6 Simple Ideas For A Fresh Career Start

This post was written as part of the #Interning series, which is tied to LinkedIn’s new student editorial calendar. Follow the stories here or write your own.

Over the past couple of weeks I've had a blast mentoring some fresh minds at places like Mass Challenge or with TechGen interns in our companies around Boston. But within those conversations I hear a tension as some people struggle to figure out what they want to do in life.

Since I often hear how burdensome this can be, particularly for those just starting out in their career, it seemed appropriate to share our simple framework to fuel you no matter your destination. Anyone can use it to find alignment between passion and work, develop things like transferable skills, yet avoid traps like chasing money or confusing hobbies and work.

A Framework for Thinking About Career as an On-Going Journey:

The key thing about this framework is that it's really an iteration as you journey through life. And thinking about it that way is the first step to relieving the stress of having to make a perfect first career decision. Instead, think about a few steps you can take to get rolling as follows: 

1. Ideation - brainstorm all the ideas around things you love doing
2. Exploration - explore & research all the possible kinds of areas, industries and positions that might include that kind of work
3. Identification - identify all the kinds of skills and knowledge that might be involved in that work
4. Self Discovery - be open to trying as many things that arise from the above so you can creatively consider all the possibilities to find where you "flow" 
5. Network Building - to find those opportunities and to find like minded people and compatible cultures
6. Learning Transferable Skills - focus on learning skills that are useful across contexts

Each one of these steps requires action. It’s the non-negotiable ingredient. You’ve got to be prepared to put yourself out there exploring, and networking, to find possibilities and to try new things to keep learning and advancing your understanding of your potential. Your dream job won’t come to you, but you CAN find it -- and it might surprise you when you do! For example, it might be in a completely different industry or vocation than you thought because you discover that it’s really about working with great people in a culture that brings out the best in you. You have to start somewhere, so get going! There is no failure, only learning, so don’t be afraid to get out there.

Grow or Die

Remember that this is an evolving process. Don’t expect to get it entirely right on the first, second, or even third time. Across your career you will run through many revolutions of this cycle. Fortunately, throughout this experience you will be expanding your network of opportunities, learning about yourself to better filter those opportunities to fit you, and, if you think about it in advance, developing some transferable skills.

Identifying Transferable Skills in Advance

Here are just a few of the skills we discussed in our workshop:

• Interpersonal skills
• Leadership
• Management (distinct from leadership - enabling others)
• Sales (for example: learning to sell yourself and your ideas is a transferable skill)
• Design
• Problem-solving 

There are many, MANY others! And you might want to include personal skills and disciplines like writing, public speaking, and time management. What would you add? (Please share in the comments below…)

We discussed my favorite of these: interpersonal skills. Almost all jobs involve other people and so the ability to relate to people and develop an appreciation for other people’s backgrounds, perspectives, motivations and how to work with them and enable them is an invaluable skill. Sadly, unless you’re lucky enough to take Psychology or related classes, you probably won’t have been schooled in it. Yet it’s easy to study. Just pay attention to the people around you, take their viewpoint, listen, and learn. And don’t stop there. Network like there’s no tomorrow. Get to know as many people as you feel you can to learn from, and select mentors from and share with. And be a peer mentor yourself. Your interpersonal skills, relationships, and network will always stand you in good stead, no matter where life takes you.

There are some other important tips and traps to think through so you don't end up chasing money or confusing hobbies and work. If you'd like to learn more about them and the framework below, you can read the rest of this article here.

Meanwhile help others by sharing your tips, traps, experiences and what you've found as transferable skills in the comments below.

With thanks to Sarah Sherburne @sarahsherby from TechGen @TheTechGen, TheTechGeneration.com, NEVCA  @newenglandvc, Acquia @Acquia and Richard Dulude for their help with the event and this article.

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At Underscore VC, Michael and his team partner with daring entrepreneurs to invest in founders and build from inception to market leaders. As a former entrepreneur turned VC, Michael has backed and built teams that have created billions of dollars of value focusing on large, market-changing technologies such as Cloud Computing, IoT and Big Data as well as disruptive business models such as Open Source and SaaS. Current representative investments include Acquia, Cazena, Demandware (NYSE:DWRE), Mautic and Salsify.

Follow Michael on LinkedIn, Twitter @mjskok, his website, and in his Harvard Innovation Lab class, Startup Secrets. Follow Underscore VC on the web and Twitter @underscore.vc.