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#CareerAdvice : Risk Smart: Taking #YourCareer to the Next Level. “You Miss 100% of the Shots you Don’t Take.” – Wayne Gretzky

June 25, 2019/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

The choices we make throughout our careers take us all on quite a journey. When you first enter the workforce, it is a time of excitement and anticipation for what lies ahead. Over time, life takes us on a winding road of twists and turns in which our personal lives can intertwine with our professional lives.

While some life experiences can catapult us into unknown realms, it is important that we be open to embracing new career opportunities, and, when the moment is right, consider taking risks and pursue some new challenges.

Over the course of my career, I came to appreciate the importance of taking risks. In one of my first jobs in consulting, I worked diligently and waited to be presented with new opportunities to continue building a promising future career. As time went on, I learned the importance of being proactive in one’s career advancement. Don’t wait for your career to come to you—you need to take ownership of your own growth.

Here are three ways to feel more empowered and prepared to take smart risks:

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky

Risk and reward go together. Some of my greatest career achievements came about by taking educated risks, such as taking on new—and, at times, daunting—responsibilities. Once when asked to create a digital business within an organization, I approached the assignment with apprehension because I was concerned about the risk of failing in front of leaders who trusted me. To build my confidence, I reminded myself that growth comes from seeking out and taking on new challenges. By changing my mindset about the task, I was able to visualize that taking a risk into the unknown realm of “digital business” would enable me to learn a new field, expand my professional skill set, and earn the respect of my peers.

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Before taking a risk at work, ask yourself, “What are the pros and cons?” If you miss out on the promotion or if you don’t get the open position, what does that ultimately mean to your career? Growth comes in trying and persisting. If things don’t go your way, it’s okay to feel disappointed. As Dr. Seuss says in “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” my son’s favorite book: “I’m sorry to say so, but sadly, it’s true that bang-ups and hang-ups can happen to you. Use it as a learning opportunity. Make a mental note to reference how you will approach this the next time you’re ready to take a risk.

Above all, don’t miss the opportunity to take that chance and see where it takes you.

Think short – and long – term

There are times and places for risks, and the only person who can decide when the time is right to take a risk is you. I once received an offer for a position that I believed lacked long-term security from a company that was a major player in a volatile industry. Despite this uncertainty, I knew it was the right chapter of my life to take a chance—this was an opportunity in the short-term to propel myself toward my career goals, and I was committed to making it work.

When considering a career risk, it’s important to evaluate how it would fit into the current chapter of your life as well as your overall career journey. Is there a clear course leading you from where you are now to where you want to be? Are you willing to sacrifice some stability or salary in pursuit of this objective? Do you have the time to dedicate yourself to a new challenge now or are there other demands that would compete and make success unlikely? Answering these questions will help you become a better decision-maker when faced with opportunities to take chances.

Are you willing to sacrifice some stability or salary in pursuit of this objective? —Walia

Map out alternatives

When taking risks of any nature, it is important to have a sense of the full picture. It’s never fun to consider the downsides of risk, but it’s a necessary step to ensure you land on your feet if things go awry.

One good way to hedge your risks is to leverage your network and build your own personal “board of advisors” to your career. These people in your life can help you to assess risk and can also serve as a safety net in case things don’t work out. I believe in the power of positive thinking but having a Plan B isn’t a bad idea. Undeniably, having an alternate plan in place is critical to bouncing back and continuing your career journey.

Taking that first step into something new and unknown can often be unsettling. Our minds try and come up with all the reasons why not to take that risk. Start by taking the opportunity to talk it through with your trusted advisors and work out alternatives that will help ensure you are set up for success. Invest the time to map out what this could mean for your career now and in the future. And finally, take that shot! It could lead you down the path of a most rewarding career.

Author: Vicki Walia is Chief Talent and Capability Officer at Prudential where she oversees the talent team and a team of experts that connect strategy, identify organizational opportunities, build critical capabilities, and navigate change. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

Glassdoor.com | June 24. 2019

#CareerAdvice : #CareerChange -10 Obstacles That Keep You From #ChangingCareers — and How to Overcome Them.

March 7, 2019/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Raise your hand if you are thinking of changing careers! Or maybe you are in the midst of it, but something is holding you back. Whatever the case, you are not alone. Many people who want to change careers get stuck along the way.

Let’s look at some of the most common obstacles career changers face, whether before or during their career transition, and how you can overcome each one of them.

1. Focusing on What You Lack

This has to be mentioned right at the top — almost everyone I talk to who is thinking of changing careers but feels stuck is focusing on all the things they do not know how to do, or on all the resources they don’t have. This is completely backward — no one hires you based on what you do not know or have. The only things that matter are what you do know, what you have already accomplished and what you are interested in learning. Focus on what you can alreadycontribute to any profession and you’ll find yourself much more empowered in your career journey.

2. Not Knowing What You Want

Do you feel confident you can get whatever you want… except you don’t know what that is? If this sounds familiar when it comes to your career transition, dig deep: is it really true that you don’t know what you want? In my experience most people know what they want, but might not know what it looks like in a job. For example, you might know you would be happy working from home and writing, but you are not sure what kind of job would pay you to do just that. If this is you, stop saying you don’t know what you want and instead address the real question, which is that you are not sure what career could give you what you want. Or it might be that you know what you want, but are so afraid you wouldn’t succeed that you don’t let yourself admit that’s what you want. In that case your issue is fear, not lack of clarity.

If you really don’t know what you want, take this moment in time as an opportunity to try anything that feels interesting. Have fun exploring, and you’ll discover in the process what feels best. (Hint: you will not find the answer in your head — you need to get out and in action!)

