Chapter 36 - Questions I'm Asking (and Answering) for Myself About Career

How do I figure out my ideal career path, and what are some things I can look out for that will let me know I'm choosing the right path?

Why I Feel So Lost:

No one knows what they are doing. Even people who look like they have it all together feel like they're just winging it and question the direction of their lives at some point. Figuring out what to do in life will almost always feel overwhelming. To get the answer to that big question, I have to think in smaller questions.

Smaller questions I could ask myself:

- What projects have energized me? What about them energized me?

- When was the last time I lost track of time because I was excited about something? When was the last time my motivation took over at work?

- Is there a cause or initiative that I feel particularly aligned with?

- Is there something I've always wanted to learn?

- What makes me happy?

- What makes me unhappy? What are my dealbreakers?

- What type of company do I want to surround myself with? Who would I want to talk to? What group would I like to join?

- What would I like to create using my passions and skills?

- What books would I like to read? What podcasts would I like to listen to? What videos would I like to watch?

My passions don't have to be professional, and I don't have to monetize every hobby or interest. Too much passion in a job can lead to burnout, so it's honestly best to keep my passions off the clock so that I can enjoy them on my own terms. This helps broaden the definition of my ideal job so that I can explore more options. It also makes it easier to say no to things, leave if the job sparks any red flags, and get my work done so that I can go home to my real life.

Using these smaller questions, I can determine what I want to do in the moment, whether it's making an unexpected career move or trying a new hobby, without feeling pressured to pour all my passion and energy into a job title.

What My Career Can Be:

The push to have pointed career goals started at a young age when people would ask me, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" There was also the push for me to get a bachelor's degree, and then a graduate degree, and then work in a "dream" job. My entire life was spent chasing down the dream job. But once I get to that dream job, there's no guarantee that I'll actually be fulfilled.

The career ladder is a very traditional way of thinking about a career path and career growth, but the overarching problem with a career ladder is that it only offers one upward direction to follow.

In actuality, careers can take a more winding route. The next level of my career might not be above me. I might use my professional growth to take skills to an entirely new industry or direction or maybe go back to an entry-level job. I can go with the flow or create a new flow that is better suited for me, taking my time to explore what it is I like.

The truth is, I'll be spending the majority of my life working, but my work doesn't have to equal my life. I can achieve career success without completely burning myself out aiming for the top of the ladder.

My career can be:

- a source of monetary benefits

- a position that allows me to keep my life values

- something that allows me to pursue my passions for the greater good

- somewhere that I can find some fulfillment (but not all of it)

- a place where I can learn new skills

- work and tasks that give me personal satisfaction and make me proud of myself

- something that fits into whatever phase of life I'm currently navigating (for example, recent college grad)

- something that allows for risk-taking, but maybe isn't inherently risky

- something that can change over time, allowing me to open myself to unexpected career transitions

My career isn't:

- my identity

- my family

- my entire life

- my worth or my confidence

- my happiness

Finding happiness and meaning in my career isn't a bad thing, but if I make my entire life about work, I'll end up feeling burnt out and disappointed.

We've been sold the idea that work should be more than just a typical job and that it should provide access to food, shelter, or other necessities, as well as be high-paying, fun, engaging, impressive, social, impactful, and driven by passion as we work out of professionally designed office spaces. But nothing in the world is perfect, and I shouldn't expect my job to tick all of those boxes.

I should instead focus on a good enough job: a paid position with relatively enjoyable work that allows me to live my life comfortably but isn't my entire world or identity.

What are the Key Elements I'm Looking for In My Career:

I can ask myself these questions to determine the key elements I want in my career:

- What kinds of environments, management styles, and ways of working do I thrive in?

- What kind of roles and prospects for growth am I looking for?

- What's the minimum compensation I'm willing to accept, and what's my ideal range?

- What skills and competencies does my resume currently demonstrate? Am I looking to gain additional skills or further specialize in what I know now?

- How does my resume position me in the hiring market? (For example, does it suggest that I'm someone who cares about socially driven work? Does it suggest I'm great at building, launching, and leading new initiatives? Have I collected prestigious company logos?)

- Is there a meaningful and realistic step I can take within the next 18 months based on my answers? Are there opportunities I can take off the table or add?

