Johnny Harris' Stepping Stones 🧗♂️
Hey everyone,
I’ve written in the past about Johnny Harris, a YouTuber I enjoy who used to work at Vox on the Borders series.
This week, I watched a video from Johnny called How I Got My Job at Vox in which he tells the story of moving up in the video world, and his experience and recommendations resonated with me in a big way. My main takeaway from Johnny’s experience is take the job that grows your skills.
Johnny consistently looked for jobs in which he could get a lot of practice in the and build his portfolio, even if the jobs weren’t ideal. He says:
I was applying to any job that would get my hands on the tools. That would allow me to make more stuff and get better at this stuff.
I think this approach can be applied to most careers. Nobody expects an entry-level job to be a dream position. So what do you do? Focus on learning and getting more reps in.
I think it’s okay to take a less-than-stellar job if you can be confident that you’ll learn skills that will help you get where you want to go. That’s what Johnny did, and I’ve had a few jobs like that as well. Where have you prioritized learning over excitement?
Pete’s Picks ✅
(Spanish) Series: I’ve been trying to find stuff on Netflix that will entertain and also allow me to practice Spanish. La Línea checks both boxes. It’s about the part of southern Spain which is a hotbed for drug smuggling into Europe, and the series follows the officers who try to get a handle on the drug trade. I mostly watch with Spanish subtitles, or English subtitles if I’m feeling lazy.
Blog: I’ve been enjoying Nat Eliason’s blog this week. Nat is an entrepreneur who runs a content marketing agency called Growth Machine, and he writes on business, finance, tech, productivity…all the things you’ve probably come to expect from following this newsletter. Nat’s definitely worth a follow.
Cheers,
Peter