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3. Lack of Information

In my work helping people change careers I often hear about different jobs… and sometimes encounter professions I didn’t even know existed! The truth is that you were probably exposed to only a few possible career options while growing up, and don’t know much about a wide variety of professions. Add the fact that technological innovation is creating many more opportunities that didn’t even exist just a few years ago, and chances are there are at least a few options that could be a good match for you, but you’ve never heard of. Most career changers don’t have enough information to make an informed decision — this is why you need to research and test possible professions and business ideas to gain real knowledge of what they are really like before committing to a new career.

4. Money Worries

We all know the drill: you should have at least 6 months of savings, no debt, a full-time job or at least a steady part-time income… in other words, you should be in a strong financial position before embarking on a career change. If you are, and you still feel stressed over money, keep reading for more tips on how to overcome fear. Focus on doing the work, and as long as you keep your financial acumen you’ll be fine.

If you are one of the 65 percent of Americans without significant savings, or one of the 48 percent of Americans who carry credit card debt or belong to the estimated 33 percent of college graduates who are underemployed, this is for you: I get it. I know it’s scary, and I know changing careers for you comes with added obstacles. Here’s the deal, though — you can’t afford more of the same exactly because it’s not working financially. Feeling worried or anxious about your finances will not help you — in fact, it will probably make it harder for you to make good decisions. Only your actions matter: learn to negotiate, say No to extra work that is underpaid or, if you are unemployed, volunteer and take on any type of work you are interested in rather than staying at home (it will also help you with your resume). Meet people, network, apply to jobs, start a side business. If you are already working like crazy and still struggling, commit to just a few hours each week to dedicate to your career transition. Do not let the lack of money stop you — instead, use it as powerful fire to light up your search for a new career. You can’t afford not to.

5. Unhealed Trauma

I personally think this is the big elephant in the room — the one thing we don’t talk about when discussing career-related issues. And we should. Our past, if not properly dealt with, can have an immense impact on how we relate to others. So how does unhealed trauma affect your career change? When you embark on any transition, including a career change, you are very likely to face rejection and failure — and these can be tough for everyone, but if you carry a lot of weight from the past, a negative experience can feel much worse once unhealed trauma is triggered. This is why it is so important to deal with your past. Treat your career change as part of a wider process of healing and start working with a therapist or healing professional of your choice right away. Your deep healing will help you better weather the ups and downs of your career change, and will expand your life beyond what you think is possible. Your desire to change careers could be part of a deeper calling to finally let go of what has been holding you back — so you can finally soar.

6. Lack of Role Models

Some of us are lucky enough to have knowledgeable and supportive family members, or maybe we had a cool teacher in the past or a boss who believed in us. Sometimes, though, that doesn’t happen, or the people who cheer us have no knowledge of the field we want to enter. If that’s the case, you need to go out and expand your network. This can mean finding someone who “officially” becomes your mentor (check out SCORE) or meeting people who are further ahead in your chosen career and learning from them through your interactions, deep conversations and rapport. I also recommend joining a group that is all about empowering its members. For example, there are many groups that support women in technology: by joining one, attending events and networking, you can find a lot of helpful information and resources to help you enter a new field. And through those interactions, you might also end up meeting a wonderful mentor or role model in a more traditional sense of the word.

7. Analysis Paralysis

This has got to be my favorite one, as I used to be a chronic sufferer from the condition! Some of us tend to get stuck trying to figure out every single step from now until we retire in our head. And of course, as each step comes with imaginary catastrophes, a lack of real information and often fear, we never feel we can make a decision, let alone know enough to take action. Argh! Here’s the good news: this approach doesn’t work. Once you realize that it’s impossible to plan your entire career change in your head, you will finally give yourself permission to take one step at a time. What is the next thing you know you need to do in order to move forward? Focus on that. And trust that as you take that one step, you will be able to see the next, and then the next and so forth until you can reach your destination.

8. You Think the Past Is a Preview of What’s to Come

Just because every boss you had so far was unsupportive, it doesn’t mean that your next boss will be; just because you have always made little money, it doesn’t mean you will always be underpaid. We don’t know what the future has in store for us, but the good news is you can always work towards a different outcome. Bad bosses? I bet you can now spot the early signs! Underpaid? Use that as motivation to say ‘No’ to positions that pay too little and to move into a career or industry that pays what you need, learn to negotiate, update your skills, etc. Acknowledge what happened in the past, learn from it and then focus on what you want moving forward. Give the future a chance!

9. Trying to fit in

“I should be more open, I should go to more networking events, I am too much of an introvert, people like me don’t usually…” Stop right there! I am all for self-improvement, but there is a difference between wanting to grow as a person and imagining everyone else is better than you. Chances are, you already have all if not most of what you need to succeed: embrace who you are. Love yourself, focus on what you enjoy doing and are naturally good at, have fun learning new skills and getting out of your comfort zone, but do not think you need to be like someone else in order to be fulfilled in your career. You will be able to live a fulfilled life, including in your career, when you accept yourself as you are. From that place, you will become more open to new opportunities, flexible on the things you can be flexible about and someone people will want to be around. Trust me: Once you stop trying to fit in, you will find a career that is a good fit for you.

10. Don’t Make It All About Yourself

Last, but not least, it’s not just about you. In fact, the more you make it about you, the more insecure and stressed you will feel. Who do you want to serve? What lights you up? What difference do you want to make? These questions don’t have to have world-changing answers to motivate you: You can choose a career to provide your family with a stable environment, or you can commit to creating a business that offers employees great health insurance from day one because you believe in providing such benefits. There is no “small” purpose: Focus on the why, and you will find you have in you more courage and resilience than you ever thought possible.

