Previously: Step 5: Looking in the Mirror
It's amazing how good an exercise routine can make you feel isn't it? Especially after Thanksgiving!!
Making a career change is very much about putting yourself out there. In order to do so effectively you need to know how others see you and the best way to do that is to ask those around you. Your colleagues are your best resource when it comes to understanding who you are and how you present yourself because they are the ones who see your personal and professional interactions from the outside.
Step 6: Looking to Others
Pick 3-5 people whose input and feedback you trust. Be sure not to pick all of your friends. It's OK to pick one friend but it will be infinitely more helpful if you are able to get the objective feedback of colleagues, supervisors, clients, customers and other people who have no vested personal interest.
Set up a time when you can have a conversation. Perhaps it's over lunch, coffee, after hours, or before work during breakfast. Just pick a time outside of the craziness of the work day so you won't feel rushed. When it comes time to have these conversations thank the person for joining you and then provide the framework for the conversation to take place by saying something like:
"I am trying to learn how others perceive me in the work place so that I can get a better understanding of what I do well and what areas I need to work on and I thought you might be able to help me."
From here you do not want to steer the conversation too much by asking specific questions. Just allow the conversation to happen and see where it goes. You want to hear the person's initial response and then perhaps ask followup questions for clarification. If they only speak to your strengths, after a while thank them and then ask for a few things you might be able to improve. Same goes for the reverse. Remember, this is just a conversation and not an interview. You are trying to learn how others perceive you so you need to allow them to communicate that perception.
It is likely that you will find that the hardest part about this process is to strip it of emotional and objectively listen to what the person is saying . You may need to fight the urge to rebut "I am NOT like that!" Remember, you've asked someone you trust for honest feedback. There are reasons they are saying what they are saying and it is up to you to figure out why. If you don't like what you hear, now is the time to change it but first you need to learn what "it" is and the person speaking to you is doing you a favor so don't argue with them.
After the meeting, write the person a thank you note (email is fine but I prefer hand written) and then head to your notebook and document the conversation. Note what strengths and areas for improvement came up. After you have had a few of these conversations look for trends and patterns.
Up Next: Step 7: Putting It All Together
Showing posts with label career management responsibilities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label career management responsibilities. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Making a Career Change: Step 4 Looking Inside
Previously: Step 3: Looking at the Now
Phew! In a lot of ways it helps to get all the frustration about your current job out on paper and see it sitting there doesn't it? Now the real work begins. You're no longer holding on to that negativity so you are free to focus on you and what makes you awesome! Take a deep and cleansing breath.
Tip #2: For this next step it may help to use Google or another preferred search engine. Look at question #4 regarding your core values. Start by making your own list of the ones you can think of but then try looking at a long list of values that you find online and pick the ones from it that apply. This will make the end result more robust and thorough since you won't have to think of all of them off the top of your head. So feel free to use the Internet to search for pre-made lists. Just make sure you are being honest when you start picking from them.
Tip #3: I believe there is a difference between your dream job and your ideal job. Some may argue this, which is fine. But to me, a dream job is what you would do if you could literally do anything in the world regardless of time, talent, skill and money. Like, say, own a stable of elite thoroughbred raceshorse for example. An ideal job, is the perfect job for you taking into consideration the realities of your life such as your education, skills, talents, geograghy and other factors that very much have a bearing on your life. The ideal job may be quite far off like a CEO, CIO, or CFO position which is totally fine because it gives you a realistic direction in which you can head.
Tip #4: Notice questions #2 & #3. Classic interview questions. Think long and hard about them now. Knowing the answers to these questions at this stage will serve you well in your self-assessment. Then remember that they are in your notebook so that when you are interview prepping you can refer back to them. You'll never have to struggle with these as interview questions again!
Step 4: Looking Inside
In your notebook, answer the following:
Up Next: Step 5: Looking in the Mirror
Phew! In a lot of ways it helps to get all the frustration about your current job out on paper and see it sitting there doesn't it? Now the real work begins. You're no longer holding on to that negativity so you are free to focus on you and what makes you awesome! Take a deep and cleansing breath.
Tip #2: For this next step it may help to use Google or another preferred search engine. Look at question #4 regarding your core values. Start by making your own list of the ones you can think of but then try looking at a long list of values that you find online and pick the ones from it that apply. This will make the end result more robust and thorough since you won't have to think of all of them off the top of your head. So feel free to use the Internet to search for pre-made lists. Just make sure you are being honest when you start picking from them.
Tip #3: I believe there is a difference between your dream job and your ideal job. Some may argue this, which is fine. But to me, a dream job is what you would do if you could literally do anything in the world regardless of time, talent, skill and money. Like, say, own a stable of elite thoroughbred raceshorse for example. An ideal job, is the perfect job for you taking into consideration the realities of your life such as your education, skills, talents, geograghy and other factors that very much have a bearing on your life. The ideal job may be quite far off like a CEO, CIO, or CFO position which is totally fine because it gives you a realistic direction in which you can head.
Tip #4: Notice questions #2 & #3. Classic interview questions. Think long and hard about them now. Knowing the answers to these questions at this stage will serve you well in your self-assessment. Then remember that they are in your notebook so that when you are interview prepping you can refer back to them. You'll never have to struggle with these as interview questions again!
Step 4: Looking Inside
In your notebook, answer the following:
- What are your personal interests? What are you passionate about?
- What are your strengths?
- What are your weaknesses?
- What are your core values?
- Rank your core values in order from most important to least important.
- What do you do better than anyone you know?
- What is your dream job? Why?
- What is your idea job? Why?
- Do you prefer working alone? As a member of team? Why?
