Cowgirl Up: Whichever It Is, Own It
While I’m not psychic, I’ll say that one of two articles sums up your career thoughts. One, a blog on Harvard Business Review: “Why You Won’t Quit Your Job” and the other, from Forbes, “Why You Will Quit Your Job This Year.” Both are worth the read and beg the question: “Well, which am I?”
Both articles, in their different ways, note the necessities for owning your career: Confidence & Courage; Realistic Perspectives and Options; and Support. Considering these, how do you stack up? Are you ready when the time is right for you? Have you taken both of these actions below to be ready?
Yes No 1. I have a professional development plan and I follow it; it’s the best long-term investment I can make in myself.
- What’s your development plan for the next 12 months? What additional information do you need and what new skills will increase your value to your employer…current or next? What certification or licensure indicates that you’re on the leading edge of your profession? And, while long term plans may change, what’s your potential career path for the next three years? In addition to learning directions, what projects or work will you take on to move toward your next career step? It may supplement your professional learning plan or it may be the project that helps you explore a new or parallel path.
- Investing in yourself means paying for the learning you need to bolster your career direction. You might expect your employer to pay and that may happen. If it doesn’t, what investment account are you growing to ensure you stay current in your profession? Start this month—this leap year—with $50 or $100 a month put aside for your development. Talk with a financial advisor to identify annual payout goals that you can work toward as you move along the career path best for you.
Yes No 2. I have mentors and strong relationships in place that offer support, objectivity and accountability.
- Mentors and sponsors offer more than support…they offer perspectives that you won’t get without them. They offer experience, different world views and perspectives and likely learning that may keep you from making similar mistakes! If they are inside your current organization, they can give political counsel; and if they’re outside, they can provide objectivity as well.
- Objectivity comes from someone who has your professional interests at heart; someone who will ask the tough questions and give the direct feedback that grows your confidence in yourself and the courage to step into your power. Strong, effective coaches hold you accountable for moving forward: for making commitments that grow and stretch your thinking and being, and for coaching you to get out of your own way! This is most often a coach who is trained in the changing world of work as well as the subtleties of querying and feedback. The right coach invests as much in you as you invest in you!
If you’d like an article on how to find your perfect coach, drop me an email and I’ll get it to you!
Adding these actions to the four covered in my previous two posts gives you a platform from which to establish a tailored yet flexible career plan backed up with preparation and momentum. So if you haven’t already, take the bull by the horns and get moving!
Janine Moon
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Students
Having a career plan is so critically important. Do you have any advice for students who aren't quite sure where their passion lies yet? Do you think there's a cutoff age for when you "should" know what the next three years are going to look like?
Students & Career Direction
Hi, Anna:
Your question is so valid--many adults aren't sure of a direction that suits them, either! The thing to keep in mind, I think, is that whatever your interests or passions, multiple paths and activities allow you to use them...there's not just one. So to try on various directions is a perfectly good thing... especially when you aren't yet involved in a family and big economic needs.
I encourage my younger clients to identify their talents--those that are innate, that we're born with-- and find places to use them--in projects, in volunteer work, in work positions. [You can find information on identifying and leveraging talents in StrengthsQuest by Clifton & Anderson.] Once you know your talents, you can look into different professions and jobs to see where and how you might best use them in the work world. When you use your talents, the work you do is easy...it doesn't seem like work and you underestimate it. It's easy to think "oh, everybody can do this" because it is so natural to you. So knowing these and then exploring different areas of interest and passion will help anyone narrow their choices.
The truth is that many of us work in a variety of areas, collecting clues about ourselves over time as we move along...x is really fun; y gives me a real feeling of accomplishment; z makes me feel like I'm making a difference, etc. The clues add up, and we can begin to get clear on our Foundation-- those things that make us who we are and what we value. With this, our research can become much clearer as to the directions that may fit.
There's no cutoff age when we should "know" these things, principally because the world and work and business is so constantly changing and new jobs are created every year that never existed before! I think that we can find and create options that will energize us--sometimes working with a coach or advisor or mentor who is objective can help--or we can just bump along hoping that we'll fall into the right place. Too often we all fall into this latter place by default!
Does this give you a different way of looking at work direction? What additional questions does this raise for you? Glad to answer more...just let me know!
Thank you so much for the
Thank you so much for the thoughtful response!
Experience is obviously paramount, and I like that you capitalized Foundation.
My sister graduated college with a degree in literature, and then worked in a medical research laboratory for three years. At one point, while she was opining a lack of direction, my mom told her, "At some point, you're just going to have to choose." Five years later, she's out of medical school and well into her residency at one of the top hospitals...because she did just choose to become a doctor.
How did you choose? And how likely do you think it could be that a field just "chosen" could end up being something you love?
My theory is...a) knowing what you want to do earlier, having a "vision," is always a good thing. It helps you pick those experiences that you mentioned in your post. b) A bold choice will help form that vision, and will be kind of instinctively based on what you've learned about yourself already, and c) Along the way, as you gather the materials for that vision, you might discover a different passion, but it will be related enough that you'll already have a strong foundation.
Those are my thoughts
Thank you for yours.