Pivoting

The term pivoting had only been used in my life as a basketball term. I came out to the Bay Area for an internship and I have heard this term used many times — and never as a baseketball reference.

It used to be that you studied something in college, then you got a job in that field, and then you retired.

Now it’s common to study something in college, get a job in any field that you may be interested in, and then change fields and companies many times. These changes are what we call pivots.

It’s an interesting topic to me because out in the midwest, where I’m from, this word isn’t used and people aren’t pivoting like they are in the Bay.

After hearing about pivoting I had realized that I put myself inside of a box. I was studying computer science, so I’ll get a job being a software developer, and that’s it. Now I’m realizing that because my degree in computer science it doesn’t limit me and what I can do. I can get my masters in an unrelated field. I have unlimited options in what I can do after my schooling. I even have unlimited opportunities to change what I do.

I am taking myself out of the box that I had put myself in.

After I started taking myself out of the box I already found so many more opportunities in front of me. There were so many more jobs I never applied for that I would have excelled at. I didn’t apply because I didn’t see them as jobs that I could apply for because they were outside of the computer science box I created.

Even this, writing on a blog before would’ve been something I thought was off limits for me. I would say it doesn’t further my career, I’m not good at it, and people will think it’s weird. Now that I’m outside of the box this is another skill, or muscle, that I am working on and doing this is amazing for 3 reasons.

1. It’s scary to put my ideas on the internet and as Eleanor Roosevelt says “do one thing every day that scares you”.

2. Doing this can create more opportunities for me in the future that I am not able to see now.

3. I like doing it!