Author: Aurora Meneghello is a Los Angeles-based career coach and the founder ofRepurpose Your Purpose. She works with groups and individuals who want to change careers.

GlassDoor.com | March 7, 2019

#CareerAdvice : #YourCareer -What you Should Do When you Feel Unappreciated at Work…Great Read!

March 5, 2019/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Everyone has a need to be appreciated. Yet most of us have, at some point in our working lives, felt unappreciated. In that you aren’t alone. A Gallup Poll found that 65% of American workers felt unappreciated. Feeling undervalued leads to a loss for yourself as well as the organization.

We also know that feeling unappreciated leads to increased stress and anxiety. Not feeling valued in the workplace has negative impact on our health overall. If you fall into the category of feeling unappreciated, you need to take initiative and look for ways to turn things around. Either things will turn around, or you may have to make a decision and consider whether the benefits of your job outweigh the harm you will do to yourself to continue working there.

Here are some things you can do when you feel unappreciated at work:

CHECK OUT YOUR PERCEPTIONS

Find someone who knows your work as well as what constitutes good work in the organization. A supervisor or manager who knows your work, but who you don’t directly report to but respect and trust, would be a good person to ask. Check with a trusted colleague to see how they feel. Don’t get caught up in a cycle of negativity and only talk to coworkers who are known chronic complainers. “Attitudes are contagious, so we must make sure we spend time and energy with people who are positive,” says Judy Bell.

Talk to people who appear upbeat and positive. Don’t make assumptions about your boss and what you perceive as their lack of appreciation. They may be unaware of the excellent work you are doing, or may be under great pressure themselves from areas you don’t know anything about. Start with that assumption and go with it until you have evidence to prove it wrong.

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HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH YOUR BOSS

In this case, you need to be subtle. Prepare for the meeting beforehand by knowing what you are going to discuss and having a list of accomplishments fresh in your mind. Never say that you want more appreciation; rather, indicate that there are times that you don’t feel your work is noticed. If you are part of a team, mention the work of the team instead of focusing on your own achievements. Avoid confronting your boss or going in to speak when you are angry. It will only put your boss on the defensive, and this will not help your cause. Rather, ask for feedback on your performance. Indicate to your boss that you are looking for ways to improve and would like his or her help.

MAKE A POINT OF RECOGNIZING OTHERS’ CONTRIBUTIONS

If you are part of a team, always ensure that everyone knows who created your team presentations and reports. Take a cue from classy professional athletes and give credit to the team when you get a win. Look for opportunities to praise others who you feel have done a good job in front of their boss and peers. This will create awareness of the need for appreciation, and there is a good chance that the recognition of a job well done will be reciprocated by those who have received it. Make sure that your appreciation is genuine, and don’t overdo it. If unwarranted appreciation is loosely tossed around, real appreciation quickly loses its effectiveness and value. In the best-case scenario, you will raise awareness of the need for appreciation in the organization, some of which will come back to you.

LOOK FOR WHAT WENT WELL

Many of us tend to focus on what went wrong. Even if five of six reports that were worked on received praise, we will focus on the one that we received critical feedback on. Instead, make an effort to look for what went well at the end of each day, week, and month. Make a list and post it where you can easily see it. Not only will it give you a positive boost, but will increase your ability to notice the positive, keeping your mind from going to the negative. It will also increase your ability to intrinsically motivate yourself, rather than waiting for outside validation. Look at this as a way of increasing your personal and professional value, which is independent of any job or person. Remember that all highly successful people have developed the ability to motivate themselves. Real fulfillment and satisfaction come from within, not from outside validation.

CONSIDER THE ALTERNATIVES

It may be possible, even after everything you’ve tried, that the problem is a bad boss and toxic work culture that you will not have any chance of influencing. At that point, consider what you need to do. Are the benefits of staying where you won’t be appreciated worth it? Can you self-motivate and continue, or is the situation at the point that you need to move on for the sake of your mental health, well-being and self-respect?

FastCompany.com | March 5, 2019

#CareerAdvice : #CareerDirection – How to use #EmotionalIntelligence to Find a Job that’s Right for You.

February 6, 2019/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

“Good job fit” is one of those overused phrases that has lost some of its meaning. What is it? What happens when the job you thought was your dream job, or the job that would catapult you to great success makes you feel anxious, out of step, scrambling to keep your balance?

When we talk about good job fit, we overlook the thing that is most important, And to get to that stage, we can’t take shortcuts–we have to deploy a kind of emotional intelligence that I call EQ Fitness.

THE THREE STEPS TO EQ FITNESS

There are three steps to EQ Fitness: (1) the willingness to become self-aware (2) the openness to build trust, and the steadiness to lead, and live, guided by inner principles. Step one is the most crucial, because it’s the foundation on which you build the next two steps.

I see examples of those who get it right, and those who don’t in a lot of the keynotes and consulting I do. In many cities today, start-up accelerators and incubators offer stipends and grants to enterprising young adults, who, in turn, grow their business there. One evening, after I gave remarks at an event in Detroit, a young woman, no more than twenty-two years old, raised her hand and asked me, “I’m really good at new ideas and working to get them off the ground,” she said. “But I’m not great at process. How do I get to be a complete CEO?”

