What's your journey step, purpose (and why).

Young and next-step-ideation, or simply career purpose seeking & anxious, then read this. Health note: This isn’t the usual topic area for me and definitely out of comfort being a personal thread: It’s a reflection to help young people in work or about to work, seeking growth and economic opportunities.

Why? I had an urge to share with young adults early in their careers a few ideas, after listening to Tim Denning and Todd Brison last week, imploring others (including me) to give more experiential value through LinkedIn. So being an older guy, I unexplainedly felt compelled to start more sharing. Here’s a 2 minute read from that lunchtime reflection…

Recently noticing increasing workers seeking direction, meaning and purposeful roles has made me question my own journey, as it may help others.

A long time ago (if you’re under 25, a lifetime) – Post Grad working in Environmental/ Sustainability & Scientific posts in the early 1990’s things ESG were just getting started, yet with so many projects still shelved. So after my 4 years… bouncing around on short contracts and driven by personal circumstances, I moved into small business operations then SME management,

- Then two years on, a ‘pivot’ of sorts to medium enterprise in HR & Pay Software support in early 1999, front desk analyst, back desk support, kind of back to a square one, career-wise.

In those roles I saw several poorly sold Software project implementations and met some unhappy customers (large organisations). While I’d never sold like ‘Sales’ does today, I got so frustrated after a couple of years of support analyst work, that I started to feel agitated, thinking I could do a better job of initiation, interpreting customer needs, and frankly being honest about capability and aligning quality HR & Payroll transformational outcomes.

…. So basically selling the solutions. Except I had zero sales experience. Who was I trying to kid about knowing better!

It took a further year to build the courage to look into Sales, and dig around internally. Then another six months to apply internally for a role (that’s how fearful I was). The Hiring Sales Manager was curious, and in the end, he turned out fantastic. I monologued to him all the reasons I couldn’t sell (and never had), then shared my Environmental Creds, project management, other experiences, and surprisingly he was still letting me talk, so I noted all the reasons I could why I would likely do a better job than most of the guys selling those projects, the ones that I had later supported on the helpdesk – all while having zero experience in sales.

The interview was possibly the worst representation of myself by today’s higher standards: Yet after 90 minutes, somewhere he’d seen a spark, a passion for it and enough genuine drive and originality that he decided to give me a shot at a junior, desk based remote account management sales role. Back to a type of ‘Square One’ again, in my early thirties with a young family, perhaps not the best laid plan. Still, this time, being surrounded by a handful of amazing colleagues who genuinely cared for their customers while having fun… and an in built passion to prove my point.

? After six months selling remotely, and within a year, I was on out the road, meeting, exploring, selling, winning awards, delivering and building a great customer network for the long-term. Always a combination of great colleagues, customers and team efforts.

So why share this personal anecdote? Because when you’re a young adult, and unsure of a path, like I tried a few jobs, it helps to retain hope! Especially if you feel lacking in a plan; I travelled, then studied to become an ‘Environmental Scientist’. While keeping interest in Sustainability and caring for the planet today (and yes it’s become so mainstream now), it didn’t’ quite fit for me back then day-to-day. And I guess in the end I happened into software solution sales, now Cloud / Services Sales, through pure frustration. Now I’ve stayed in this ‘industry’ for over two decades. Why? Because it’s been a challenging, rewarding, ever-changing, spontaneous and exciting career so far, meeting great people on the way. Further, the ESG agenda via big Tech investments is now really taking Environmental issues to better places, so I’m still feeling part of the big picture…

? And I know the next chapter here for me at Strada , with our human-centric and tech-savvy people leaders, that we will continue the great journey, above and beyond through our exciting vision

For you? …I’m sharing a word of encouragement for anyone younger, starting out, or thinking of a post-post pandemic further ‘pivot’, or who is seeking a path, to better themselves, their position, career wise or economically longer term. To say simply if you aren’t sure, or if you’re working in something that just doesn’t’ float your passions, with a nailed plan (not everyone is so visionary), then have a shot at something which may be a stretch, that drags up fears, doubts, yet it harnesses a passion deep inside you - that may be the way you need!

Weigh up the risks first, then dive in and give it a try, and please don’t wait as long as my example above (yes several lessons learned from my journey) … find someone who’ll believe in you - because right now you or your circumstances could be holding you back. Don’t be stuck trusting unfounded fears without taking a jump, yes, try a pivot, and doing it from the heart: Aim for a fuller life!