Or, alternately titled, “How A Young Guy Like Rory Blyth Got Such A Cool Job At Microsoft”.

Remember when you were young, and your parents used to tell you, “You can be anything you want to be”. Well, that's largely true. You could fill a small country with people who have transcended their poor upbringing to make a substantial contribution to society, and people who come from rich upbringings who manage to screw up to become nothing. At the age of 5, the range of possibilities is endless.

But as you get older, your ability to be “anything” starts to shrink. If you aren't an up-and-coming politician by the age of 25, you will not become president. If you didn't quit college to start a company, you will not become Bill Gates. Almost every person you can think of who has become something great got there gradually. You can't wake up when you're 40, broke and unemployed, and decide you want to become president. It won't happen.

So when I heard that 26-year old Rory Blyth accepted a job as an MSDN Presenter, his dream job, I was not surprised. He has been leading an outstanding life as a consultant for the last couple of years, and this career move is the next logical step for him.

His blog entry on the topic is quite insightful. He has reached a point at 26 that I am reaching at 35, which is a bit disturbing. Basically, “Consulting is great, but it's tough not staying anywhere for long. Most times I am working on small and inconsequential stuff such as a new report, or a new web page. But there are so many other things I never get to do. Money isn't everything.”

It's interesting to see how he did not simply sit back and let fate decide what happened to his career. While still in school, he was hard at work getting real programming experience. He wrote online articles, hosted radio shows, travelled to conferences and gave presentations. As he says in his blog entry, his net income this year was “basically zero” if you factor out all the other expenses he personally paid to develop his career. Most other people do not put a similar amount of time, energy and money into their own careers, and languish somewhere as a result.

You know those people who have been at the same job for 5 years and hate it? Those people who would not dare work past 5:00pm and don't even want to think about anything possibly work related off-hours? They are the ones who expect others to direct their career and get nowhere as a result. While those that take training on their own time, get certifications, read books, go to seminars, etc, are sitting in the driver's seat.

So, if you're a teenager or in your early twenties, and are wondering how to get ahead in life, here's the great secret. “Get started now.” There is no better time than now. Don't believe for a second that if you have a job you hate, that in a couple of years things will magically get better. It is better to suffer the short-term discomfort of lower pay, for long-term happiness. The only way situations resolve the way you want them to is to resolve them yourself.