...smokes. Why did you go through such a convoluted professional path? Is it curiosity? Knack for taking up challenge? Economical reasons? Bragging rights?
My path has been weird because I have always been open to new opportunities. I have little interest in climbing a corporate ladder and getting incremental raises every year due to a schedule published by the HR department. Fuck that shit. I like to find some interesting, chewy problem, learn about it, solve it, and then move on to the next problem. That's why all my jobs have come from personal references, and not from Recruiters or LinkedIn, or responding to job postings on web sites. Someone talks to someone else and says, "Dude. You need to talk to this guy I know. He can totally handle that project that is stressing you out right now." And then my phone rings.
I wrote a big long rambling post recounting my life story, but deleted it so I would just get to the point. Here's the thing; Talk to people. Listen to them. Don't just wait for their mouths to stop moving, and then fill the empty space with your words. Instead, actually listen to them. Don't express your opinion. Don't try and solve their problem for them. Just let them talk. People have a lot of shit in their heads, and don't often get a chance to just talk without a specific agenda. When they feel the freedom to just speak to you, then they are very open, and vulnerable, and honest. And, it's weird, but that makes them trust you. THEY open up. THEY express their feelings. THEY tell you things they have never told anyone else. And for some reason that makes them trust YOU. Then, honor that trust. People will ASK for help when they are ready for it. And if they trust you, they will ask you. They will open the door and let you walk in. Every time a big opportunity has come to me in my life, it was because the person who opened that door was someone who trusted me. Someone who I had connected with in some way, and they wanted to help me out by presenting me with an opportunity. That's the long and short of it, really. It is incredibly hard to do, and yet incredibly easy at the same time.
I would still like to hear the big long rambling post, if you're up for it. Thank you for the advice. It's something I've been wondering about for a long time. See, it's lessons like this that I'm in dire need of. The world is one giant mess of relationships between things, and it takes no effort at all to lose the way or to not find it at all, and I appreciate the fact that you've told me what you did.