Director's Cut Part II: Reflect and Rise; Enhancing Your Career Through Thoughtful Practice

As promised, here is Part II of my learnings and techniques to evaluate your Career journey, no matter what your years of experience, designation and industry.

Reflecting on your work experiences is not just a powerful practice; it’s an essential one. Over the years, I’ve found that taking the time to thoughtfully analyze and evaluate my professional journey has been invaluable in shaping my career. It's a habit that has helped me gain deeper insights, recognize my transferable skills, and make more informed decisions about my future. I believe this reflective practice can be equally transformative for you. Here are some effective strategies I recommend to help you reflect on your work experiences:

1. Keep a Detailed Work Experience Diary

Maintaining a work experience diary can be incredibly beneficial. Document your daily tasks as far as possible. This practice ensures that you have a comprehensive record of your body of work when you are ready to summarize it for a resume or an interview or just to see the depth and breadth of your functional role. Whether you choose a handwritten diary, an electronic document, or even a blog, the key is consistency. I have logs from as far back as 2014 where I know the tasks I undertook and work challenges I faced back then.

2. Use Structured Reflection Frameworks

Several frameworks can guide your reflection process:

• Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle: This model involves four stages: Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualization, and Active Experimentation. Cycling through these stages helps turn experiences into actionable insights. This has been my most powerful technique, especially the bit about putting myself out of my comfort zone to do things I had no experience of. I highly recommend this technique above all.
• Start, Stop, & Continue: Identify what you want to start doing, stop doing, and continue doing based on your experiences. This approach helps focus on positive changes and eliminate unproductive habits. This may be challenging especially when you are employed and don't have complete control of what you do at work. However, keeping a tab of what you excelled at, like but may not have excelled at, and neither liked nor excelled at, is an excellent way to chart your next Job role.
• Appreciative Inquiry: Focus on what worked well, envision what could be better, plan improvements, and determine actionable steps. This positive approach builds on your strengths. Play to your strengths, only once you have experimented enough to come to this conclusion. Unfortunately, I often see individuals decide what they can and cannot do, or like or don't like to do, based on speculation and conditioning, but not experience.

3. Identify and Reflect on Transferable Skills

Work experiences often help develop transferable skills that are valuable across various roles and industries. Reflect on how your experiences have helped you build skills such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and time management. For instance, working as a Career Counsellor may have developed not just counselling but also networking and marketing abilities in you. Or for that matter, working in a sales role in an edtech company may have given you insights into a range of skills, from product development to digital marketing and client servicing.

4. Ask Reflective Questions

To gain deeper insights, ask yourself reflective questions:

• What were your most significant accomplishments?
• What new skills did you develop?
• How did you handle challenges and setbacks?
• What did you learn about your strengths and weaknesses?
• How did your experiences align with your values and career goals?

5. Seek Feedback and Mentorship

Engage with supervisors, mentors, or peers to gain different perspectives on your experiences. They can provide valuable feedback and help you see aspects you might have missed. Post-experience reflection sessions with a mentor can be particularly enlightening. Do not hesitate to seek mentorship. You will be surprised at how many people are willing to give you some of their time to help you grow.

6. Reflect on Emotional and Ethical Aspects

Consider how your experiences made you feel and what they taught you about your emotional responses and ethical considerations. Reflect on moments that required empathy, resilience, or ethical decision-making, and think about how these moments have shaped your professional identity. Ethical reflections become pertinent in making future decisions about what companies, people and industries you are willing to work for/with.

7. Set Goals Based on Reflections

Use your reflections to set specific, actionable goals for your career development. Identify areas where you want to improve, new skills you want to acquire, and experiences you want to seek out. This goal-setting process can help you stay focused and motivated. Log on to a MOOC website right now, push yourself and sign up for that free course you have procrastinated for so long. The only way to grow is to learn.

8. Regularly Revisit and Update Your Reflections

Reflection is not a one-time activity. Regularly revisit your reflections to update them with new experiences and insights. This ongoing process ensures that you continuously learn and adapt based on your evolving career journey.

By incorporating these strategies into your routine, you can reflect on your work experiences and leverage them to improve your career. Reflection helps you understand your professional growth, recognize your achievements, and make informed decisions about your future, ultimately leading to a more fulfilling and successful career.

Reflecting on our experiences isn't just about looking back; it's about paving the way forward. Each reflection brings us closer to understanding our professional identity and aligning our actions with our career aspirations.

I encourage you to make this practice a regular part of your professional life. It has certainly been a cornerstone of my journey, and I hope it becomes a valuable tool in yours as well. Here’s to continuous growth and the pursuit of a fulfilling career!

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