Don't End The Week With Nothing

Social capital -- the ability to call on someone who trusts you and have them do something in your interest, like e.g. recommend you to a job.

You don't have to optimize for "sexy" projects. You know, sexy projects: I don't know how to describe them but I know it when I see it. Most engineering work isn't intrinsically sexy. I would, however, optimize for impact and visibility.

If you cannot build things you can show at work, you should build things you can show outside of work.

Reputational capital -- the way your name rings out in rooms you aren't even in, simply when your topic of expertise comes up. (Hopefully in a good way!)

A lot of day jobs structurally inhibit capital formation.

Human capital -- the skills you've built up over time and the value you're able to create as a result of them.

If you cannot gain exposure at your day job, try to get some exposure outside of it. Network actively. You don't have to have an audience of thousands for an audience to be worthwhile -- for landing a new job, having an audience of one hiring manager is a darn sight better than having no audience at all. Blog and collect an email list. It's old and... See more

There are many types of capital that are no less real just because you can't conveniently reduce them to a number.

This could mean working in industries which default to being open rather than those which default to being closed.