100 Tips for Prospective 2017 AT Thru-hikers

Regarding Tip 63: Business Cycle vs AT Thru-hike timing from Datto's Tips v2.0 --

The Fed jumped interest rates a small amount this afternoon (about as expected) and also disclosed tentative plans to jump the interest rate three times during 2017 instead of the previous plans to jump two times. Overall reaction was somewhat muted. Interesting the Fed chairwoman indicated the Fed thinks a stimulus package proposed by the next administration may not be necessary and that we're already close to full employment anyhow. Auto sales (from showrooms) reporting were down slightly earlier today but probably just a plateauing of gangbuster auto sales in recent quarters.

Feb 1, 2017 will be the next important date (the next Fed meeting results made public along with the second monthly ISM number for 2017).

Post election economics are starting to look cautiously good so far for 2017 but increasing the number of upcoming rate hikes smacks of the economy being in the 4th quarter of the business cycle. The 4th quarter can drift for a long time (more than a year barring a bad event happening). If I were a prospective 2017 northbound AT thru-hiker I would still be in the midst of getting well-prepared for starting north from Springer Mountain in Spring 2017 but remaining cautious about the economy/thru-hike start decision until more is known after the holidays.

As said in Datto's Tips v2.0 and previously here, the reason why this is important (the business cycle vs AT thru-hike timing) is you don't want to return from your AT thru-hike in October/November 2017 to find the economy is going downhill -- that would make getting a job Post AT much more difficult.


Datto

Tip 99: Your Pies Of Life and your Career Pie Slice from Datto's Tips v2.0.

It is acceptance of the status quo binding us to everything behind, fearful endangerment from the future.

After completing your thru-hike of the Appalachian trail, your aperture is wide open. Your SuperConfidence level is immense. Take advantage of that condition to think about where you want to go with your life, including your career choice. Do this before Society eventually reverts your view of life down to the standard keyhole size everyone else thinks is normal.

Here's the thing -- more than thirty-five percent of your adult awake time during the working years of your life will be spent primarily toward your Career Pie Slice. To waste this much of your precious Time Resource and Opportunity on something with a mediocre (or worse) contribution toward your Happiness is foolish. It's squandering a great deal of your gift of life. You would be leaving so much of your available Happiness on the table when you're done and gone.

The multiplier effect toward happiness from a good career choice is immense. Happiness from your Career Pie Slice leafs into so many other parts of your life. Your personal life, your family, your social experiences. It's one of the greatest contributors to the Have Fun and the Live Fully parts of Happiness.

One of the places where people get into a rut in their life is assuming their career choice equals their job. That's bogus thinking.

The difference between your career and your job is this -- your career is a voluntary choice for how you will utilize your personal talents, interests and attributes toward contributing to Society. A job is a business deal.

Here's the framework to allow a sizeable contribution to Happiness by your Career Pie Slice -- ask yourself these four questions. if the answer isn't Yes to all four questions, you're leaving Happiness on the table.

1) Is your career choice significantly meaningful to you (burning desire)?
2) Is your career choice something Society values highly?
3) Are you gifted at your career choice?
4) Can you fulfill your financial goals from your career choice?

A McDonald's drive-up line as an example of being valued highly by Society but you're probably not going to be able to make a living and fulfill your financial goals from working there. Similarly, poetry may have significant meaning to you but Society doesn't highly value poetry so you're not likely to make a living and fulfill your financial goals from becoming a poet.

It is the combination of all four of those framework elements together contributing to your greatest Happiness.

Being gifted at something and utilizing your traits and character attributes -- do these match what is required in your career choice? My past sales job I did for eight years -- I brought in more than half of the company revenues and people thought I was gifted at those activities. I wasn't. I'd had an excellent instructor and it was my excess amount of effort and time spent that had resulted in the achievement of that success. The inordinate amount of time spent on doing that activity (where I wasn't gifted) eventually caused me health problems and considerable relationship problems. That's called "paying a high price". Don't do that -- that is the hard way of going about life. Instead, find where you are gifted in an area where Society values your efforts and rewards you for your efforts.

How do you know if you're gifted at something? Here's how -- you'll notice it's easy for you to succeed and you're way out front of most other people who are doing that same type of activity.

