How to get into the Game!

I’m fortunate enough to find myself speaking to a lot of job-seekers and career changers. I love talking about professional development and career ambitions. Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed two questions being asked more than others:

1. What advice would you give to someone trying to break into the field?
2. What can I do to help myself stand out from other applicants?

I’ve learned that the person is asking that this question is more of a “how should I” and less of a “what should I” type of question because the what will always be the same. Continued education/training, create something your passionate about, and find a mentor. The how is a bit trickier to answer.

I decided to set some meetings over the past month with my network and mentors to see if they had some specific “how” advice.?

At first, when we started the discussion, I would ask for their insight, and the generic responses came out almost immediately. Then I asked them about their next move. Most of my mentors are aiming to be disrupters in their field and industry. They are pursuing a role that is either extraordinarily exclusive or may not exist yet. Once I was more specific with my question, our conversation picked up steam.

It was eye-opening to see that someone I considered a subject matter expert was still highly ambitious and didn’t have a clear path to where they wanted to go. Still, they had a much clearer understanding of what they needed to continue doing.

Here are some of my observations:

• Pursue with intention
• You don’t need permission to start
• Do’s and Don’ts

Pursue with intention

The conversation with my mentors shifted the moment I asked about the role they were actively pursuing. It was because I wasn’t asking them a vague question anymore. I asked them clearly about the position they wanted, and because of that, they knew what the day-to-day looked like for the job and an idea of what a good candidate for the role looks like.

A vague question will get you a vague answer. A specific goal will give you specific steps to accomplish it.

You don’t need permission to start.

You’re going to be waiting a long time if you are waiting for permission to start.?

If you currently work for an organization and seek a role, there’s no reason for you to wait until you are on the team to start talking with the team. Establishing relationships and understanding some of the team's projects will allow you to contribute and build relationships. It’ll give you an idea of what the job is, and when an opportunity opens up, you’ll be someone that comes to mind.

If you don’t work with the organization, the same thing works. The goal is to establish a good track record of effective communication.

Do’s and Don’ts?

The next part of the conversation got into some behaviors that could help and hurt your pursuit.

Do’s

Organize: Managing your time, effort, and results are going to be critical. Since the mission is to prepare for a job outside of the scope of responsibility for our current job, you will need to be highly organized. If you have a good thought out workflow and methodology, you’ll complete the assignments you take on.?

Publish: After identifying the project you wanted to take on, choose a medium to share it, whether you do a blog, a video, or volunteer to talk about it in front of your co-workers. It doesn’t matter. It would be best if you advertised that you are passionate about the subject.

Side Hustle: If you find a way for your passion for making a profit, it will give you some compelling anecdotes.?

Don’ts

Fixate on the Outcome: It’s easy to get frustrated if you feel like all of your efforts should result in a proportionate response. Focus on the action and avoid paralysis by analysis.

Unhelpful Comparisons: It can be frustrating comparing your journey to someone else. Most of the time, the things you see on social media or the stories you hear are successful. You rarely hear about the failures of the hours of effort put in by someone who made it.

Overschedule: Adding more to your plate on time of your full-time job can make you feel overwhelmed, overworked, and underappreciated. Be careful not to spread yourself too thin. Your career is a marathon, not a sprint.

Publish Everything

It’s easy to overlook the actual work performed in the dream job—writing documentation, balancing books, making sales calls. Regardless of the field, you are pursuing. Some aspects aren’t fun.?

Funnily enough, those tend to be the deliverables that would validate what you’ve learned and done. Contributing to technical documentation or finding clients will arm you with powerful anecdotes and validate your experiences.

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Is there anything I missed? Is there a topic you'd like me to cover? Feel free to shoot me a message by using any of the links included in the footer!

Thanks for reading!