Steven McEvoy is a senior systems analyst and DevOps professional in Canada. Earlier this year he wrote a really cool blog post (Jason Alba – Pluralsight, JibberJobber, Author and more) just about my courses… here are some of my favorite parts:
Okay, that title is pretty cool. I work in a home office (with a distributed team, of course) and sometimes it’s easy to feel alone and not remember some of the things I’ve accomplished. Just seeing those three major accomplishments is pretty cool. For job seekers: when you feel lonely, alone, or unaccomplished, start listing (aka brainstorming) ANY accomplishment you’ve ever had. EVER. Big, small, everything. This could be a running list that will grow. You might be surprised at all the cool things you’ve ever done, but have forgotten. Need a pickmeup? That is it!
“I am very impressed with Jason’s presenting style. He is engaging, entertaining and honest. His courses are great.” Here’s a bit of the backstory: When I sat down to do my first Pluralsight course I was quite lost. I was just finishing a run of speaking for a few years in person. Probably hundreds of presentations on a stage, and I don’t know how many dozens of webinars. From a stage I feed off of the audience’s energy. The first laugh I get is all I need to keep going. In a webinar, I get way less feedback, but I do monitor the chat window, and sometimes there are others who are talking. I had trained my presentations skills to be optimized for a live audience. But doing a recording course? WAY different. In my live course I like to have very few words on a slide. In a record course, I don’t have eye contact, I can’t gauge engagement, and one word slides, I think, weren’t going to work. Anyway, this is too long to say: it took me a while to find and hone my style. And I’m really grateful that it’s appreciated. For job seekers: sometimes (many times?) we just have to get out of our comfort zone, whether we want to or not.
“He teaches on a wide range of skills and competencies that will help you grow, but not just in your abilities at work these skills can transfer to all areas of your life.” Yes…. my hope is that your soft/people skills will improve and you will have richer relationships, at work, and outside of work. Imagine improving ourselves so we are better in all of our relationships, not just the ones at work. For job seekers: you can tell an employer the obvious (that you are good at your job) but can you illustrate the benefits they will get from your job well-done?
“I will warn you once you start learning with Jason or Pluralsight you won’t want to stop you might become hooked…” That is pretty nice to say 🙂 For job seekers: What are you doing, or what can you do, to have employers and network contacts “hooked” on you?
I recently submitted the proposal for my 30th Pluralsight course. 30 is a lot… I don’t know how many authors have that many courses. I’m glad to offer a 30 day pass to JibberJobber users, where they can watch all of my courses (or any of the almost 5,000 courses) at no cost. After 30 days, a monthly subscription is a low $29. Bonus: Every time yoiu watch a Jason Alba course, report back and we’ll upgrade you on JibberJobber for a few days. There is no limit to this bonus. Learn how here.