I've never thought of myself as all that smart or really an expert in anything useful. The majority of what I would call true, factual knowledge lies in useless information. For instance, I'm the GOAT for random basketball and baseball facts (example: I can name the entire starting lineup from the 1997 Yankees and I know more about second round NBA draft picks than anyone should dedicate mental space for). I also believe that I cook the best cast iron steak of all time [ed.note: I will die on this hill]. I didn't go to college to study finance or CS or pre-med. I studied political sciences and philosophy (read: dinner party chat, another area where I'm basically Michael Jordan).
So outside of useless information and really good red meat, I feel really awkward making the claim to knowing anything that might be of much value.
That being said, I've spent a lot of time in the startup/professional world and experienced a lot of things that most people don't: Two IPOs, +10x company growth 3 times, switching from ops to product, to ops, to product and back to ops again. I also navigated entering the crazy job market in 2009 and found a path that lead me to doing things I love with people I care about on both coasts.
I say that all to say, while I'm not an expert in much, I have experience doing a lot. I also get questions on LinkedIn and at events about careers, job opportunities, and my thoughts on what to focus on in ones career, a lot.
I'm starting this blog (and more widely my website) as an attempt to catalogue advice through my experiences and create more accessibility to my time in the hope that it's useful in some way to whoever randomly comes across it and might find it useful.
With that, I'll attempt to do two things:
Be as honest and open as possible about experiences I've had and my advice.
Post weekly(....this one will be tough [Update: I've already done a terrible job! Working on it]).
Let's see how it goes.
-SCM