Career
Sometimes You Just Need to SHUT UP!
Is it Time to Quit Your Job? – Quiz
We all have those moments when we want to quit our jobs. Some may be for large reasons, and some may be for smaller reasons. I created this quiz to filter through the reasons. What were your results? What will you do about it?
Download your FREE Career Development Guide to help you decide what to do after you quit your job.
If You Can Check off 4 out of 7 of these, You Probably Suffer from Career Complacency
“You Speak So Well” – Microaggressions in the Corporate World
MICROAGGRESSIONS
Let’s talk microaggressions. Merriam-Webster defines microaggressions as
a statement, action, or incident regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group such as a racial or ethnic minority.
In short, a microaggression is someone verbalizing their unconscious racial, cultural, or sexist bias. Many times the person who is exhibiting the microaggression doesn’t even realize they’re doing it. I’m going to explain to you some examples of microaggressions in the workplace and how to deal with them when you’re faced with them.
Many people think “but I’m a minority, I can’t exhibit microaggressions.” Even as a black woman, during my research to write this blog I have realized that I too am guilty of some of these things. I will now be working to actively avoid it going forward.
I’m going to be honest. Most people don’t intend to be racist, sexist, or homophobic and probably don’t think they’re even capable of being able to be discriminatory or bias. This is where microaggressions come in. It’s the behavior that you or someone else exhibits that communicates a derogatory or hostile message to another person. These microaggressions stem from assumptions made about a person based on their race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, or even age.
Microaggressions can create a negative and toxic workplace. A toxic workplace creates high turnover and bad working conditions.
Recognizing Microaggressions
If you have never thought about microaggressions, you may not know when you’re exhibiting the signs. Let’s go through a few of the themes/ways to spot microaggressions along with examples.
Microaggressions can affect any minority, this means regardless of if you are a minority race, gender, or sexual identity. You don’t have to deal with them though. You can talk to someone, report it to someone, or even stand up to it yourself.
How to Deal With It
Pause. Ask them to repeat or clarify what they meant, or even just take a moment to decide if you want to react or even respond at all.
Assumption. Don’t get defensive. You don’t want to get into an argument, that’s not the intent of dealing with the situation. You want this to be a situation of growth, not one of a hinderance. Where does their mindset come from? Can this be a learning situation? The message sent is not always the message received, and the intended meaning is often lost in translation.
Cut ‘Em Some Slack. Test your assumption. If you assume that they’re a jerk, test it. Maybe they are. Think about a time that you forgot to text someone back. They were probably pissed and thought that you were being a jerk, but in actuality you truly just forgot. This may be their case, it wasn’t an intentional thing on their part, but if they didn’t know they didn’t know BUT if it happens AFTER you told them….. don’t give slack again.
Explain. Tell them how their statement made you feel, hurt, or it impacted you. Start your sentence with: “This was likely not intentional but…”, “It may surprise you to hear this but….”, “You may not realize this but….”
Perspective. Don’t just tell them they’re wrong. They’ll automatically become defensive (don’t we all). You have to tell them. “That’s not alway’s right, I’ve experienced it as…”
You Can Make A Difference
Microaggressions have micro in the name, but there is nothing micro about them. They can make a great workplace a toxic one. Your words have power. It’s up to you to decide how you will use them.
This Career Does Not Spark Joy. Throw it Away? – How to Marie Kondo Your Career
Does Your Career Spark Joy?
Many of us have all watched the latest Netflix sensation “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.” It’s time you streamlined your career, cleaned up your cubicle, and got joy out of the place you spend 8 hours or more out of your day. I sat down as I watched it, and wondered “How can I encourage people to “KonMari” their career?”
The overall philosophy is clear: Don’t let the excess overwhelm you, get rid of what doesn’t make you happy, find a place for everything and simplify whenever possible. If you’re anything like me, a million and one thoughts are running through your mind and you have no idea what any of that sentence actually means.
Let’s break it down in a few different ways. At the foundation of the KonMari method, you have visualize, consider, and decide – without question, you have to decide where these things fit into your career. Be intentional about it, and when that happens, it is meant to be life-changing.
