In my last several of my roles, I’ve spent time mentoring early-career engineers. Reasonably enough, they ask me questions like “Did I join the right company?” or “Did I start in the right role?”

I answer: “You did.”

Sometimes they ask me this question in reverse: “Did I waste my time by learning this language” or “Did I miss out on my optimal career trajectory because I didn’t do such-and-such program at such-and-such school?” or “Did I doom my career by not starting in a team with some buzzword in its name?”

I answer: “You didn’t.”

In their position of vulnerability and youth, they don’t have the background to understand my gnomic replies. Oftentimes, our relationship is still new and they don’t know me well enough to simply trust me. So this post is an attempt to tell everyone that your career choices will be the perfect provided you follow one simple rule: follow your weird.

It’s around this time of year that I’m put in mind to remember when I had my kid. Actually, I didn’t do the having. I did a lot of sitting nearby in terror as my wife had our kid.

There are lots of packing lists about what you should bring for mom and baby, but there’s not a lot for men. So I’m going to send one out to my fellow fathers(-to-be) in the following post.