My knee-jerk reaction was to say, who’d want to be in charge of process? Get someone else to do that! After all, I was just like her–I’ve hated process my whole career. But I took a mindful moment and instead offered encouragement and praise for her self-awareness. I then explained that we generally fall into categories of builder-entrepreneur or process-systems person. Our job in developing ourselves is first to identify which one we are, then to work on improving the other skill-sets–especially if we want a leadership position, because great leaders need both.

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WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY?

Before you identify which label best fits you, start with a simple question: What makes you smile after you’ve done it? Use that as a gauge of possibilities. It could be taking your eye for detail and becoming an architect or city planner. It could be using your curiosity about people’s lives and becoming a journalist or joining a human resources department.

Consider, too, the kind of role that you want to play in an organization. I have a talented friend Angela, who has chosen not to manage people. That decision was born from self-awareness. Another friend, Babs, works at an enormous aerospace company, and she describes how her boss will walk toward her cube with a certain look every year or so. She knows what’s coming. The boss is looking for someone to fill a newly vacant management position. Babs said she and her colleagues all put their heads down, pretending to be engrossed in some project. None of them want to manage anyone.

HOW TO TELL IF YOU’RE ON THE RIGHT PATH

My HGTV boss, Ken Lowe, and I were working side by side as CEO and COO. He got a corporate nod to take over the parent company, E.W. Scripps, and wanted to know if I wanted his job as CEO. I slept on it and surprised him by telling him no. But the answer didn’t surprise me. I knew myself well enough to know that his job wouldn’t be a good fit. Being CEO is all-consuming, with a responsibility to shareholders and employees alike. I needed some work-life balance for myself and my family, and I knew I had to stop at number two–even if it meant diminished opportunities at HGTV or another company in the future.

*Fully Human: 3 Steps to Grow Your Emotional Fitness in Work, Leadership, and Life* by Susan Packard

Some people might see this choice as limiting, but for me, it opened up other opportunities and interests that were more important to explore. By staying on as the COO, I was able to grow a variety of business areas at Scripps Networks Interactive (the home of HGTV) and had the time and bandwidth to train and prep for the New York City Marathon.

To determine whether or not you’re on the right path, you need to figure out the following: where your natural strengths lie, what interests and stimulates you, and what kind of company culture allows you to thrive. It’s also essential for you to realize that you need to make decisions that will enable you to live your ideal life, not someone else’s version of it.

Throughout our working lives, we’ll come to many crossroads, as our professional identities unfold and unpredictable opportunities arise. It takes courage and integrity to absorb the big picture when it comes to job fit. Emotionally fit people see job fit in its broadest sense because it means taking ownership and accountability over choosing wisely, and taking into account where your heart is guiding you. This means going beyond considering what you can do, to what you love to do, so that “can do” doesn’t become a life sentence.

This article is adapted from F ully Human: 3 Steps To Grow Your Emotional Fitness In Work, Leadership, and Life. It is reprinted with permission from TarcherPerigee, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2019 by Susan Packard.

FastCompany.com | February 6, 2019 | BY SUSAN PACKARD

4 MINUTE READ

#CareerAdvice : #CareerDirection – Take these 5 Things into Consideration When you’re Trying to Find your Calling.

January 10, 2019/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

If, like many, you are searching for your calling in life–perhaps you are still unsure which profession aligns with what you most care about–here are five recent research findings worth taking into consideration.

First, there’s a difference between having a harmonious passion and an obsessive passion. If you can find a career path or occupational goal that fires you up, you are more likely to succeed and find happiness through your work–that much we know from the deep research literature. But beware–since a seminal paper published in 2003 by the Canadian psychologist Robert Vallerand and colleagues, researchers have made an important distinction between having a harmonious passion and an obsessive one.

If you feel that your passion or calling is out of control, and that your mood and self-esteem depend on it, then this is the obsessive variety, and such passions, while they are energizing, are also associated with negative outcomes such as burnout and anxiety. In contrast, if your passion feels in control, reflects qualities that you like about yourself, and complements other important activities in your life, then this is the harmonious version, which is associated with positive outcomes, such as vitality, better work performance, experiencing flow, and positive mood.

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Secondly, having an unanswered calling in life is worse than having no calling at all. If you already have a burning ambition or purpose, do not leave it to languish. A few years ago, researchers at the University of South Florida surveyed hundreds of people and grouped them according to whether they felt like they had no calling in life, that they had a calling they’d answered, or they had a calling but had never done anything about it.

In terms of their work engagement, career commitment, life satisfaction, health and stress, the stand-out finding was that the participants who had a calling they hadn’t answered scored the worst across all these measures. The researchers said that this puts a different spin on the presumed benefits of having a calling in life. They concluded: “Having a calling is only a benefit if it is met, but can be a detriment when it is not as compared to having no calling at all.”

The third finding to bear in mind is that, without passion, grit is “merely a grind.” The idea that “grit” is vital for career success was advanced by the psychologist Angela Duckworth of the University of Pennsylvania, who argued that highly successful, “gritty.” people have impressive persistence. “To be gritty,” Duckworth writes in her 2016 book on the subject, “is to fall down seven times, and rise eight.”

Many studies certainly show that being more conscientious–more self-disciplined and industrious–is associated with more career success. But is that all that being gritty means? Duckworth has always emphasised that it has another vital component that brings us back to passion again–alongside persistence, she says that gritty people also have an “ultimate concern” (another way of describing having a passion or calling).

However, according to a paper published last year, the standard measure of grit has failed to assess passion (or more specifically, ‘passion attainment’)–and Jon Jachimowicz at Columbia Business School in New York and colleagues believe this could explain why the research on grit has been so inconsistent (leading to claims that it is an overhyped concept and simply conscientiousness repackaged).