How do you know if you're career choice is significantly meaningful to you? When you wake up in the morning you're looking forward to the career choice (and your current job). If you're waking up in the morning and dreading the day ahead it may mean there's only a problem with your current job, not necessarily your career choice.

More later.


Datto

More on Tip 99: Your Pies Of Life from Datto's Tips v2.0 -- your Career Pie Slice.

The Purple Squirrel. This is someone who is viewed as a candidate who has the ideal education and experience needed for the job opening.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_squirrel

In nature a purple squirrel doesn't actually exist but it doesn't keep companies from always looking for purple squirrel candidates.

It's important to refine your Career choice and know the purple squirrel characteristics in your own line of work. Know what's in the most demand where you have the most interest and where few other candidates exist. That puts you in the driver's seat when searching for a job and allows you to rifle your education and training efforts toward a meaningful, tangible benefit.

For example, if your Career choice was Information Technology (computers) you'd find the areas of a) Mobile Applications and b) Cloud/Virtualization are currently in high demand (and will likely be so beyond just the near-term).

Most people don't do this -- they don't make the effort to find out/refine what part of their Career choice is valued most. As a result, they either get little useful training or they get training in the wrong area and lean their ladder against the wrong wall. They'll go to all the effort to climb their ladder only to find no one cares -- they've become an expert in something no one wants anymore.

Instead, think this through ahead of time so you utilize your Time and Effort Resources (and possibly Capital Resources) on something that matters.


Datto

More on Tip 99: Your Pies Of Life from Datto's Tips v2.0 -- your Career Pie Slice.

Career / Industry / Job

Even with a good Career match, having an individual job matching well with your character/personality traits is also important. You can actually negate the positives of having a good Career match by having an individual job that focuses on your personal weaknesses rather than your personal strengths.

This is why self-identification of strengths and weaknesses is so important. Doing so allows you to choose wisely in job selection. This, in turn, allows you to bring to the forefront in your Career your greatest personal strengths and minimize effects from your personal weaknesses. All of that makes it easier to succeed.

Returning home after completing a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail is a most apt time to identify personal characteristics -- strengths and weaknesses. Reason: An AT thru-hike beats out much of the persona facade most people carry with them when they're back in Society so true strengths and weaknesses are more easily perceived.

Here's an example of what I mean about strengths and weaknesses in job selection.

One of my biggest weaknesses is that I am very bad with languages. Working directly with people who didn't grow up in the United States and don't have English as their first language puts me at a considerable disadvantage. I seem to always be two steps behind in conversations and I'm not able to use the regular, everyday cues and perceptions that allow me to analyze people. Correctly analyzing people, when team building for instance, is crucial to being a good manager. Also, most types of humor may be out the window and I value humor quite a bit when dealing with others.

This weakness of mine is particularly apparent when I've worked with people who grew up in India. It's the sing-song voice intonations and other verbal elements that put me behind the curve and make me have to work extra hard to keep up during face-to-face interactions. Note the problem is with me, not necessarily with people from India.

Because I know this language problem of mine is a considerable weakness, I don't accept positions in companies where there is a large employee population of people from India who I'll need to interact with on a daily basis.

Another example is my great distaste for business travel so I've set a maximum percentage of allowable business travel at 5% per year. Anything more than that amount and I'll cordially decline a job opportunity. This makes certain types of jobs not appealing to me such as a regional director of something where lots of travel to sub-regions is required or working at a branch office where regular trips back to the main office are required. This also, as a result, makes jobs/opportunities located at a Main Office/Corporate Headquarters location much more appealing to me.

More later.


Datto

More on Tip 99: Your Pies Of Life from Datto's Tips v2.0 -- your Career Pie Slice.

Additional information about career fine-tuning and course corrections after returning from an AT thru-hike.

If you listen only to a Yugo salesperson, you'll believe the Yugo is a game changer for mankind.

When fine tuning my own career direction -- which was going relatively well right after returning from my AT thru-hike -- I wanted to separate the hype from actual fact on which possible career directions had growth and opportunity.