Once I can answer these questions, I can tailor my job search to the key elements I'm looking for in a job. And I can make my job search super specific (blank job in blank industry in blank location). A career that's best suited for me may be an ideal job, an ideal project, an ideal boss, or an ideal team, depending on what I'm looking for. But overall, my good enough job should involve:

- engaging in work with clear tasks, autonomy, variety, and feedback

- work that helps others achieve a goal, helps the community, and makes a positive difference

- work that I'm good at which gives me a sense of accomplishment and motivation

- having good relationships with colleagues, having mentors give me guidance

- work-life balance so that I can have other things in my life that give me joy.

- lack of major negatives (job insecurity, long commutes, stressful/intimidating work, unequal pay, etc.)

- supportive working conditions including psychological, mental, emotional, and physical safety

I can also start making a (flexible) career plan to help me plan out professional development opportunities, explore new qualifications, identify useful resources, and create the right connections to feel challenged and excited about the work I do. My plan should not have a set beginning or ending, but should instead be a process that evolves without a set timeline. I also don't have to have a target job title for my plan, because job titles always evolve and change. I can instead focus on responsibilities, industries, or the number of direct reports.

I can even take a moment to examine my brand and resume to see what achievements have meant the most to me, which projects have been the most enjoyable, and what I want to do more of. If I'm not sure where to begin, I can try color coding my resume bullet points, marking the red if I don't want to do that again, yellow if I could take it or leave it, and green if I'd like to continue doing those things.

How to Improve My Resume:

My resume may be rich in experience and transferable skills, but I struggle with my resume not clearly positioning me for a specific type of job, which has made job searching difficult.

The key is aligning my experience with job descriptions for roles I'm interested in. This allows hiring managers to immediately see if I'm a match. I also need to frame my experience into a clear career narrative that emphasizes my skills in project and program management, process improvement and strategy, and stakeholder engagement and leadership. I can also cut out simplify sections that don't add value, like irrelevant coursework or older experiences.

The first step is determining which roles best align with my experiences, interests, and salary requirements. I also need to determine roles with clear job descriptions so that it's easier to tailor my resume to them. Once I determine those, I can start tailoring, emphasizing the skills and experiences needed and getting rid of the rest.

What Career Shift Am I Navigating:

Some people are recent college grads in the process of defining a career path, while others have been in careers for years but want to change course.

Here are some reasons people decide to pursue a new career path:

- they dislike their coworkers

- they hate their boss

- long hours no longer fit with their personal life

- they want a better work-life balance

- they want a higher salary

- their commute time is too long

- they want to work remotely

- their long-term goals have changed and their current job is no longer a good fit

- there is no room for growth

- their job satisfaction is non-existent

- they like the function of the job but dislike the current industry

Expanding My Skills and Making a Career Change:

Maybe I want to make a career move but that move will require me to gain a new set of skills. The first step is to assess my current skill sets and decide which are transferable to a new career and which ones might be irrelevant (for now). The next step is figuring out what skills I need to learn or refresh to make the career move I want (filling in the gaps). Once I've identified those, I can find ways to learn these skills online.

Reevaluating My Current Career:

Sometimes, I may be feeling under-stimulated by my day-to-day responsibilities. Or maybe the company culture doesn't align with my values anymore. The key is to figure out what actually fulfills me in my career and reflect on my core values. Once I understand my new motivations, I can find opportunities better aligned with those.

Loving My Job But Wanting to Work at a New Company:

There will come a time when I'll outgrow the company I work for and be ready to move on. When that's the case, the key is having a company-first job search so that I don't land at a company like the one I'm currently at. It's also important to have a pros and cons list of my current job and current company so that I know my dealbreakers. If my "dream" company doesn't have any open roles, I can get some informational interviews going with their current employers to learn more about what it's like working there. This will also allow me to plant a seed just in case any openings pop up.

Wanting a Leadership Role:

If I want to get promoted to a management role, I can invest in learning the leadership skills to excel in that role.

What If I'm Burnt Out:

Burnout often comes in phases. It starts with feeling energized doing my job and keeping up with my healthy habits but can turn into spending more and more energy keeping up with my performance. I can end up becoming more and more stressed, and the symptoms become mental, emotional, and physical until they are the new default setting for how I go about life.

These are the three types of burnout: frenetic, under-challenged, and worn-out burnout. Frenetic burnout is when I put a ton of energy into my work in hopes of achieving a great reward. Under-challenged burnout is when I'm chronically bored and disinterested in my work. Worn-out burnout is when I experience consistent stress over a long time and am unmotivated.