Jachimowicz’s team found that when they explicitly measured passion attainment (how much people feel they have adequate passion for their work) and combined this with a measure of perseverance (a consistency of interests and the ability to overcome setbacks), then the two together did predict superior performance among tech-company employees and university students. “Our findings suggest that perseverance without passion attainment is mere drudgery, but perseverance with passion attainment propels individuals forward,” they said.

Another finding is that, when you invest enough effort, you might find that your work becomes your passion. It’s all very well reading about the benefits of having a passion or calling in life but, if you haven’t got one, where to find it? Duckworth says it’s a mistake to think that in a moment of revelation one will land in your lap, or simply occur to you through quiet contemplation–rather, you need to explore different activities and pursuits, and expose yourself to the different challenges and needs confronting society.

If you still draw a blank, then perhaps it’s worth heeding the advice of others who say that it is not always the case that energy and determination flow from finding your passion–sometimes it can be the other way around and, if you put enough energy into your work, then passion will follow. Consider, for instance, an eight-week repeated survey of German entrepreneurs published in 2014 that found a clear pattern–their passion for their ventures increased after they’d invested more effort into them the week before.

A follow-up study qualified this, suggesting that the energising effect of investing effort arises only when the project is freely chosen and there is a sense of progress. “Entrepreneurs increase their passion when they make significant progress in their venture and when they invest effort out of their own free choice,” the researchers said.

Finally, if you think that passion comes from doing a job you enjoy, you’re likely to be disappointed. Consider where you think passion comes from. In a preprint paper released at PsyArXiv, Jachimowicz and his team draw a distinction between people who believe that passion comes from doing what you enjoy (which they say is encapsulated by Oprah Winfrey’s commencement address in 2008 in which she said passions “bloom when we’re doing what we love”), and those who see it as arising from doing what you believe in or value in life (as reflected in the words of former Mexican president Felipe Calderón who in his own commencement address in 2011 said “you have to embrace with passion the things that you believe in, and that you are fighting for”).

The researchers found that people who believe that passion comes from pleasurable work were less likely to feel that they had found their passion (and were more likely to want to leave their job) as compared with people who believe that passion comes from doing what you feel matters.

Perhaps this is because there is a superficiality and ephemerality to working for sheer pleasure–what fits the bill one month or year might not do so for long–whereas working towards what you care about is a timeless endeavour that is likely to stretch and sustain you indefinitely. The researchers conclude that their results show “the extent to which individuals attain their desired level of work passion may have less to do with their actual jobs and more to do with their beliefs about how work passion is pursued.”

This is an adaptation of an article originally published by The British Psychological Society’s Research Digest. This article was originally published at Aeon and has been republished under Creative Commons.

FastCompany.com | January 10, 2019 | BY CHRISTIAN JARRETT—AEON5 MINUTE READ

#CareerAdvice : #YourCareer – Take these Steps to Grow your Career in the New Year! Great Three(3) Min Read!

December 31, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Knowing the right company that fits your culture, passion, and industry is the first step. But once you find the right company, how do you work your way up?

Here are 5 tips on how to cultivate your career.

BUILD A SOLID NETWORK

Make LinkedIn work for you. If you haven’t already, create your LinkedIn profile, and add your skills and contributions to beef up your profile. Endorse your colleagues and request their endorsement. A nod from your peers, or a positive review from a previous client, speaks volumes on LinkedIn.

SET GOALS

Be proactive. Setting goals for your professional career are critical. Start small and add new goals each year.

Find your passion and connect with others that share your ambitions. By sharing with others, you’ll have an even greater network to leverage expertise and resources.

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STEP OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE

Look for opportunities to try something new and step outside your comfort zone. Are there any classes or trainings available at your company? Does the company offer tuition reimbursements for a class you’re interested in taking? If you don’t know, ask!

When you have a passion for growing your career, take a shot on a “stretch assignment.” Whether it’s contributing to an additional project, or taking on a whole new role, this stretch assignment will add to your skillset, give you exposure to other people in your company, and allow you to gain insight into the expectations and daily work associated with a different position.

SEEK OUT A COACH OR MENTOR

A coach or mentor can be a person that’s in, or outside, of your organization. They should be a trusted advisor that can help guide you to the next stage of your career. Identify who that person is in your life and see if they’re interested in committing to your growth. You can have more than one. Keep in mind: It should be someone that can help you develop your personal and professional skills. Consider a person that is in a current role that you’d aspire to, or a person that can support your professional development, in preparation for the next step.

Be receptive to feedback. Look at any constructive criticism as positive. Remember–your coach or mentor has your best interests at heart. Be open-minded when listening to their suggestions; this can have a lasting, positive effect on your relationship with them and help you identify talents in yourself that you may not have previously realized.

TAKE THE LEAP

Are you ready to grow? Sometimes you need to take the leap and find out. Before you do, make sure you can land on your feet. Have you excelled in your current role? Have you grown to your full potential? If you answered yes, it’s time to move on to the next stage of your career. Before presenting your interest to your manager, prepare to reference any positive comments from others about your performance to solidify your next move. Include any past performance evaluations to add credibility.

If you’ve truly mastered your current role, then moving into a larger or a new position will seem like an obvious next step. In speaking with your manager about your next move, ask what tools you’ll need to succeed.

When looking at the big picture, plan effectively, build relationships, and execute a growth strategy with guidance from your manager and mentor to progress to the next stage in your career. By executing strategic goals, a new path to success will unfold. By implementing these steps, you can significantly impact your growth opportunity and challenge yourself to reach the next stage in a successful career.

