Matthew Lang

I know and I'm sure you know that networking is important, but I didn't realise how important it was until a couple of weeks ago.

At the start of the year I made a choice to move away from what I perceived to be an in-secure job in an agile development back to my previous job in an ERP consultancy working with Dynamics NAV. Having resided myself to a career of working with Dynamics NAV, I deleted my LinkedIn account and stopped looking for work in the Ruby community.Fast forward six months and I have been paid off from the ERP consultancy due to budget constraints within the company and I have exhausted all leads in the west of Scotland for Dynamics NAV work. What to do now?

I had very few people in my network that I could turn to to ask about possible leads for freelance and permanent work.I fell back to Twitter for a couple of days to see if any of my followers were looking for a developer. It lead to one interview. The interview wasn't successful, but it was still a potential job and that's what having a good network is all about. Making sure that you are well connected to people that can help find you leads and opportunities. Even though I hadn't posted on Twitter for a while, people were still reaching out with suggestions.

I decided to create another LinkedIn account again to see if I cold improve on my search for a job. The last time I had a LinkedIn account I didn't use it to look for jobs or keep my profile updated with what I was working on. This time it will be different.Having spent the last couple of weeks looking for work I've started to see the benefits of using your professional network more regularly. In he last week alone I've had a number of messages from people I have previously worked with who have leads for potential jobs.

Don't neglect your professional network, it's important. Keep people updated with changes in your employment status and projects you are working on. You never know, it could lead to a great opportunity for you when you need it the most.

Functional bike clothing is great, but so is functional bike clothing that you can wear when you're on the bike for nipping down to the shops.

This jacket from iMiNUSD ticks all the boxes.

Writing, real writing, makes you smarter.

via Who Writes For You

I need to do this more often. Much more often.

Not surprised at all that so many corporate blogs are very rarely updated.

I've seen too many company blogs that are simply half-ass attempts are trying to keep them up to date. More worrying though is the number of company websites that don't even have a blog.

— 7 Reasons No One Reads Your Company Blog... by Successful Blog

via Cultural Offering

Michael Wade examines places where you achieve more work.

It is obvious that where we work can affect how we work. Consequently, we need to learn which settings are best. A certain oddness may come into play. I've found that my home dining room table is ideal for some projects and not for others. The reason why has not been discovered but I suspect it may have to do with its height and width as well as the nice amount of light from some French doors.

Our den at home is a place for adults only. It's really just a second sitting room and office but I always find it a great space for working. Minimal distractions and clutter.
— Stacking Deck by Execupundit

... with Kurt Harden.

... with your own creative director, Nicholas Bate.

via FGGT / Photo by Father Tu