What should I do if I am not allowed to “enter IT”?

Author of the article: Dmitry Shorzhin

What do Alcoholics Anonymous, the journey of the magician Raistlin in the fantasy novel “Soulforge”, “Forge of the Soul”, the selection of Navy SEALs at Camp Atterbury and a change of profession with the help of an online school in order to earn a living with the opportunity to travel the world and self-development have in common? The need to acquire new sets of habits – to live without alcohol, gain magical power at the “over 9000” level, act effectively in situations of critical stress and the ability to achieve scalable and highly paid work.

According to the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) of Behavior Change authored by James Prochaska and Carlo DiClemente in the late 70s, there are 6 stages of progress in habit acquisition:

1. Pre-observation

At this stage, you look at interesting vacancies with large salaries for which you do not have enough skills, then at social networks with famous people, then a couple of videos about successful success on YouTube and go to bed – because tomorrow you have to work.

2. Observation

At this stage, you have already watched several videos with answers to popular eternal unanswered questions in the target area – “Which programming language is better”, “How to be effective” and, of course, about “imposter syndrome”. On average, there are about 6 months left before attempting to act according to plan.

3. Preparation

Choosing a direction, selecting materials and teaching methods. You are looking for an opportunity to free up a couple of evenings for your new activity and are thinking about trading off – something will have to be sacrificed. You have a goal.

4. Actions

It is at this stage of the first six months of the lesson that the risk of quitting is the greatest. This is where a support system is needed.

5. Support

It becomes easier to maintain the habit, but the goal is to establish a new habit of using knowledge for its intended purpose and finding sources of new knowledge to avoid burnout.

6. Terminator

You can't stop.

Since the theory has been around for many years, here are a few observations on how to make habit acquisition easier:

A. All people go through these stages and it is difficult for everyone in approximately the same way. There is nothing stupid that you cannot decide anything for one, two, three months or more, what to do or whether to do it at all – on average, this is not even a short period of time. Live the first three “humiliating” stages to the fullest – they are also part of the new habit. Follow the advertising link to the next landing page with promises of guaranteed success, listen to the next guru who knows exactly the simple path to your dream – it’s not a shame.

B. To facilitate the acquisition of a new habit, a very simple rule is used – until the fifth stage “Support” (i.e. the first six months, plus/minus), you try to live with the new habit one more day and do it one more time. There is no need to solve global problems and look for some impossible effective solutions. Just another practical task completed, another interview task completed, a little more code written or a presentation completed, and another lecture taken down. Remember – listening and reading materials is a maximum of 20% of your knowledge.

Q. Every day it will become easier, and in six months this test will end – you will continue to learn something about new technologies (this is the meaning of IT as a direction), but it will be much easier – because you have become, in a way, another person. A person who can.

Despite its apparent primitiveness (and I am sure that everyone has subconsciously imagined themselves at every stage), this is a fairly effective way of thinking about themselves.

What should a product manager be able to do? We will discuss the competencies of a product manager at an open lesson on March 21 at 19:00. At the end of the lesson, you will have an idea of ​​the necessary skills that you should indicate on your CV or improve before entering the market. You can sign up on the Product Manager course page.