FastCompany.com | December 31, 2018 | BY YOLANDA WALKER—GLASSDOOR3 MINUTE READ

#CareerAdvice : #YourCareer – Ask these Four Questions to Conduct a Your Career Audit for the Past Year. Great Three(3) Min Read!

December 22, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

As 2018 comes to a close, career reflection is the most important thing you can do to prepare for the year ahead. It offers you the opportunity to look back, see what goals you already met, and figure out where you’re at with regards to your long-term goals (or whether they need to evolve).

Here are the questions you should be asking before you set your career resolutions for 2019.

DOES YOUR WORK MATTER?

Be honest in answering this fundamental question. Because if the answer is no, then nothing else really matters. Your happiness, both personal and professional, will come from doing work that you care about, and one way to answer this question is to take stock of your accomplishments. Write up a list of all that you have achieved and then ask yourself what they mean to you, personally and professionally. Do they matter to those around you? Do they matter to your employer? Do they matter to society? If you start here and can honestly say that your work matters, you’re well on your way to a rewarding career.

HAVE YOU KEPT UP WITH HOW TECHNOLOGY IS IMPACTING YOUR FIELD?

We live in a world of constant change. Those skills you acquired last year might be obsolete by this year or next. Rapid changes in technology are keeping everybody in a continuous state of learning and in a perpetual need to acquire new skills. Whether you are in a field driven by technology, or whether technology is just a part of your industry, you need to update and advance your tech skills at all times.

When you look back on the past year, ask yourself if you managed to keep up with the technological changes in your field. If you did, that’s probably not good enough. You need to get ahead of the changes, anticipate what new changes might be coming, and prepare for them. Your career will fast-track itself when your professional peers see you as the technology driver. Do everything you can in the upcoming year to stay ahead of the tech game, including investing time and resources in your skills.

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WHAT IS YOUR CAREER TRAJECTORY?
Did you work all of this year without giving much thought to where you will be down the road? Where will you be in five years? Ten years? To get to where you want to be, you need to identify where you need to be at various stages of your career.

Start this process by looking around and seeing where your more experienced coworkers are at, and think about whether that’s where you want to be. If so, ask what they did to get to where they are today. What roles and responsibilities did they take on? What skills did they acquire along the way? How did they network and get those responsible for their career development to notice and advance their careers? From that learning, map out your game plan so that you don’t leave your career advancement to chance.

IS YOUR FINANCIAL WELL-BEING WHERE IT NEEDS TO BE?
Money won’t dictate whether or not you’ll find satisfaction at work, but it’s still imperative to your overall well-being. At the end of the year, you should be conducting regular reviews of your salary, bonus, retirement contributions, and healthcare benefits so you can ensure that you’re earning what you deserve. The best way to evaluate this is to do your homework. Go online and research jobs like yours and learn what employees in other companies are earning. Check out jobs posted and what employers are paying for those jobs. You want to be earning to your maximum potential because many organizations base future promotions and salary increases on your current financial package. If you are not making what you should be, you should set some time to have an honest conversation with your boss in the new year.

Just like everything else in life, career success and satisfaction won’t come without strong intentions on your part. But you also need to make sure that you’re setting (and implementing) the right ones. That starts with asking questions.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Don Raskin is a senior partner at MME, an advertising and marketing agency in New York City. He is also the author of The Dirty Little Secrets of Getting Your Dream Job More.

FastCompany.com | December 21, 2018

#CareerAdvice : #YourCareer – Follow these 5 Steps to Future-Proof your Career.

December 21, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

The marketplace for talent is changing rapidly, and experts say it’s about time the way we approached our own careers caught up.

After a couple of decades defined by disruption, automation, and job displacement, many still aren’t convinced that their job could be at risk. Studies conducted by Gallup, Quartz, and the Pew Research Centre have all found that a majority of Americans believe automation and AI will displace a significant number of jobs; just not their own.

The lack of response to this new dynamic has become a key concern for career transition coach and best-selling author Ines Temple. In her book, You, Incorporated: Your Career Is Your Business, Temple explains how every employee should approach their career like a small business, with themselves as a provider of a service to a single client. She adds that any business that depended entirely on one client would be aggressively looking to diversify, and in today’s career landscape, employees should be equally as proactive when it comes to exploring their own career opportunities.

“A lot of people have allowed companies to manage their careers; they don’t take a proactive approach to them,” she says. “When companies change their plans and need to let them go, they are not ready to find a new job, they’re not employable, because their skill sets aren’t up to date. They don’t have metrics ready to demonstrate those skills, and they don’t have a strong network of contacts that will help them in a job search.”

Temple and other career experts recommend taking the following five steps to ensure your career is prepared to overcome the challenges of a rapidly evolving talent marketplace.

1. ASSESS YOUR CURRENT LEVEL OF BEING FUTURE-PROOFED

The first step in improving your career’s resiliency, according to Temple, is determining where you currently stand. She believes that those who are most prepared to evolve are those that love what they do, as they are often most willing to go the extra mile in order to continue doing it.

“Ask yourself, ‘Am I really happy here?’ ‘Is this what I want?’ ‘Is this really my passion?’” she says. “I know that’s a hard thing to worry about when you have bills to pay, but without that, it’s very hard to plan for your future career.”

Being too satisfied with your current employment, however, may also be a sign that you should be doing more to prepare for your future. “A very simple litmus test is: If you’re comfortable, you should start learning something new,” says Darren Raycroft, a partner with the Bedford Consulting Group, an executive search and talent management company.

