Careers - Sean Blanda

Careers

A collection of 18 posts

The Dark Matter Influencer

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The Dark Matter Influencer

There is a deceptively large (and growing) quiet class of king maker.

Our remote work future is going to suck

Careers Featured

Our remote work future is going to suck

Why are we always assuming a distributed workforce is a good thing for the worker?

Your 30s are a time to go for it (or not)

Your 30s are a time to go for it (or not)

When I talk to friends and acquaintances about work, we dance around similar question. What is enough? Should I get off the career train and focus elsewhere?

What I wish I knew five years ago about building a career in "content"

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What I wish I knew five years ago about building a career in "content"

As of this writing, there are more than 1,000 content marketing positions on AngelList. It’s not only startups. A recent Axios story [https://www.axios.com/job-of-the-future-editor-in-chief-1dde0e58-4dc3-4dfc-8a07-41494f5c635f.html] highlights how Netflix, Airbnb, Blackrock, Robinhood, Stripe and other large orgs are launching new content ventures. In 2019, it’s

How to take a sabbatical

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How to take a sabbatical

This won’t be like every other blog post about travel. Your narrator won’t be casually doing something awesome when suddenly there is a life-changing revelation. That’s not how life actually works. This, instead, is an essay about something harder than sitting on a beach and Instagramming about

The Creative World’s Bullshit Industrial Complex

The Creative World’s Bullshit Industrial Complex

As editor of 99U, my inbox is (thankfully) filled with pitches of all kinds. Mainly, writers who’d like to contribute to this site and speakers who’d like to throw their hat in the ring for our yearly 99U Conference. And most times, when we dig deeper into a

The Most Defensible Thing You Can Do for Your Career: Build an Audience

The Most Defensible Thing You Can Do for Your Career: Build an Audience

Tell me if this has ever happened to you: A well-known person in your field loses their job with impressive company X. Deep, deep inside you feel a vague sense of guilty satisfaction. They weren’t that talented anyway, you tell yourself. This will clear room for more up-and-coming talent,

Bevel’s Tristan Walker: The Best Ideas Are Brewed out of Authenticity

Entrepreneurship

Bevel’s Tristan Walker: The Best Ideas Are Brewed out of Authenticity

At 18, Tristan Walker had never even heard of Silicon Valley. By the time he turned 30, the New York City-native could boast of successful stints at cornerstones like Twitter, Foursquare, and as an entrepreneur in residence with the legendary venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. It was there, after working

I Had Help.

Earlier this month at the 99U Conference, ThinkUp co-founder Anil Dash spoke on the trajectory of careers: “Someone opened the door for you, they replied to your email, had coffee with you, interviewed you…that’s something that changed the direction of your career,” he said. He challenged the audience

Molly Crabapple: The Best Path Is the One You Build Out of Your Own Dysfunction

Molly Crabapple: The Best Path Is the One You Build Out of Your Own Dysfunction

Matisse once opined that “Creativity takes courage.” Part artist, part journalist,Molly Crabapple [http://mollycrabapple.com/]has both in spades.The New York-based illustrator has reported from war-torn Syria and Guantanamo Bay, among other places, with a unique blend of gonzo-esque essay writing paired with raw portraits of humanity’s

A Troublemaker’s Manifesto: The Benefits of Wandering

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A Troublemaker’s Manifesto: The Benefits of Wandering

Psychologists are now seriously discussingextending the start of “adulthood” to 25 [https://web.archive.org/web/20170703090307/http://www.medicaldaily.com/adulthood-extended-age-25-child-psychologists-uk-257835] . This is because, to them, young people are taking a while to “get started,” or to begin checking all of the boxes that used to define adulthood. To

The Narrative Fallacy: Why You Shouldn't Copy Steve Jobs

The Narrative Fallacy: Why You Shouldn't Copy Steve Jobs

There are dozens of blog posts about Ben Franklin’s strict daily routine (and they all almost always includethis picture [http://cdn.99u.com//wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Ben-Franklin-Schedule.jpg]), advocating that we should follow suit. Writers love to point out how Maya Angelou made sure she wrote in a

Want a Long Career? Zig When Everyone Else Zags.

Want a Long Career? Zig When Everyone Else Zags.

Fred Seibert is the king of downplay. He will be the first to tell you he doesn’t have a ton of skills—that his success is just something that happened to him and wasn’t the result of any calculated plan. But Seibert can afford the humility, because his

Let’s Kill The Job Title

Let’s Kill The Job Title

One of my favorite career lessons comes courtesy of Dave Chappelle in the movie “Half Baked.” In the beginning of the film, his character, Thurgood, tells the story of his career path. As he is mopping floors, he tells us, “I, myself, am a master of the custodial arts. Or

You Don’t Need To Learn To Code + Other Truths About the Future of Careers

You Don’t Need To Learn To Code + Other Truths About the Future of Careers

There’s a reason most “conventional” career advice sucks: the world is changing at a rapid clip. When well-meaning mentors give advice based on their experiences decades ago, it’s kind of like teaching someone how to drive using a horse and buggy. In his latest book,Average Is Over

10 Tips for an Awesome Coffee Meeting

10 Tips for an Awesome Coffee Meeting

The coffee meeting is the Swiss Army knife of networking. It’s a low-risk way to meet new people, swap advice, and lay the foundation for a more substantial relationship.If the concept of a coffee meeting is foreign to you, you only have to remember one guiding principle: never,

The Introversion Bubble

The Introversion Bubble

Recently, I attended a conference alone. When it came to the conference’s opening night cocktail hour, I was a bit nervous. I knew none of the attendees, and nobody wants to be the person standing alone at a party, fiddling around on their phone pretending to answer email. After

The Jeff Bezos School of Long-Term Thinking

The Jeff Bezos School of Long-Term Thinking

If you want to know about Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ obsession with longevity, all you have to do is read up about his side projects. You could check out his super-secretive aerospace company, Blue Origin. Or you could look in the Sierra Diablo Mountain Range in Texas, where Bezos is