I've a question for you . . .

Hellooo hellooo, welcome to the new episode of Fueler Weekly

Recently, I’ve been getting obsessed with Nusrat Sahab’s old songs (like this one). His songs are multi-purpose, you can work out, work calmly, or dance with your friends while cooking.

This week, I accidentally came across an interesting article where the writer (he’s known for his entrepreneurship journey) talks about the first rule of career planning: do not plan your career.

Funnily, this article was written in 2007.

While reading it, I kept thinking how did someone write this literally two decades ago, when there was no talk about AI taking over human jobs, career instability, or anything like that?

I kind of agree with the perspective shared. He suggests imagining your career as something you can’t fully predict, you don’t know where the world is heading, what your contribution will be, or whether you’ll end up selling vegetables or fish on the beaches of Goa.

Career planning = career limiting.

Similar to the times we’re living in today, new jobs are being invented every day (literally). Everyone is worried about losing their jobs, whether it’s a software engineer earning 1cr, a product manager leading an enterprise, or even a founder concerned that the next update from OpenAI could disrupt their company.

Now you might be thinking, if not career planning, then what should one do?

To answer that in the simplest terms, here’s the second rule of career planning: instead of planning your career, focus on developing skills and pursuing opportunities.

As we’ve been building Fueler for the last 5 years, we’ve followed this school of thought from day one: no matter what career you’re pursuing, first focus on developing skills, create relevant proof of work, and then pursue opportunities.

You’ll see a far better ROI than randomly hitting the ‘Easy Apply’ button on LinkedIn.

Honestly, you’ll have to figure things out either way. But if you choose the route of developing skills, you won’t just bag opportunities - you’ll bag the opportunities that YOU want.

If you want to read the article I mentioned, drop “article” in the comment, and I’ll share the link.

If you’re someone who has been passionately putting in the hard work to learn skills and create proof of work, then why are you hiding them from the world?

Put it out everywhere - talk about it on your LinkedIn profile, X bio, Instagram story, WhatsApp groups. And if that feels like too much, simply place your Fueler portfolio link wherever you’re socially active.

Imagine spending months developing high-demand skills and then praying for some kind of miracle to help you land a high-paying job.

Learning a skill is obviously non-negotiable, but if you don’t promote your skills and your work, then who will?

Here’s a reference profile (Sharvin Shitole) I’ve attached:

If you’re looking for personalized raw and honest feedback about your Fueler portfolio, we’ve created this ChatGPT plugin which’ll help you refine your portfolio, try it out here.

Watch how to submit an assignment on Fueler: Click here

• Video Editor at Neon Fund | Bangalore | 10 LPA: Apply here

• Online Reputation Management (ORM) Associate for Reddit at Inagiffy | Remote | 20-30K: Apply here

• Reddit Content and Marketing Intern at Inagiffy | Remote | 5K: Apply here

Here are the roles that we are hiring for currently:

1. Fueler Portfolio Mentor: Apply here

2. Canva Designer Intern: Apply here

3. HR Intern: Apply here

Last week, I got an invitation to take a session for a cohort at The LIT School in Bangalore.

It was mainly about how students can leverage their proof of work to land their dream opportunities. I talked about the importance of having an impressive Fueler portfolio, shared emerging career paths that most people don’t even know exist yet, and had a lot of fun conversations.

We also hosted a session at GNIT on the topic ‘How to Get an Internship Without a Resume.’

In this session, Pranav talked about:

• The importance of building proof of work

• Documenting your work and making it visible in a portfolio

• Why you should cold email directly to the founder/hiring manager

This week, I’ve 2 recommendations for you. I hope you enjoy them.

I love the analogies he uses to explain how to have good, bad, ugly, and memorable conversations - not just with your friends or family, but with anyone sitting across the table in the same café.

As of now, you might have heard this over 100 times - AI will take your job, AI is coming after every creative role. But in parallel, there’s also a debate around what makes humans unique and what’s that one thing AI can’t replicate.

This blog will help you gain a new perspective on the importance of having good taste.

If you’re still searching the question, so here it it (I won’t disappoint you): If you get the freedom from every responsibility today, how will you be living your life tomorrow?

With that, have a great weekend ahead. See you next week with new stories, new opportunities, new recommendations, new tips and tactics.

Please share if you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions for us to make this newsletter more helpful for you.

- Riten (founder & CEO at Fueler.io)

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