Some jobs may have a reputation for being stressful, but not every stressful job has to lead to burnout if it's managed successfully. Also, jobs that are not seen as "stressful" but require a lot of "passion" can experience burnout as well. Burnout can be due to extreme workload at all times, no work/life balance, stressful responsibilities, directionless work, no support or feedback from team or management, misaligned values at work, lack of clarity and expectations, no autonomy, unreasonable timelines, or discrimination and toxic work environments.

Before I make a career move, I need to assess if my current job can be salvaged or if I can delegate tasks to others. If I need to leave because of burnout, I'll need to ensure that I never find myself in that situation again. This could mean understanding why I reached the point of burnout in the first place and figuring out how I can combat that issue in the future (for example, maybe the job required me to never sign off, maybe I was pressured to say yes to everything, maybe I was guilty taking PTO, or maybe my priorities were all out of wack).

Some of the things I can do to mitigate feeling burnt out in the future can be clarifying my top priorities at work. I can focus and spend most of my energy on getting the most impact-driven work done so that I'm not spread thin multitasking and trying to complete less important work. I can also spend more time planning out my work day so that I'm not thrown in and overwhelmed with all the tasks I have to do. I can also practice setting boundaries around my off time and around my deep work time (not spending too much time on emails but more time working in flow).

What Success Looks Like to Me:

Here are some parameters for success that I can focus on:

- Being true to myself in my career and relationships

- Building meaningful connections

- Expressing my creativity and skills

- Making an impact

- Achieving work-life balance

- Financial stability

- Personal growth

I do need to keep in mind the importance of remaining open and flexible to change. Instead of working to achieve one specific goal, I have to be flexible with my vision of success and the route I take to get there. As I progress through life and my career, my criteria for happiness, fulfillment, and perceived success will change. I have to pay attention to how my priorities and values shift over time and then move the goalpost accordingly.

I also need to remember not to sacrifice my well-being to accomplish my goal. If I have to sacrifice my health for a goal, then it will need to be reevaluated. Even if I'm working towards a larger goal, I have to make sure my lifestyle has the space for good habits.

How I Make Better Career Decisions:

Making the "correct" career decision can be hard because it affects our income, healthcare, mental health and how we spend a lot of our working hours.

I feel like I've either impulsively made career decisions or I've been too caught up in overthinking instead of making solid decisions.

It's important to determine who is affected by my decisions and what the potential rewards and downsides are for a decision (both in the short and the long-term).

Also if I'm considering whether to accept or reject a job offer, I have multiple options. I could accept the job offer today, reject the job offer today, ask for more time to consider the offer, negotiate a better compensation package, negotiate my current salary by sharing the job offer, or reject the offer but use the confidence of a job offer to continue my search.

If I want to get a second or third party's opinion, I should get it from someone knowledgeable but who cannot benefit from my decision.

How Can I Feel Better/More Motivated at Work:

If I'm struggling at work, what exactly is making me unhappy? Is it my boss? Is it peers or coworkers? Is it the work itself? Is it seeing other unhappy employees around me? Am I suffering from burnout? I need to asses what's holding me down and then consider ways that I change the situation. As humans, we are motivated by physiological needs, safety, love/belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. Sometimes I lack motivation at work because my needs aren't being met. I may have bad leadership or a toxic work environment, or I'm not getting compensated high enough. I don't need to change myself to fit a job. I can always find another job that I'm a better fit for.

I can start by setting SMART goals to help get me back on track, breaking it up into smaller goals that I can easily achieve. This will help me stay motivated and feel less overwhelmed because the goal is specific with a framework already built-in (Who is involved in this goal? What do I want to accomplish? Where is this goal located? What's the specific reason, purpose, or benefit of setting this goal? What's the timeframe in which I want to achieve this goal?).

I can front load my day with my least favorite work tasks so that my to-do lists don't get filled up with tasks that I despise doing or kill my motivation. I can also complete my least favorite work while listening to some calming music or a podcast. Taking this approach can help me get back to doing the tasks I like doing.

I can learn new skills to refresh my motivation.

I can rework my job responsibilities with my boss to see if there are ways I can incorporate more of what I love within my job.

I can find a mentor to give me actionable advice on how I can propel my career forward.

I can try getting feedback from my coworkers to see how I can improve my work.

I can practice being more grateful for my job, paycheck, and benefits. This can include finding the good in the job, the company, and the coworkers I work with.

I can reward myself more for all my accomplishments to boost my morale and stay motivated.

Lastly, I can even give myself a break and take advantage of my vacation days.

Even if I pick the "wrong" job, there's always another option. I can always move forward if I'm in a job that isn't right for me.