The Confident Career

Applying Life Lessons to Career Success

There is a frequent and nagging sentiment that seems as inherent in us as our desire to eat, breathe and love, and that is the desire to relegate our energy to that which will only benefit us in the long-term. Echoing throughout high schools decades past and still to this day, almost as frequently as the bells themselves, is the age old adage: “When am I ever going to need to use this?” Whether we are young and would much rather be doing something enjoyable, or we are getting older and beginning to attribute a quantifiable number to the time that we have, we, above all, rue having our time wasted.

Unfortunately, we are not always the best judges of how important the lessons we are learning might be. Think back to the most significant moments of your personal development, and I can almost assure you that you’ll arrive at something that seemed utterly insignificant at the time. Perhaps it was even something that you resented or dreaded doing in that moment. We have a great deal of trouble committing fully to exercises and lessons that we can’t see benefiting us in the scope of our vision of the future. For this reason, it is so very important to consider often how lessons in other areas of life can lead you to career success.

Love the Job You’re With

“And if you can’t be with the one you love honey, love the one you’re with.” Stephen Stills wrote these lyrics for his self-titled album in 1970. 

What does this have to do with your job search? Everything! Finding a new position can be a full-time job itself, but if you already have a full-time job, do not let your search interfere with your performance. Whether you are testing the waters or are completely miserable, the worst possible thing you can do during your job search is to mentally check out of your current job.

First, it’s important to understand that undertaking a job search can be a lengthy process. There are a lot of variables that impact how long the process may take, including the economy, the level of demand in your field, location, experience, job searching strategies, and employment history, principally.

How to Know It Is Time to Take the Next Step in Your Career?

Ever felt dread in the pit of your stomach on Sunday night at the very thought of going to work the next day? Perhaps you’ve walked into work on Monday already ready for Friday. These could be indicators that it is time to take the next step in your career. An entirely new job or career may not be the solution but ignoring the signs could leave you both unhappy and unmotivated at work. Here are four signs letting you know it is time to take the next step in your career:

3 Major Considerations When Changing Careers

It’s perfectly normal to want to change career paths later in life. Not all plans can be followed through to the end ⁠— especially when one has a strong desire to change their career trajectory. In fact, a survey on career changes notes that 49% of people make a dramatic career shift eventually in their lives, making the jump from one industry to another.

How a Gap Year Can Increase Your Employability

Some time off can be a valuable thing.

It often feels like the job market is geared to benefit people who have been on a certain, rigid track for the duration of their educational and then professional lives. We dive into qualifications, project history, and extracurricular groups because we feel vulnerable if we aren’t ascertaining value to every activity, we’ve ever participated in. One could argue that this is a result of our culture internalizing the lessons of a generation of parents who structured their children’s entire upbringing around activities that could make them economically and culturally competitive, a certainly well-intentioned archetype that yielded arguably mixed results. In this context, taking a gap year can sometimes feel like a luxury that may come back to bite young people later on when they’re having to explain a non-productive blank space in an otherwise immaculate resume. When you’re putting on a suit and tie to go talk about how the Nasdaq closed high this week, it can feel awkward to know you’ll likely also end up explaining the year you spent surfing or working on a dairy farm in Ireland. I am here to give you one little piece of advice on that front: DON’T BE NERVOUS.