Career Planning by Marc Andreessen

http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/09/the-pmarca-gu-1.html http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/10/the-pmarca-guid.htmlhttp://blog.pmarca.com/2007/10/the-pmarca-gu-1.html

 Summary by Jeff McNeill

jeff@jeffmcneill.comhttp://jeffmcneill.com

2008, 2009

Contents

• Do not plan career• Pursue opportunities• See career as portfolio• What to study in school• Continuously develop skills• Develop five key skills• What industry to be in• What company to choose• Time to challenge yourself• Why?

Do Not Plan Career

• Cannot plan a careero Not predictable, too complexo Too much change taking placeo Planning will lead to frustration

• Insteado Develop Skillso Pursue Opportunitieso Systematically assess opportunities

Pursue Opportunities

• Two kinds of opportunitieso Those which present themselveso Those you create and can seek out

• Every opportunity has risk/reward profileo What you can get from the opportunityo What you will risk in pursuing it

See Career as Portfolio

• Portfolio of Jobs, Roles, Opportunities• Each has risk/reward profile• Evaluate opportunity against portfolio

o Instead of independentlyo Take more risk when it makes senseo Take less risk when it makes sense

• Each opportunity has some risk• Take risk strategically

What to Study in School

• Technical degree• Best university for the degree• Find the biggest/best pond

o Don't worry about small fish/big pond• Gain practical experience ASAP

o Work during school yearo As many internships as possible

• Get grad degree in something usefulo Business, econ, computer science, etc.

Continuously Develop Skills

• Graduating from school is only first step in developing portfolio of useful skills

• Become a double or triple threato Become top 25% in two or more areaso Easier to do and more rare/valuableo Combining different kinds of degrees can create double-

threat Double major in different fields Different grad and undergrad

Develop Five Key Skills

• Learn Communication o "by doing, by practicing, by taking classes... and by

reading a lot"• Learn Management from a great manager• Learn Sales by selling• Learn Finance from books • Get on-the-ground International experience in other

countries

What Industry to be in

• Industry where founders are still aliveo This will have growth, change, flux

• Or a very old industry in which there is an opportunity to change everything

• Get to the center of the industryo Which company to work foro Which city to live in

• If not biggest or most powerful industry or company or city, one with the most change

Which Company to choose

• Develop skills in high-growth company o Get to do lots of stuffo Probably get promoted quicklyo High-energy, rapidly-changing, sharp people, high

expectationso Reputational benefit

• Then startup to put them to work• "Learn everything you can about the business and the

industry in which you find yourself"

Time to Challenge Yourself

In my opinion, it's now critically important to get into the real world and really challenge yourself -- expose yourself to risk -- put yourself in situations where you will succeed or fail by your own decisions and actions, and where that success or failure will be highly visible.   By failure I don't mean getting a B or even a C, but rather: having your boss yell at you in front of your peers for screwing up a project, launching a product and seeing it tank, being unable to meet a ship date, missing a critical piece of information in a financial report, or getting fired.

Why?

Why? If you're going to be a high achiever, you're going to be in lots of situations where you're going to be quickly making decisions in the presence of incomplete or incorrect information, under intense time pressure, and often under intense political pressure.  You're going to screw up -- frequently -- and the screwups will have serious consequences, and you'll feel incredibly stupid every time. It can't faze you -- you have to be able to just get right back up and keep on going.    That may be the most valuable skill you can ever learn. Make sure you start learning it early.