- Do you prefer a supervisor who watches you closely or relies on you to keep him/her updated periodically?
- List your "Must Haves" for your next job. (i.e. I must have a flexible schedule...I must have a boss who trusts me...) Don't hold back. List as many as you can think of.
- Rank your answers to question #11 in order of most important to least important.
- Using your answers from Step 2 Question #7, list the top 2-3 accomplishments from your most recent job.
Up Next: Step 5: Looking in the Mirror
Monday, November 14, 2011
Making a Career Change: Step 3 Looking at the Now
Previously: Step 2: Looking Back
Now that you have a sense of where you were and how you got here, it's time to think about the here and now. Obviously something is not right so let's see if we can pinpoint what that is.
Tip #1: It may help you to get a copy of your current job description and have it handy during this step so that you can refer to it.
Step 3: Looking at the Now
In your notebook, answer the following questions:
Up Next: Step 3: Looking Inside
Now that you have a sense of where you were and how you got here, it's time to think about the here and now. Obviously something is not right so let's see if we can pinpoint what that is.
Tip #1: It may help you to get a copy of your current job description and have it handy during this step so that you can refer to it.
Step 3: Looking at the Now
In your notebook, answer the following questions:
- What about your current job isn't working?
- Make a list of the things you like about your current job.
- Make a list of the things you don't like about your job.
- Make a list of the people you work with followed by the first 3-5 characteristics that come to mind when you think of those people.
- What are your main responsibilities in this job? Which of these do you enjoy? Which do you not enjoy?
- Make a list of things about this job you would like to change and indicate how you would change them.
Up Next: Step 3: Looking Inside
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
When Your Responsibilities Conflict
How can you tell when the synergy between your two career management responsibilities (referred to here: Responsibility to Yourself and Your Employer) are in conflict with each other? (Hey wait a second! Did you see how I did that? I linked to myself!)
Right out of grad school I worked for a theatre company in the Midwest. My closest colleague was a woman who was by any measure old. Not just at-the-end-of-her-career old, but actually elderly, much closer to being an octogenarian than anyone else I will ever work with. She had spent more than 30 years working a desk job for a major airline, retired, started drawing her pension, and then for reasons I don't think I will ever understand she went back to work fulltime in an environment fraught with temperamental artists and last minute scrambling to get the job done. Our desks actually touched. Our phones were inches apart. She wore a heap of makeup the likes of which clowns don't even know.
It was like working with my grandmother every day and was every bit the struggle you would imagine working with someone who was born before the Great Depression would be. Her status quo was complaining about everything. The job was fast paced, entailed a lot of night and weekend hours, and had a fair amount of crisis management involved. We'd go 2-3 weeks straight with no days off and were often on call at all hours. (Theatre sounds great doesn't it?!) By nature this person was cranky and when things got tough she was downright unbearable.
The problem was her unbearableness was a secret to nobody. Actors, directors, stage managers, and other staff members all could see it plain as day. People would often pull me aside privately to talk about what could be done. The only one who didn't realize this, besides her that is, was our boss who was obviously the one who kept her around. It made no sense.
There was a conflict somewhere between her responsibility to herself and to the company. In some way she was not getting what she needed on a personal level from the job and she took it out on everyone from the company to her coworkers. Mind you, this is someone who had retired before and could do so again but she chose to work and thus chose to be seemingly miserable.
To answer the question above, you should be able to tell when there's a conflict between your responsibilities. You can probably look at some of your coworkers and see this happening, although hopefully it isn't as bad as I experienced. If you have to, ask someone how they and others perceive you. Ask yourself if you dread going to work every day, doing certain parts of your job or seeing and interacting with certain coworkers. If you do find a conflict then for the sake of your own happiness and the happpiness of those around you, seriously consider making a change.
Right out of grad school I worked for a theatre company in the Midwest. My closest colleague was a woman who was by any measure old. Not just at-the-end-of-her-career old, but actually elderly, much closer to being an octogenarian than anyone else I will ever work with. She had spent more than 30 years working a desk job for a major airline, retired, started drawing her pension, and then for reasons I don't think I will ever understand she went back to work fulltime in an environment fraught with temperamental artists and last minute scrambling to get the job done. Our desks actually touched. Our phones were inches apart. She wore a heap of makeup the likes of which clowns don't even know.
It was like working with my grandmother every day and was every bit the struggle you would imagine working with someone who was born before the Great Depression would be. Her status quo was complaining about everything. The job was fast paced, entailed a lot of night and weekend hours, and had a fair amount of crisis management involved. We'd go 2-3 weeks straight with no days off and were often on call at all hours. (Theatre sounds great doesn't it?!) By nature this person was cranky and when things got tough she was downright unbearable.
The problem was her unbearableness was a secret to nobody. Actors, directors, stage managers, and other staff members all could see it plain as day. People would often pull me aside privately to talk about what could be done. The only one who didn't realize this, besides her that is, was our boss who was obviously the one who kept her around. It made no sense.
There was a conflict somewhere between her responsibility to herself and to the company. In some way she was not getting what she needed on a personal level from the job and she took it out on everyone from the company to her coworkers. Mind you, this is someone who had retired before and could do so again but she chose to work and thus chose to be seemingly miserable.
To answer the question above, you should be able to tell when there's a conflict between your responsibilities. You can probably look at some of your coworkers and see this happening, although hopefully it isn't as bad as I experienced. If you have to, ask someone how they and others perceive you. Ask yourself if you dread going to work every day, doing certain parts of your job or seeing and interacting with certain coworkers. If you do find a conflict then for the sake of your own happiness and the happpiness of those around you, seriously consider making a change.
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