I'm giving the Career 2.0 talk tonight at the RTP Java User's Group. It's got a lot of material feeding into the book of similar name.
Please come out and let me know what you think. Here's the description.
Has your career been a random product of your manager's whims or company's needs? Never rely on your company to keep your skills current and marketable. Take control of your own career with a proven strategy.
These are solid, repeatable steps to get your career in the trajectory you want. The first step is deciding where you want to go. We'll walk through creating a long-term plan, then break it down into manageable steps. Learn to lead within your own company, then stretch out to your local, regional and national community, building your reputation as you go. From coding to writing to speaking, each step will move you closer to where you want to be: in a position of having options and in control of your career.
A number of people have asked me if the talk is about quitting your job. Absolutely not. It's about keeping yourself up to date so that you have options, inside or outside of your current job.