328: Keep Your Creative Spirit Alive and Document Your Ideas with Ulf Schwekendiek

<p>In this week’s show, Phil talks to Ulf Schwekendiek, the first mobile engineer at Siri before it was acquired by Apple as well as a co-founder of Ditto which was acquired by Groupon.</p> <p>He is now the co-founder and CEO of Centered, designing the platform and building a team that shares his passion for achieving mindfulness at work.</p> <p>Ulf talks about the importance of keeping your creative spirit alive as your career progresses. He also discusses the value in documenting your ideas.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>KEY TAKEAWAYS:</strong></p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p><strong>TOP CAREER TIP</strong></p> <p>If you have a creative spirit, always make sure that you keep this spirit alive in whatever you do. Make time to create and always be curious about what could be.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>WORST CAREER MOMENT</strong></p> <p>Ulf experienced a time in his career when he felt as though he should become a manager, because of the expectations placed upon him by others. He soon realized that this was not where his passion truly lay.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>CAREER HIGHLIGHT</strong></p> <p>Ulf prefers to focus upon the failures of his career, rather than become too nostalgic for the highlights. He feels that this spurs him on to do better.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>THE FUTURE OF CAREERS IN I.T</strong></p> <p>Ulf is most excited about the accessibility of the IT sector, and how it allows anyone entry, no matter what their background is. He also finds himself intrigued by the advent of “emotional software”</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>THE REVEAL</strong></p> <p><strong>What first attracted you to a career in I.T.?</strong> – Being from Germany, engineering was always a part of Ulf’s DNA.</p> <p><strong>What’s the best career advice you received?</strong> – You always want to have a smaller piece of a much larger pie.</p> <p><strong>What’s the worst career advice you received?</strong> – That he should not speak his mind for fear of offending someone.</p> <p><strong>What would you do if you started your career now?</strong