A recruiter I had been working with during the year after my AT thru-hike had previously mentioned to me that I had no specialty easily marketable by a recruiter. In other words, I wasn't a Purple Squirrel in today's terminology. Instead, I was a generalist and that made it difficult for a recruiter to place me into the positions having the compensation level that I was requesting.

The remark by that recruiter initially had me miffed for a day or two but I eventually came around to his point of view and had to admit that recruiter was right. That had got me thinking over the following weekend and eventually I'd settled on a particular specialty for my career pursuits. That choice had worked for a while but then everyone else in the world seemingly had figured out that opportunity too so there wasn't the type of long-term growth/opportunity I had been expecting.

In October 2005 I was at home watching a Chicago Bears football game on television one Sunday while catching up on paperwork via remoting into work. Earlier that same month I'd contacted a particular company to inquire about their product and to get them talked down on what appeared to me to be a ridiculously high price they had been quoting. When I'd asked for a discount earlier that month, over the telephone the salesperson had asked me how many units I'd be buying. I told him probably six to eight units and maybe more if those worked out well.

The salesperson immediately hung up on me. I was on a landline so it wasn't a cell signal problem. I'd called the salesperson back and just kept going to voice mail on the twice-daily phone calls I had made to that salesperson.

As the Chicago Bears game proceeded ahead the following Sunday, sometime around halftime I'd decided to do more detailed research on this product and the company making the product.

Then the light bulb hit me all of a sudden. I began to realize how big this product was going to be in the world as well as in my own chosen career. I had bolted out of the room where the TV was showing the Bears game to tell the woman in the living room, "This is gonna be big" while pointing to some printouts. That woman was rather startled a bit and had asked, "How'd the Bears do?" I told her I didn't know because I'd been so wrapped up in researching this particular product. That's when that woman knew I must be serious -- I hadn't even finished watching the Bears game.

It didn't take more than another week of research before I'd decided to change my career direction and become an expert in the product. The reason for the salesperson having hung up on me? He couldn't be bothered with a sale so tiny when some of his customers were into the hundreds and thousands of units.

That course correction I had decided to make allowed me to get in early into a wave of change occurring in my line of work.

Pretty soon, competitors of that product showed up claiming their product (their Yugo) was just as good. That had made me consider how I was going to prove my course correction was the right approach that would lead to making more money and having more opportunity.

What I'd settled on as the measure for having chosen what I'd thought was choosing wisely was a measure of the number of job openings in the United States tied directly to this particular product, then comparing that number to other areas of consideration that might also jump my career to the next level. I'd chosen four different Internet job boards, learned their search methods in detail, then began counting the number of job openings listed. I removed some of the raw job opening data -- for instance, I removed all government jobs from the tally since working for the government was not a good match to my personality. Then I setup a schedule and tallied the job openings in Microsoft Excel every Monday from those four Internet job boards and plotted the results in a graph. This would confirm my intuition that my change in job direction was correct and there was considerable hype going on by some of the product's competitors.

Here's the chart (below), including data from 2005 into 2013. Knowing what each of the lines on the chart is meaningless to you since that information only applies to me and my interests. Instead, the takeaway is you can be creative and do this for your own career choice to help you fine-tune your own career direction.

Notes about the chart -- the job boards I'd selected were Monster.com, Indeed.com, CareerBuilder.com and Dice.com -- each of the lines represents a job count for a particular product at a particular job board (Indeed is more of an aggregator of job openings from other places such as newspaper classified ads but it's still a good source of information for the chart creation). The vertical gaps in the data are when I took either a vacation or when I was on an adventure but had let the gaps appear (prior to 2009 I'd removed the gap dates from display so the lines would look more continuous). The lines that are heading off the top of the chart -- those certainly had even more growth that the path I had chosen but I'd found those career areas to be quite boring and not a good match for me. Some of the lines at the bottom of the chart where the line is almost flatlining -- a few of those were for competing products where their marketing department and information spinners had made wild claims, but there was little movement in the number of job openings (meaning, their marketing department claims weren't translating into new job openings showing up in Corporate America). Also note the effects from the Great Recession, particularly showing up during 2008 and 2009 (I pretty much stayed put in a job during that time just to ride out the Great Recession). Also, I had to divide by 10 the total number of job openings for some of the lines in order to get those lines to appear relative to other lines that weren't divided by ten. So in some cases, for instance the upper maroon line which showed my chosen specialty on Monster.com, the actual data/number of job openings is ten times the chart display.