Visualize
Start by visualizing what a day at your job looks like. Assign times to these tasks. Where is most of your time going? Are you responding to emails for hours? Are you stressed out because your first 2 hours are spent responding to emails? Is the structure of your day making the rest of your day hard to get through? The more detailed the visualization of your day is, the easier it will be for your next steps to occur.
Does it Spark Joy?
Your job is made up of a lot of small jobs, as are most jobs. What parts of your visualization make you happy? What sparks joy about them? How can you incorporate parts of those tasks into the others? For example, I get really stressed about building presentation decks, however, I love writing the copy for them.
In order for the building portion of it to spark joy for me, I write my copy first and then build the deck. This allows for me to build around my copy. If you feel alive, focused, expert, or satisfied during one part of the job, consider that as joy-sparking. If that’s at the end, focus on that as you work on the beginning. Push yourself to get to the joy enabling portion.
What Do You Need?
The very first episode of the show, Kondo asks her client When’s the last time you wore it?” in regards to her husband’s favorite old shirt. This is a prioritization reminder that you can use in your own career.
TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF FIRST! Many company cultures focus on finger pointing, blaming someone else, anyone else. You can’t change your boss, you can’t change your coworkers, but you can change you.
What do you need in your career to be successful? Marie Kondo focuses on your needs for a clutter-free life, you have to focus on your needs for a clutter-free career.
Declutter Your Workspace
I don’t mean a bare space. My desk is full of sticky notes, pens, quotes, and notebooks. Everything needs a space, everything needs a container. A physically clean desk space ensures that you are free of visual distractions, and makes things easier to find. A decluttered space is a focused space.
Be Grateful for the Lessons
Your careers HAVE to have meetings, colleagues, and jobs that don’t spark joy but you still have to endure. Marie Kondo said the goal of tidying is to learn “to cherish everything that you have.”
You have to train yourself to say thank you that you do have a job and that you have things in your job that you are grateful for. You learn about yourself through the joy-filled tasks and the ones that don’t fill joy.
Be grateful for the lessons under the mad supervisor, and the bad. You should be grateful for the times you felt anger, guilt, and think back to the lessons that they taught you.
Marie Kondo Your Career
Keep in mind, you have more control over your own career happiness than you think. You might come to appreciate certain parts of your job you previously dismissed as boring or useless. Taking a step back to wonder what makes you happy and what doesn’t is an exercise worth doing. Organizational skills should be used in your professional life. Take stock of your career and tidy it up as best as you can.
Can You Pass This Job Interview Quiz?
Can You Pass This Job Interview?
You have walked into the room for your dream. I have introduced myself to you. You give me a firm handshake. Your phone is on silent (not vibrate). You are dressed in business professional (not casual) attire, and you are well prepared. Now let’s get down to business. Will you pass this job interview quiz?
How Did You Do?
Can You Tell Me About Yourself?
Your interviewer is not asking about your personal life. They don’t want to know when you were born or about your siblings. You should never give anything away that talks about your age when you are interviewing, and your interviewer is not allowed to ask. They want to know about your professional skills, your background, a little about what you want to do in the future. They want the details about your future, not just that you’re looking for the “next big thing.”
Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years?
Have a plan! The worst thing that you could tell an interviewer is that you don’t have a plan or that you haven’t thought about it. Sit down today and decide on a 3 year a plan. A mentor told me last week that I don’t have to have a specific role in mind because roles are ever changing, but know what type of work and what type of skills I want to have developed at that time. Those are the things you want to discuss in your interview to be successful.
What is Your Greatest Professional Achievement?
Put numbers to the achievement! Did you increase sales? By how much? Did you increase efficiency on your team? By how much and how often? Leaders LOVE numbers, make them love you.
What’s Your Greatest Weakness?
Please avoid the generic “perfectionist” answer. Give a true answer, but also give the solution in regards to what you’re doing to fix it. If public speaking is your weakness, sign up for a public speaking coaching session with me. In my most recent interview, my weakness was my lack of organization, but I have started using planners to get organized and have found that it works wonders. Make sure if you give a weakness, you ALWAYS give what you’re doing to remedy it.
What’s Your Dream Job?
