HPCwire: Brand You: The Key to Actively Managing Your Career in HPC

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September 22, 2006

Brand You: The Key to Actively Managing Your Career in HPC

by John E. West

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When I started my career 12 years ago, no one ever talked to me about career management. It was up to me to decide what I wanted to be doing next and then to guess what it was going to take to get me there. Worse, it was up to me to realize that it was up to me to make those decisions.

"Career management" sounds like something you should be doing, right? Not managing your career means you are letting someone else steer the career train for you and you'll end up where they want you to be. Worse, it could mean that no one is steering and then who knows where you'll end up?

But how to get started? You should read a book on marketing and selling services.

Many of us in HPC started as scientists or engineers and we shudder at the thought of sales and marketing. The very idea brings up images of car salesmen, snake oil, and telemarketing. The small person in our heads says, "I'm not in sales!"

Oh, but you are. It turns out that as a technologist, you are selling the same thing as a contractor that wants to remodel your house -- a service. And if you are going to lead others, or even just have a successful career as a technical team member, you've got to learn to sell your service.

Services are different from products

Services are different from products in several ways that make service customers very uncomfortable. If you can understand these differences and manage them with respect to Your Brand and your services, then you will be miles ahead of your peers.

When you are buying a product (some thing, like a car), you can experience it. You can smell it and touch it. You can check out the product before you buy it, and know ahead of time that it is right for you and your needs. Products are tangible, and being able to have a personal connection with a product reduces the consumer's fears before the sale.

A service, on the other hand, is intangible. You cannot touch, taste, smell, or feel the competence or trustworthiness of any of the contracting services you are evaluating to remodel your home. You also, for the most part, cannot meaningfully provide or receive a warranty on services, and this is the source of fear for consumers.

When a large amount of money is invested in buying a service, most of us have a whole lot of fear that we'll end up getting bad service and not being able to do anything about it. A building contractor may provide a warranty on his workmanship when he remodels your house, but do you really want to have to rely on the warranty? Can you do without your kitchen for another six months while he fixes his mistakes from the first six months? Do you really want him trying to fix them? What if he fails again?

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