My definition of the word “career” is a journey of jobs. All of the jobs you have held have aided you in creating your career. Yes, that includes your first job of delivering pizza, the waiter/waitress job you had in college, and the job you had after college that you hated. It is very hard to give the word “career” a finite definition. Because everything we do creates our career.
My Story
My entrepreneurial path started at the tender age of eight as I sold pictures I had colored to strangers. When I turned 16, I worked for a local chain restaurant as a “salad bar girl.” In both jobs, I quickly learned I would not get what I expected. I expected immediate sales for my beautifully colored pictures and a raise after six months of working as a salad bar girl. I did not get either. However, I did receive skills I am using today such as: customer service, patience, communication, sales, and negotiation.
A career is all of the lessons, skills, tasks, meetings, expense reports, and interviews you have done (and will continue to do). I bet if you are currently employed you are learning a new skill or task. You have many different tasks throughout your life and everything you do teaches you something to move you forward. Each job you have creates another step on the ladder of your career. You may not want to climb the corporate ladder per se, but you are climbing your own personal ladder.
Are you thinking: “How can I create my career?”
Here are three tips to help you create your career:
- Write a list of your past jobs. Think about the job description and tasks for each. Next, write the skills you learned from those jobs. This can be done by making three columns on a sheet of paper and labeling them: past jobs, tasks/job description, and skills learned.
- Next, evaluate how are you utilizing those skills in your current job. What skills do you need to enhance and which skills do you no longer use/need? What skills do you enjoy or not?
- Next, make a conscious effort for the next 30 days and apply those skills to something in your life (work or personal). Pay attention to the changes you make and journal your responses. What changed? What stayed the same?
After following these tips, you may discover you are better at a task, or you may discover you don’t like a task as much as you thought. You may discover it is time to move up the ladder to the next phase in your career. You may discover a skill that you forgot you enjoyed that needs to be rekindled. These steps are designed to help you create your career.
Remember
Your career is every defining moment that you have in the workplace. Pay attention to those defining moments and what you learn from them. There is no one path for your career. Your path will not look like the next person’s. A career is a vehicle, and you are the driver. As the driver, you are on a journey that has many turns, swerves, and roadblocks, but you will get there-wherever ‘there” is for you. This is how you create your career.
Marla J. Albertie
Life-Harmonizing Strategist
Marla J. Albertie is the owner and founder of the Truth Speaks Group, LLC., and her one-word philosophy is #Learn. Marla’s mantra is to help the 9-5 working woman gain the confidence she needs to create work-life harmony and not balance in her life. Marla is a skilled trainer in the field of Adult Education and Transition. She has an extreme passion to see growth in peoples’ lives and careers. Marla is a certified professional, executive, career, and life coach, trainer, instructor, author, and a graduate of the World Coach Institute and has over 20 years of business, coaching, and training experience. She is a current Doctoral Student in the field of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. She holds a Masters of Education in Adult Education, a Bachelors of Science in Supervision and Management. She is the author of 52 Career Tips: Action Steps to Move You Forward VOL. #1 and coauthor of The Better Business Book Vol #3. She is the founder of The WorkingWoman.co Blog and Membership, Creating Your Career YouTube Talk show, and I.M.A.G.IN.E. (I’M Awesome Growing IN Excellence) Women’s Empowerment Conference. She resides in Jacksonville, Florida and enjoys cruising with family and friends.