Some of the advantages the chart gave me (beyond confirmation my career fine-tuning decision was correct) include knowing I could pretty much get a job anywhere in the developed world (and a decent paying job since the clamor for Purple Squirrels in my chosen specialty has been considerable). Also, the information gave me the confidence to walk away from a couple of jobs that were not what I had expected those jobs to be. On top of that, I could eliminate jobs located in certain areas of the country that were not to my liking (snow states for instance) and still have plenty of available opportunity. Overall, that decision I'd made back in 2005 was one of the best decisions I've ever made and it opened up a new world of opportunity for me after the AT and the PCT.



Datto

Ha, I could include some survivalist articles and a couple of hog hunting tips?

The vast majority of AT thru-hikers are in their twenties and early thirties and many of those AT thru-hikers either have a college degree or are working on one. Their career is ahead of them.

There are so very few retired or near-retired folks who carry their full backpack past every white blaze to complete an AT thru-hike. Datto's Tips v2.0 isn't directed at people who's career is in the rear view mirror because there are so few of those who are thru-hiking the AT (they're likely section hiking the AT if they're on the AT at all).

Page 14 of Datto's Tips v2.0 for anyone who's bother to look:


WHO IS THIS DOCUMENT FOR?
This document is specifically aimed at the following types of people:

a. Prospective AT Thru-hikers -- these are people who, on a continuous journey in the future, intend to complete an Appalachian Trail thru-hike while passing every white blaze on the Trail carrying their full backpack.
b. First-time Thru-hikers -- people who haven't (yet) thru-hiked any other long-distance trail of 500 or more miles in length.
c. Primarily Northbounders -- these are Appalachian Trail thru-hikers who start northbound from Springer Mountain, Georgia -- the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail -- and thru-hike more than 2,000 miles northward to Katahdin in Maine -- the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. The vast majority of past AT thru-hikers have been Northbounders.
d. Planner-type Personalities -- these are people who decide to investigate, ahead of any decision, announcement or commitment being made, whether an AT thru-hike is something they'd like to entertain (or not). At the end of such investigation a decision is then made -- a go / no-go decision. If it's a go, then follow-on efforts begin (such as rounding up the money and figuring out how to set aside the time necessary to complete an AT thru-hike). Planner-types typically don't invest much time or money before an investigation takes place -- the go / no-go decision only arrives after an initial investigation completes.
Planner-types typically make significantly more no-go decisions than they make go decisions -- the reason for this is an investigation ahead of time frequently shows the benefit not to be worthwhile for the effort expended -- so there's no point to moving ahead with the idea.
Few people in the world are planner types. Most people in the world run their lives haphazardly in pinball fashion -- they simply wake up every day and pinball toward whatever has been presented rather than toward what has been planned ahead of time.
e. Goal-oriented People -- these are people who decide and determine, ahead of time, what is intended to be accomplished during an upcoming effort.
It's been my experience and observation goal-oriented people lead richer, more fulfilled lives.
The single greatest risk for goal-oriented individuals is leaning their ladder against the wrong wall. The second biggest risk is the false belief time is infinite and will never run out.
This document is as much a think-about document as it is a how-to document -- to help you figure out whether a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail is for you (or not). This is the single biggest question to answer for prospective AT thru-hikers who are reading this document.

WHO IS THIS DOCUMENT NOT FOR?
This document is:

a. Not for those who enjoy living life spontaneously with little planning -- that type of person can surely become an AT thru-hiker but this document is not aimed at them.
b. Not for people who lead their life as a series of emergencies.
c. Not for Section Hikers -- although some information herein may (or not) be useful to Section Hikers.
d. Not For Trail Runners.
e. Not For Wallenda-types who enjoy high-risk adventures -- this document is intended to help you reduce risk, not increase risk just for the fun of it.
f. Not for people who are going to "try it and see if they like it".
g. Not for people who are going to "see how far they can get".
h. Not for people who are going to "hike until the money runs out".
i. Not for people who are dumb to the bone. They walk among us and should have been tagged before coming back to the herd.


Datto