Shift

At this point in your journey towards Building Your Ideal Position, you might have added a few qualifiers. Such as: IMPACT - Is it important that your career have a positive impact? Check out 80,000 hours .  "FEMALE-FRIENDLY" - Looking for an environment which actively promotes female development through career and life changes? This article is for you. REMOTE - The one that comes up the most often—you need flexibility in your work schedule. Let's dive into this more... Contrary to what is still (oddly) popular belief—your physical presence does not correlate to your ability to produce. In the early 2000s there was an upsurge and subsequent decline in companies allowing remote work (remember Yahoo , as an example?). There are other articles written on this (here is one from NBC ), so I am not going to rehash all the details here, rather as a synopsis: 1- Working remote is not a good fit for all workers 2- Not all companies have the structures in place for...

Did you get a good list going last week ? You should be well on your way to finding clarity around what your next Ideal Position will be. You might also be thinking- this is all good, but what I really love is being able to cover the cost of living!  As you start to refine your next Ideal Position, use sites like  Salary.com  or  Pay Scale  to see the income range for positions you are targeting. You can also search  Career One Stop , which gathers it's data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Discovering that your next Ideal Position does not offer a range you can live with in your area? Go back to that list you just built last week , take some keywords from your top five points of interest, and enter them back into a search engine to see what comes up. Often times the same bullet point from a job description is valued differently per industry, location and company. I have taken bullets from an Admin position (a role which itself varies widely i...

This series is all about Building Your Ideal Position. Let's recap the last four weeks: Observe - we started out slow, observing interactions and feedback, focusing on when people are already telling you that you are valuable. Ask - then we stepped it up by actively soliciting feedback from people who know you well. Find your core values - an inward exercise to hone in on your values. Personality matters - expanding on your values, looking at your personality, and how it is described in different ways. Now what do you do with all of this?! Well, you turn it into  what you have to offer a company, others, the world. Because  as you have been learning- only you can be you, and there is value in that. You have spent time gathering  data and learning about how to talk about your assets, values  and preferences. Now we will begin to mirror that to what is being asked for.    This week you will search in order to compile a list of points that most i...

In last week's value finding exercise, you were tasked with going through a list of values and selecting those which resonate with you. You selected words based on your personal preferences. Again this week, I'll help you further focus on and define your personal preferences utilizing personality tests. These exercises are so important when looking to build your ideal position. We can take what we know about ourselves for granted. It takes a lifetime to get to know our own inner workings, because we are always changing with each new, daily input. Being able to clearly communicate your personal preferences is key in every aspect of life, including finding fulfilling work. The results of personality tests do not define you (this is not meant to be reductive), they will however help you to further understand and clearly communicate aspects of yourself. You will then have a repository of pithy descriptors from which to pull when crafting a cover letter, resume, or speaking about ...

Find value in the last two weeks of value exercises? It’s important work and is a foundational step towards engaging in and being fulfilled with your chosen profession. I could cut straight to the chase- focus on helping you write that resume, land that next job, but the newness will wear off, and you’ll be back dealing with that itch of discomfort and wondering why. Maybe you’ll even question why you went through writing that new resume to begin with! I don’t want that for you. So, let’s keep going before we commit to all that.  Gathering all of that data last week might have been a bit draining. So this week, I’ll lighten it up. Take some time to identify your core values. Go through this exercise , it’ll only take about 30 minutes. For a pdf that you can keep on hand, here is a study by CMU that you can download (it’s based on the above). For even more info, check out some of the resources on this site . I’m not affiliated, but love to provide more info whenever possib...

How did that value exercise go last week? Did another week pass and you are feeling deflated and undervalued, or are you more able to recognize that unique perspective which you and only you can bring to a situation? It’s true that your value is not always recognized (here is where some subtle and tasteful self-promotion can come in, but more on that later), so let’s dive into finding out information on your perceived value to others in order to hone in on the why, when and how! Take time this week to ask. That’s right—actively solicit feedback on how people perceive you. Simply send a quick email with the following three questions to a few colleagues with whom you regularly interact, former classmates you’ve shared a project with, or even friends (those that register above the level of an acquaintance). What are my unique abilities or super powers? What shows up in the room when I do? How have I contributed to yours and/or others’ lives? You could also set up a couple ...

You are valuable. Don’t take yourself for granted. We all do this- we know how to do something and instantly forget that not everyone else knows the same thing. It might seem like a simple thing to you, but to someone who's not you, they don't know it the way you do. Seems obvious but I see this so often with absolutely everyone in my life and with myself as well.  Time and again I have seen friends, family and colleagues undercut their own value. Thing is, we all do things differently, and someone needs to hear from YOU. It might not be about one particular thing you know, but rather a compilation of things, and it is the way you weave that knowledge together that is uniquely your own. I have so many examples of this, a few of which you can read below, and maybe one will resonate with you.  The point is- make note of your value; add to it and refer to it often. However you want to capture this, even if it is just a note on your phone, do it.  Here are a couple m...