When it comes to your dream job, don’t mention a specific company. Speak to your skills, speak to what you want to learn later. You want them to know you want to continue to grow.
If We Were to Contact Your Former Manager, How Would They Describe You?
Be honest, because they probably will call but also be detailed. Don’t give a one word answer, but it’s also time to boast on yourself!
Why Are You the Right Person for This Job?
You don’t need second chances? Are you sure? What happens when you mess you, you will mess up. That’s an arrogant response, and you should avoid arrogance at all costs. Be confident in your response, but not arrogant.
Did You Get The Job?
How’d you do? Did I hire you? What will you do better next time? Leave a comment and let’s discuss it!
Rory Gilmore – A Real World Shock for Millennials Everywhere
Did Rory Disappoint All of Us?
Many students believe that going to the best schools, and making the best grades means that upon graduation you will have that job you dreamed of, the spouse you wanted, and the life you sought after. When we left Rory in 2007, she was top of her class at Yale (even after taking a year off) and helping on former President Obama’s campaign trail. Rory was top of her class at Chilton Academy, and even had the extracurricular activities to back up her already stellar resume.
This is where the shock begins, when we meet Rory in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life she is 32 and going from house to house (and even country to country). To say she doesn’t have a stable job would be putting it lightly. We are taught to believe that good grades and extracurricular activities will guarantee us a job. If Rory Gilmore can’t do it, and she is on the cusp of being a millennial and she did everything right… what does this mean for the rest of us? Can you FEEL the panic attack kicking in?
The writers leave us hanging on edge at the end… will her book be a success or is she a struggling writer AND a single mother? Yes, you read that right… THE Rory Gilmore, who had 3 amazing world wind romances is still single and pregnant. Well single is slightly an understatement considering she was dating Logan, the engaged millionaire.
Am I Rory? Are you Rory?
This 4-part series really made me think. As a Master’s Graduate, it makes me wonder what does it REALLY take to be successful post-graduation? Is it the grades? Is it the extra-curriculars? It it who you know? Rory Gilmore had all 3 of the above. Where can you slack? Where do you need to put in more time?
As my classmates walk across the stage a few years ago from undergraduate, a friend of mine looked at me and said “Everybody’s journey has been so different since 2011… but you know we made it here right? Isn’t that all that matters.”
Rory Gilmore is what we all WANTED to be. We just knew having the grades, the perfect guy, the perfect mom and the perfect friends would mean that our careers and futures would be set in stone. Nothing would have us deviate from the plans we mentally set in place. When A Year in The Life aired and Millennials geared up to watch with our smart phones and smart TVs and got a real world slap to the face…. how did they expect us to take it?! Fetal position and a bottle of moscoto?
Rory’s best friend made a statement to Rory that I think many millennials can benefit from “This adult stuff is hard you know?”
Do Things YOUR Way.
There’s no right or wrong way to do it. Everybody’s journey is going to be different, and we shouldn’t let unrealistic expectations be set. I’m not disappointed in some of the way that Rory’s life turned out because it shows that things don’t always turn out the way you expect once you graduate. Sometimes you won’t get the job, you won’t get the guy or girl, you will have to move back home, and you JUST might have everything fall apart before you can pick yourself up again.
Was post-graduate life what you expected it to be?
Career Development Guide – Freebie
Career Development Guide
How many times have you asked yourself “What do I ultimately want out of my career?” Sometimes it’s hard to think through every possible scenario that could become your life. People often say “It’s not about the money, it’s about what I love.”, but let’s be honest, you’d love it a lot more if the right pay came along with it. Am I right? That is why I have created a downloadable Career Development Guide.
I have developed this guide to walk you through developing your professional career in 5 easy steps.
1. Who are you? (Knowing yourself)
2. What skills do you already possess? (Where are you now?)
3. What do you want for your career? (Where do you want to go?)
4. How might you get there? (What steps do you need to take to get there?)
5. Who can help? (What resources might I use?)
Who are you?
This section focuses on your interests. Your interests play a huge role in having a successful and beneficial career. It walks through your values and the primary things you would look for in your career journey.
Where are you now?
