A career is so much like a romantic relationship. They're both messy, unique adventures that you can't predict nor perfect, but you can make them meaningful. For the second of a 3-part workshop series in partnership with Facebook held on 16 October, Heidi Soedarmo, Senior UX Researcher at Facebook, and Jayne Tan, UX Content Design Professional, shared with YWLC members how they built meaningful relationships with their unique career paths through honesty, constant self-discovery, and perseverance.
So, how can you build a meaningful relationship with your career? Here are 5 tools and tips from Heidi and Jayne:
1) Brutal Honesty
Every relationship requires honesty, and it’s important to start by being brutally honest with yourself.
For a start, here are some questions to ask yourself:
What does success mean to you?
What principles do you live by?
What is your unique value?
What do you need to work on?
What are you curious about?
What motivates you?
What do you need?
2) Learn and Persevere
A relationship is a journey. You learn along the way, and hard work is part of it. Finding your learning style is essentially about finding the most effective way that you learn. Understand why you enjoy learning and from there, prioritise where to invest your efforts.
Having grit means persevering even in the face of challenges and adversity. Individuals with grit are motivated to overcome whatever obstacles come their way - be it in their personal or professional lives. Lifelong learning doesn’t happen without a healthy dose of personal grit.
3) Be Your Own Cheerleader
Your achievements alone cannot speak for you and all that you are capable of. If you are uncomfortable talking about your achievements and successes, start by using tangible, measurable results and use agentic words - words that focus on individual ownership - during your performance reviews and in interviews. Start highlighting and take ownership of the role that you have played in bringing your team to success.
4) Give back
Giving back to others has proven to be good for your health and longevity.
Think about what you can give and how your time, skills and talents might be helpful to others. Some ways to give back include mentoring, and volunteering for a charity, or even sharing your knowledge and skills with colleagues and peers in the workplace.
5) Own your journey
Finally, focus on the things that you can control and influence.
Own your journey by:
Making decisions: Sometimes we need to make difficult decisions
Acting: Simply deciding to do something doesn’t make it happen
Taking accountability: Be responsible for your actions and decisions
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Organising Committee: Leadership Development Organising Team: Nisha Rajoo, Chandini Manoharan Partner: Facebook Speakers: Heidi Soedarmo, Jayne Tan
Author: Lim Mei Yu Editor: Joey Ong