I’m a naturally good communicator. I don’t think I’ve learnt how to do this, it’s part of a natural talent. Applying that to building and growing communities feels like a natural use of a talent, and not something I’ve worked hard to learn.
By way of contrast, students come to Flatiron School, give their complete selves to the education team and each other for 15 weeks, and put a massive amount of effort into learning something hard, changing the way they think, and transforming into Software Engineers.
I think at 35, with 19 years of work experience that I owe it to myself to realise my full potential, like they have. I can only do this with maximum effort.
Next?
I’m going to give myself a while to discover what I want to do, how I want to learn. I want to continue to use my experience around communities in some form, but I’m not yet set on how. I’m not going to rush this, and I’m going to forgive myself if I try something and don’t like it.
I’ve been studying Python, and I’m exploring the concept of ‘Community Engineer’.
Not only does it sound really cool, but if I can understand enough Python (and like, about a million other things), I can help existing, growing and new communities set processes and tools of measurement in place to get the most out of their communities.
It could be applied to so many areas too. I’ll see where I can take it.
Holding myself accountable
I’ll need to keep to a routine to help keep myself accountable to my future. I plan on including regular meditation, yoga, exercise, study, meetups, social slot and chores. My previous work schedule did much of this, but now I’m running solo, I need to find a system.
For study, I’m thinking about using Trello, breaking down my Python study into Trello cards and checking out my velocity of learning using burn down charts. I could run personal study Sprints, which could be a cool way to help me create a vision of when I’ll be applying my new skills. What do you think about using tools like this?
I’ve also started to fill in my personal calendar. I imagine there’ll be plenty more entries added, but it’s building nicely now. It’ll help me keep on track.
I’m going to write about my journey, which will be super useful to me, and might help others’ considering a huge change.
My final note is to thank the students at Flatiron School and Makers, in particular London-web-060418. I’ve had the thoughts about becoming bigger than my current self for some time, but watching you grow over the last 7 weeks has really pushed me past the line.
Wish me luck
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