Raycroft explains that with the rapid pace of technological advancement, the value placed on many skills today lacks the longevity that comparable skills had in previous generations. “Those periods of comfort and normalcy are getting shorter and shorter,” he says.

Raycroft recommends keeping an eye on relevant job postings—even during periods of comfortable employment—to better understand where your industry is heading, and what skills are in highest demand.

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2. COMMIT TO LIFELONG LEARNING

In today’s rapidly changing employment landscape, it’s easier than ever to fall behind, especially if you haven’t recently updated your skills.

“There’s this delineated ‘learning time’ in our lives, and then we move into a position, and if you choose to take some courses to get ahead, you may do so,” explains Raycroft. “I think that’s changing: Learning is and will continue to be an ongoing process with a degree of propensity that we haven’t yet experienced in our lifetimes.”

Raycroft believes that in order to stay ahead of the changing needs of the talent marketplace, employees need to be proactive in updating their skills. “That ability to learn and use judgment has been and will continue to be necessary for success,” he says.

3. NEVER STOP NETWORKING

The worst time to start building a network is when you desperately need one. Professional relationships are typically stronger when they’re built on mutual interest, rather than urgent need. “A lot of people only do a lot of networking when they need a new job, but on a daily basis, we don’t invest enough time in people, building a relationship based on trust,” says Temple. “It’s all about relationships with people, because people will recommend us, promote us, or let us go.”

Not only do those who take a break from networking risk weakening some of their existing relationships, but they can also begin to lose their networking skills. Temple emphasizes the importance of keeping those skills sharp and those relationships strong by building them in the low-pressure periods of career stability.

4. WORK ON YOUR SOFT SKILLS

Building that network often requires strong interpersonal skills, something that Temple believes is sorely lacking in most of today’s workers. “We really need to work on our warmth, our charisma, how much energy we give to people, because those things will make a difference between those who have a chance for a better career and those who don’t,” she says.

Furthermore, if our most robotic and repetitive tasks are bound to be automated, those quintessentially human traits may soon become our greatest assets.

“Young professionals understand that soft skills will be critical to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” says Michele Parmelee, Deloitte’s global chief talent officer. “According to Deloitte’s seventh annual Millennial Survey, young professionals identified softer skills like confidence, interpersonal skills and—particularly for gen-Z—ethics and integrity aptitude as skills they feel are important to develop in order to succeed in the future.”

5. FIND A MENTOR

Not only can mentors use their experience to help their mentees navigate a quickly changing employment landscape, but they can also help them develop some of those vital soft skills in a low-pressure environment.

“It’s a safe place, so you won’t feel embarrassed asking your mentor questions that you might be embarrassed to ask in a group setting,” says millennial and gen-Z engagement expert Ashira Prossack. “You’ll also get that practice, and they’ll give you immediate feedback and one-on-one attention, because you can’t just read about how to communicate, you need to actually do it.”

FastCompany.com | December 21, 2018

Your #Career : #CareerAdvice – Here’s When it’s Worth Taking a Big Risk in your Career…Sometimes, Playing it “Safe” Can be Detrimental in the Long Run.

June 29, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

In most situations, it makes sense to play it safe. Don’t cross the street without looking both ways, and never drive a car without wearing a seat belt. Both of those things make sense because there’s no upside to making the dangerous choice.

When it comes to your career, though, sometimes it does make sense to take risks. You shouldn’t be (small-f) foolish or take risks just for the sake of it, but there are situations when the safe choice limits your upside.

If you take a risk and fail, you can always get another job. The prospect may seem scary, but if you take enough smart, well-considered risks, then hopefully some will work out for you.

WHEN YOUR INTEGRITY IS ON THE LINE

There are plenty of times when the best thing to do at work is “keep your head down” and focus on the work. Whether it’s avoiding office politics (or discussing real politics), gossip, or correcting your boss when it would only cause you to catch their ire, these can be “high-risk, low return” situations that are best avoided. And there are other times it may go either way, if there’s real risk you could do permanent damage to your reputation if you have a plan or idea that fails.

However, there should be a red line when it comes to your integrity. This is because, in my experience, an employer or coworker who asks you to start letting “little” things slide will eventually expect you to start ignoring–or possibly even hiding–bigger things. And sometimes these can mean breaking the law and becoming an accomplice to a crime. Of course, it’s important to consider context here, but in general, it should be pretty obvious when you’re starting down a dangerous path.

But if you always make a point to be honest in your dealings with your employer, peers, and clients, you can avoid a slippery slope that can ruin careers and lives. The bottom line is, no job is more important than your integrity. If you have to break rules or lie or commit crimes to stay employed, you’re risking a lot more by trying to stay with that company.–Jason Hall

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WHEN YOU’VE SAVED FOR IT

I’m the first person to encourage others to pursue their dream careers, because having done so myself, I know how rewarding it can be. I worked at a hedge fund for almost five years after college, all the while wanting to move over to something more creative. When I finally took the leap, I knew it would involve a major pay cut, and I was okay with that. The reason? I had savings to back myself up.

We spend so much time at work that we deserve to be doing things we love. At the same time, we can’t neglect our bills. If you know you want to switch careers, or take a similar risk that might result in a drop in income, go for it–but save some money first. When I went from collecting a steady paycheck to freelancing, I knew it would take time to build up a client base, and so I saved enough to ensure that even if I didn’t earn a dime during my first six months of independent work, I’d be okay.

