I think we don't recognize the role of luck enough in our lives/careers.
Let me give you an example from my own life:
I was talking with my boss recently and he brought up why he looked at my application out of the hundreds he got (remote positions advertised on StackOverflow get a LOT of applications).
Basically the whole reason I have the job I have is because the first guy who hired him for a dev job is named Paul Cook so when he saw my application he was curious if I was his former boss.
And that was the reason he gave me a call.
Of course, I had to interview well and be a compelling candidate, but with hundreds of other people applying he could have just as easily never taken a look at my resume.
So, what about you?
What role has luck played in your career?
Latest comments (3)
DEV was spun out of luck - I was lucky that @ben went to summer camp with my friend, Tara, from college. I was lucky that Tara was playing a show in NYC one day and ran into Ben's brother in the street and they reconnected and we all met. I was lucky that four years later I was playing a show where Ben's brother was in attendance and I bothered to tell him that I had just graduated a bootcamp. I was lucky that he remembered that Ben was looking for help on his side project, and I was lucky Ben decided to email me back :)
Good Luck: My first boss gave me a huge amount of time and space to learn on the job.
Bad Luck: My first boss and the rest of the senior team left 9 months into the job and his replacement had a very different outlook.
Bad Luck: Circumstances have lead to me switching jobs more than I would like.
Good Luck: Bouncing around jobs has been almost wholly beneficial to my career.
I was lucky to be given the opportunity to go on a temporary project (which wasn't normal for someone in my team to do). I was then lucky that my dad persuaded me to take the project.
Doing so has led me to changing jobs and holding a role that I am very happy with. It has also provided me with opportunities to speak. I will be doing my first solo presentation at a conference in a couple of days.
This is far and beyond where I was a year ago before I happened to have a bit of luck!