I recently earned a promotion! A promotion, to those who have been stuck in a career rut, is the fireworks to your Independence Day. And while I am excited, I wanted to use this milestone to circle back to a previous post about a plan I initiated a year and a half ago to restructure my broken professional life. There are so many like me trying to figure out their next career steps and I believe that this plan is part and parcel the reason for my promotion. As you know, I enjoy sharing the many forms pursuits in progress take. Here are some key activities that I cultivated and eliminated over the last year and a half that helped me realize a much sought after goal.
A lot of what I did involved flipping the script. I needed to readjust my perspective to achieve the progress I was aiming for. This approach came on the heels of many don’ts, so I believe this would be the perfect place to start.
What had to go
1) Falling out of love with your career is similar to falling out of love in a romantic relationship.
You may leave with the sound knowledge of what you no longer want, but that does not necessarily translate into your knowing what you actually want.
I would ask myself over and over, “so what are you going to be now?” Only chirping crickets answered. When months spanned into years, the relief of being free from an incompatible career was replaced by an anxiety that I would never get my professional life together. Eventually, I decided to let go of that question and change my approach.
2) Did I mention that this plan took a year and a half to bear fruits? I feel the need to stress this point. Trying to rush the process was not working for me. I felt desperate because I was at an age where most were going into second gear while I was at a standstill in neutral! No one around me was starting over. The potential within me kept pushing for an answer to the “what’s next” question. However, I hadn’t fully taken the time to really understand where I really wanted to go. Eventually, I had to convince myself to understand that what needed to happen was a process not worth rushing and that it would take as long as it would take. It felt reckless and frightening at the same time.
3) Conversely, when things started to figure themselves out, I held myself back by delaying action. Once anxiety had set in, I was second and third guessing my decisions. My husband would say, “Just post your resume.” For whatever reason, I didn’t embrace this approach. Would it have hurt? Not at all! I think what held me back was that I’d gotten comfortable in a place I just shouldn’t have. As time sped by, I knew I had to force myself to just jump in. And thank goodness I did!
Now for the dos, in no particular order
1) In spite of being stuck, I made sure to continue performing my duties at work. There was no sense to adding unemployment in my life when anxiety and bills were regular bedfellows. More importantly, I never knew where the next opportunity would come from. I kept working on my professional reputation. It wasn’t my institution’s fault that I was stuck in a rut. It was however, my responsibility to get out of it.
2) During a job training event, I was introduced to a competencies framework chart that laid out an administrative career growth path based on skills and expertise. There were no specific job titles associated with each step. The steps ranged from being an individual contributor all the way through managing an enterprise. I loved this concept! It’s printed and posted at my desk. Needless to say, this sparked the real change in my approach. Instead of focusing on what I wanted to be, I started focusing on skills and interests. For instance, rather than saying I wanted to a program manager, I would look at skill/interests I wanted to grow, think about how best to grow them then find job descriptions that I felt would make this happen. Now, a particular position fitting that description might have held the title of program manager or perhaps a specialist of some sorts. Point is, I focused less on the labeling, which removed so much stress from the process.
Additionally, it would be possible that the position fitting the description I gravitated towards might have been a lateral move but the job description held opportunities for further growth and challenge. Growth and challenge were key to my process. I needed to ensure I was pursuing progress despite what a job title said. One of the positions I applied for was a lateral move but I felt it was a natural progression to where I felt my skills should grow.
One caveat to this though was when I went to job interviews, I would be asked, “So where do you see yourself going?” I couldn’t entirely escape this question. I learned to be prepared with an answer. No employer wants to hear, “Oh I don’t have a position in mind–I’m letting my skills and interest guide me!” Instead, I created a hybrid response. I noted what a likely career trajectory would be for me before the interview, one that I perhaps would excel at, and then additionally included in my response the importance of finding a place where my skills and interests would add the most value to what I was expected to do. Add some examples of how this might occur and I’d have myself an effective strategy to not get stumped even though I was struggling with settling on one career path.
3) I may not have known what I wanted to be, but I knew what I found interesting. I gave extra in those areas. I found this a good strategy to taking back more control of my professional life.
4) I made sure to begin paying attention to how, and in what ways I added value to both my position and to the institution I worked for. But first, it was important to know the institution’s values. How many of us really take stock of this? Why are you working for your institution? Do you know what the driving force of your workplace is? What’s your contribution to their manifesto? Do you agree with their objectives? My institution invests in communicating this information to its employees. I made sure that my resume reflected the various levels of the institution’s goals. Knowing about value helps build your confidence, and prepares you for opportunities when they arise.
5) Speaking about resume, when was the last time you looked at it? Did you toss it aside once you got the job? How often do you update it? It wasn’t until I was laid off due to cuts in research funding five years ago that I refocused on building my resume. I knew I’d progressed in my skills over the previous years but I was actually shocked by how much once pen hit paper! I’d brought value to my team that I was able to parlay into finding a new position within two weeks after that funding cut.
As I mentioned earlier, the above are key activities I implemented to get me moving but here are some notable mentions:
- I prayed a lot. I knew my control over these experiences were limited and as such left the rest to a higher power.
- I made decisions about what I really liked doing, wouldn’t mind doing and definitely didn’t want to do, which guided me through my selection process.
- I took notes though not as much as I should have.
- I decluttered mentally. I needed the headspace to organize my experiences, create a plan, implement said plan and adjust when necessary.
- I’d made a pact with myself to never get comfortable in a position for too long again. If my skills were growing, then I should actively invest in trying different job opportunities at intervals that didn’t foster career stagnation.
The possibilities of this approach are endless. I can even switch fields and still feel like I am progressing on my already acquired skills as well as not feeling like I am starting over from scratch. I am not claiming to invent some new fangled strategy because I am not. However, I hope that you or someone you know may find value, inspiration, validation or a promotion based on some of what I shared today. Please, let me know.
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