Episode 23 : Where is Your Career Going?
July 4, 2022
In this episode we're talking about your career trajectory, and what direction you want to go in your career. The first thing I want you to think about is which career opportunities excite you and why.
Hello, everybody, I am back. All this week, I will be talking about your career trajectory, what direction you want to go in your career? And how do you really find that? How you find out where you want to go is where we're going to focus tonight. And then later in the week is some things you can do, we'll discuss things to do in the workplace, specifically, having conversations with your manager, about your career trajectory in your current place of employment, or wherever your next move may be. So first of all, the first thing I want you to think about is which career opportunities excite you and why.
Oftentimes, we take a role, or we get into an industry and you're like, Oh, my God, this is so boring. I have so been there. How about you? I remember doing getting a technical sales role as inside sales. So it's inbound calls. And so what do you do in between calls? Right. And as an engineer, and being young and early in the career, I was bored, right? It didn't excite me, there was there were challenges once I got on the phone. But what was going to challenge me when I wasn't on the phone, and that was, that was a big, big issue for me. And a lot of my team actually turned over a lot of us were just bored. So if you're in a role, or you have previous roles, which didn't excite you, what were those things? What was it about that role that did excite you? Or do excite you? And what didn't so you know, what to stay away from? And you know, what you gravitate towards? Now that you know, what excites you? Why does it excite you, I can literally remember thinking I would never ever do construction?
And I actually did. And so when you think about it, what what is it that really makes you or get you excited about your career? Right? What is it I know one client, she wants to plan the power grid. And as the excitement is coming, by planning the future, right, about impacting lives by planning the power grid, and she has done some fantastic things from substation design, transmission design, some smaller things in between there, right, you know, working for a utility company. But what really excites me right now, 15 plus years into our career, is planning the power grid, and being able to look into the future, and help drive and cultivate the future as it relates to the power here in the US. So when you think about that, think about your role, and the things that excite you, and that you've had exposure to what are they, maybe you aren't sure, maybe you're just interested in something, write it down and write down why you're interested in it. And maybe you'll find some similarities in other roles that really excites you, or that you find interesting.
The next thing you want to do is look at your current career path. Do you want to be on that career path in two to five years? Or even tomorrow? Do you want to be on that career path? And really reflect on? Hmm, I don't want to do that into into more years. Like, it's okay for now. And so now you have, you're trying to figure out what your next step is. I had a great conversation recently with some lady in tech, and she had been a software engineer for years moved over the product, and really is enjoying the challenges of being in being in product after being a software engineer for 15 years, and just wanted something new and different to do. Same things. Another woman in tech 30 plus years has done anything from programming and data architectures now machine learning. And so you can really, really think about what excites you. And sometimes it's just growing and learning new things. And and that can be what excites you about that, especially if you know where you currently are is not where you want to be two to five years from now. And you want to think two to five years so you can kind of plan out, see if you need to get a new skill set, identify if you need a new employer to really go and find those roles or explore new roles that you are excited about. Now, when you doing all of that also look at what do you want to master?
What do you want to be a master of and oftentimes, especially when it comes to technologists and engineers, we usually focus on technical aspects as well as scientists something technical, but sometimes we find or you may have found that you have a difficulty in explaining to others why something works a certain way, and why the company should be spending money to build it out to make it more efficient. And you don't know how to to, to explain it. So you may want to master negotiations and communications, right? Other times you do want to master something.
And it could be maybe it's something in DevOps, maybe it's something in structural design, and you want to be a PE, but you want to specifically design and become a master abutment or something. So what is that thing that you skill you want to master as well? And so when you think about your career trajectory, you want to think about opportunities that excite you and why and even the ones that don't, so you notice you're away from them? Do you like the current career path you're on? Where do you want to be in the next two to five years? Take a look at that. And lastly, what do you want to master? Because looking at all of those will really really help you figure out where you want to be and what direction you want to take your career. So that's what I have for today. I will be back more this week, talking about your career trajectory, everybody. Have a great day and bye
Oftentimes, we take a role, or we get into an industry and you're like, Oh, my God, this is so boring. I have so been there. How about you? I remember doing getting a technical sales role as inside sales. So it's inbound calls. And so what do you do in between calls? Right. And as an engineer, and being young and early in the career, I was bored, right? It didn't excite me, there was there were challenges once I got on the phone. But what was going to challenge me when I wasn't on the phone, and that was, that was a big, big issue for me. And a lot of my team actually turned over a lot of us were just bored. So if you're in a role, or you have previous roles, which didn't excite you, what were those things? What was it about that role that did excite you? Or do excite you? And what didn't so you know, what to stay away from? And you know, what you gravitate towards? Now that you know, what excites you? Why does it excite you, I can literally remember thinking I would never ever do construction?
And I actually did. And so when you think about it, what what is it that really makes you or get you excited about your career? Right? What is it I know one client, she wants to plan the power grid. And as the excitement is coming, by planning the future, right, about impacting lives by planning the power grid, and she has done some fantastic things from substation design, transmission design, some smaller things in between there, right, you know, working for a utility company. But what really excites me right now, 15 plus years into our career, is planning the power grid, and being able to look into the future, and help drive and cultivate the future as it relates to the power here in the US. So when you think about that, think about your role, and the things that excite you, and that you've had exposure to what are they, maybe you aren't sure, maybe you're just interested in something, write it down and write down why you're interested in it. And maybe you'll find some similarities in other roles that really excites you, or that you find interesting.
The next thing you want to do is look at your current career path. Do you want to be on that career path in two to five years? Or even tomorrow? Do you want to be on that career path? And really reflect on? Hmm, I don't want to do that into into more years. Like, it's okay for now. And so now you have, you're trying to figure out what your next step is. I had a great conversation recently with some lady in tech, and she had been a software engineer for years moved over the product, and really is enjoying the challenges of being in being in product after being a software engineer for 15 years, and just wanted something new and different to do. Same things. Another woman in tech 30 plus years has done anything from programming and data architectures now machine learning. And so you can really, really think about what excites you. And sometimes it's just growing and learning new things. And and that can be what excites you about that, especially if you know where you currently are is not where you want to be two to five years from now. And you want to think two to five years so you can kind of plan out, see if you need to get a new skill set, identify if you need a new employer to really go and find those roles or explore new roles that you are excited about. Now, when you doing all of that also look at what do you want to master?
What do you want to be a master of and oftentimes, especially when it comes to technologists and engineers, we usually focus on technical aspects as well as scientists something technical, but sometimes we find or you may have found that you have a difficulty in explaining to others why something works a certain way, and why the company should be spending money to build it out to make it more efficient. And you don't know how to to, to explain it. So you may want to master negotiations and communications, right? Other times you do want to master something.
And it could be maybe it's something in DevOps, maybe it's something in structural design, and you want to be a PE, but you want to specifically design and become a master abutment or something. So what is that thing that you skill you want to master as well? And so when you think about your career trajectory, you want to think about opportunities that excite you and why and even the ones that don't, so you notice you're away from them? Do you like the current career path you're on? Where do you want to be in the next two to five years? Take a look at that. And lastly, what do you want to master? Because looking at all of those will really really help you figure out where you want to be and what direction you want to take your career. So that's what I have for today. I will be back more this week, talking about your career trajectory, everybody. Have a great day and bye