We’re going to break down your starting point. In order to make it to any finish line, you have to know where you’re starting from. You will look into the things you do well, your experiences, as well as the things that you could improve on. (None of us are perfect, so don’t leave that blank!
Where do you want to go?
Now, we’re still running this race, so you have to know where the turning lane is. You’ll think of your goals, you’ll think of your 1 and 5 year plan, and you’ll also consider the challenges.
How might I get there?
This is the meat & potatoes of the development guide. What types of things must I learn? For example, if you want to be a business analyst, there are certain skills you will need. You will need to be able work in Excel. Okay, so how can I get better at Excel? You can commit to completing the Expert class in Excel on Udemy.com. I want you to think in real terms on what you can do to accomplish your goals.
Who can help?
When it comes to who can help, think through family and friends. Once you think through them I want you to find a mentor. Check out one of my earlier blogs to learn more about mentors.
ACTION!
The development guide closes with you creating your own personal career plan based on steps 1-5, as well what you plan to do to make it happen. Be honest and transparent with yourself, or else you’re the only one you’re hurting.
You will get an automatic download, but it will also come to you via e-mail. (If you don’t receive it, please check your spam.)
Initiative is Everything – A Personal Narrative
If opportunity doesn’t knock, build the door yourself.
We all have been told to take initiative at some point in our lives. I have always been one to take things literally. I know what I want, and I know when and how to go after it. I’ve told this story to quite a few people in passing, but I’ve never just written it out. The way I got my first “big girl job” is a little different than most, but it is also the way I got my graduate assistantship. I’m going to start at my graduate assistantship, and work my way forward.
Graduate Assistantship
How often have you been told it’s not what you know, it’s who you know? Well, I’m living proof that you can use WHAT you know to get to who you WANT to know. In 2015, I was getting ready to graduate from THE Valdosta State University. I knew that I didn’t want to pay for grad school, I researched where I wanted to go, and how to get a free ride. In Janaury of 2015, I started researching marketing departments at various colleges I wanted to attend. Once I found those colleges, I looked up who was over graduate assistantships there. E-mails were sent to every single one of them. I told them my qualifications, my background, and why I deserved to be their graduate assistant.
I also took it one step further, I researched the head of every marketing department to see if they were looking for a graduate assistant. This was the first step, they would soon know my name. All of them said they weren’t sure, but would reach out later. (Which we all know rarely actually means anything.) I graduated May 10, 2015. On May 12th I got an email from the VP of Marketing at Armstrong State University requesting an interview as their GA had gotten sick, and they needed someone to start ASAP. I had already accepted my term at Armstrong for the Fall, and here they were asking me to come 3 months earlier PAID. My (now) husband and I took the trip to Savannah for my interview. They offered me the job on the spot, and asked if I could get enrolled that day.
My godmom opened her home to me for the Summer. I moved within 2 weeks down to Savannah to take a job + tuition that I had no plans to do. This is to show that initiative pays off when you least expect it sometimes.
Corporate America
If it works at least once, there’s a high probablity that it would happen again right? I knew the company I wanted to work for EARLY. The research was done, I knew people who worked there, and I knew I was skilled enough to do it. Around mid-2016 (before I graduated) I decided I was going to make my way into those walls. I searched “Company name college recruiter” on LinkedIn. After coming across her LinkedIn and sent her an InMail. (Check out my article on LinkedIn!) After about 2 weeks of not responding, I reached out to my sister in law, who previously worked there to find out how e-mail addresses at the company were set up. She told me the standard way, and I took my shot and sent an e-mail requesting an interview for an internship. In this email, I detailed my background, experience, and dedication. Within 24 hours, she responded to me stating that they don’t have internship opportunities for grad students, but they do have another program and she’d love to discuss it with me. We set up a conference call for the next day. She requested that I reach back out in 2 months when the application would go live. I reached out (thanks to a calendar reminder) on that day 2 months later. She set me up an interview, and the following Monday I had an offer.
Shoot Your Shot!
There is importance in taking initiative. Are you doing all you can for your career? When did you last reach out? Are you following up effectively? Being passive in your career search won’t help you in the long run. A leader is not one who sits around and waits, but goes after what they want!
When is the last time you took initiative? How did it pay off?