It’s brave to take a career risk, but it’s unwise to compromise your near-term and long-term financial security in the process. So don’t. Save money to buy yourself the option to take that risk. This way, you can approach your new venture head on without having the stress of getting evicted or running up credit card debt holding you back.–Maurie Backman

WHEN YOU’RE STUCK IN A DEAD-END POSITION

A few years ago, I was working as the editor of two small–some would say dying–local newspapers. My boss was a nice enough guy but we had differing philosophies on local news. I believed in cramming as many local stories in the paper as possible. He believed in spending as little money as he could.

It wasn’t a bad job, but it was dead end. If I stayed I was never going to get a meaningful raise, a promotion (there was nothing to promote me to), and it was unlikely my boss would come around to my thinking as to how we could get back to growth.

I wanted to leave and could have left for better newspaper jobs. That, however, would have likely been trading the headache I knew for a different one. Instead, I joined a friend of mine and started a business.

At the time we started, we pooled the income I was making in my early days freelancing for Motley Fool and the money he was making building small-scale websites. It was barely enough to cover rent on a small office and pay each of us fairly meager salaries (less than I had been making).

It took a while, but I started bringing in more as a writer, and we landed a contract to manage a company’s digital portfolio. It was a grinding slow build, but we went from struggling to successful, and slowly the imminent danger we had been in through our early days faded.

That risk led to my current career as a full-time, work-from-home writer. Many people I worked with at that newspaper still work there or hold similar jobs elsewhere. Most of them wish they had taken risks, and now with time having passed, it’s harder and scarier for them to do so.

I might have failed, and if I had, I would have found a job. Perhaps that position would not have been as good as the one I had left, but ultimately I would have reset myself and gotten back in position to take the next risk.–Daniel B. Kline

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FastCompany.com | June 29, 2018 | BY THE MOTLEY FOOL 5 MINUTE READ

Your #Career : This Half-Hour Exercise Can Get you Out of Your #CareerRut …You Can’t Always take a Weeklong Vacation to Reflect & Reset, but If you Can get Away from your Office for an Hour, this Technique Can Put Things into Fresh Perspective.

June 6, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Summer is finally here, and you’re thinking about your dream vacation. You conjure up images of sitting by the pool, drinking an icy cold beverage, and not thinking about your stress-filled life. Then reality hits, and you realize where you are. You’re sitting in your cubicle, uninspired and in a rut.

You know that slaving away in an office day in and day out isn’t doing you any favors. But you’re afraid to take time off, because you hate the post-vacation stress and extra work that awaits.

You might not always have control over your workload, but you can design your break so that you come back refreshed, more creative, and better equipped to tackle thorny problems. Here’s how.

SET ASIDE TIME FOR STRUCTURED REFLECTION

Even if you can’t take a long, restful vacation this summer, you can probably squeeze in one or two “disconnected days” to take a day off work and unplug. During that time, leave your regular environment. Take a day trip someplace nice, or even just drive at least 30 minutes away from where you work and live to get some physical as well as mental distance. The key is to get out of your day-to-day routine.

Once you’re there, take 30 minutes to do something that lifts up your mood–whether it’s reading or listening to inspiring content, calling up a close friend or family member, or even meditating or praying. Then grab a notebook or journal and just start writing and reflecting when you’re in that elevated state. Begin with gratitude, then move on to consider parts of your life where you know you’re not showing up the way you’d like to.

*Willpower Doesn’t Work: Discover the Hidden Keys to Success* by Benjamin Hardy

Then examine your notes–don’t worry whether they’re jumbled–and commit to making specific changes. Write down the key adjustments you need to make to achieve your dreams and goals. Don’t just jot down the things you need to change, though; write openly about the frustrations and difficulties that have led you to where you are, including why you’ve struggled to make these changes in the past.

Finally, don’t forget about your big-picture dreams. A key component of structured reflection is to reconnect you with your “why.” It’s easy to lose sight of that underlying purpose while you’re in the midst of your daily routines. There’s also a huge difference between “means” goals and “ends” goals. “Ends” goals are the things that truly matter to you. For example, getting a college degree so you can get a great job is a means goal. But what is the end of getting a great job?

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SCHEDULE A WEEKLY MINI REFLECTION AND PLANNING SESSION

After you come back from your break, follow up with a condensed version of this journaling session around once a week for the next few weeks. This can help reinforce the goals and changes you committed to in your initial, out-of-office structured reflection. Here are a few things to focus your thoughts on:

How your previous week went (the good, the bad, etc.)
What you did well (your “wins”)
What didn’t go well (what you didn’t do, who you didn’t reach out to, where you fell short)
Any significant events (great moments with a friend or family member, or a breakthrough in your work)
Your plans for the following week
How you intend to take what you learned from your previous week and do better next week
Your bigger-picture goals (in a short bullet-point list as a reminder of your “why” and “end” goals)
Your proximal goals (things you’re immediately working toward over the next one to six months)
Specific to-dos you need to finish the following week (your morning routine, learning, relationships, work, fitness, etc.)

Here, too, you need to prepare your mind before starting this planning session. The goal is likewise to elevate your thinking, then make powerful plans and decisions from that positive frame of mind. So before you crank out the pen, do whatever you need to assume the best mental outlook, whether it’s meditating or exercising outside.

The truth is, your best ideas won’t happen while you’re sitting at your desk working. Your brain operates best in a rested and relaxed state. Just like your body, you can’t push your mind past its point of exhaustion without it shutting down. So schedule time away from work the next time you feel stuck in a rut or close to burning out.

Making time for structured reflection can help you come back with ideas you’d never have thought of otherwise. Now that’s a productive vacation–even if you don’t physically take one.

FastCompany.com | June 6, 2018 | BY BENJAMIN HARDY 4 MINUTE READ