Fortune magazine (www.fortune.com) recently had a cover story about how Facebook internally operates.
The excellent article offered some great insights into how Facebook operates and how they are trying to balance their original start-up/hacker culture with the post IPO big company culture that awaits them in the future.
One of Facebook original “hacker ethos” that impressed me was: “Done is better than perfect”.
In Facebook’s culture “perfection is a moving target. If you want to create the perfect product for everyone, you will end up with vaporware. You cannot please everyone... The trick is to find the right balance between getting things done and meeting expectations”.
This ethos struck me as being particularly relevant to the career coaching clients that we have at The Frontier Group. Routinely we will see clients get held up in the career marketing execution by pursuing perfection – the perfect resume, cover letter, target list, set of contacts. You get the picture.
What happens to them – just as Facebook warns their employees – is that you chase a moving target that in the end will leave you with little accomplished.
What we advise our clients is that action – speed – constant improvement – are all essential to executing a first rate career marketing plan. We are not advocating a “shoot first, aim second” approach but rather we encourage our clients to aggressively and consistently pursue opportunities and constantly update/revise their content based upon the learnings they generate from the market. This keep their career marketing plans dynamic and positions them well to take advantage of quick emerging opportunities.
Done is better than perfect – great advice for managing your career.
Thanks
Pat
