Career Moves – Why I Got Promoted

Shoot, in my mind, I was already promoted! It was just a matter of me getting there!
Shoot, in my mind, I was already promoted! It was just a matter of me getting there!

If I did it, then so can you. I recently received the wonderful news of getting promoted after years of hard work, frustration and what I thought were set backs (they actually weren’t, but I’ll get to that later). As I’ve mentioned before, I have a full time job that I do in addition to my part-time freelance work. I want to share tid-bits of my journey to where I am today career-wise and hope it helps you out in some way.

Making a plan

As my readers know, I love to make lists. My career is no exception. When I’m ready to transition or push for a higher position, I usually start out by making a list. It visualizes everything for me, from what I need to do, whom I should talk to, reading I need to do and strategies I need to develop. That way, when I’m sitting before management making a case for myself I won’t look foolish. The confidence is there and I know what I’m talking about. My message is clear to them and they often admire that. Even if you just write down “get a new job” or “start consulting business” that’s a great start. The more you realize what you want, the better you can go about planning for it.

Rejection

I’d be a lying fool if I chose not to mention this part of my journey. It’s bound to happen at some point to everybody. We just have to choose how to deal with it. A couple of years ago I started applying for different jobs and got called for an interview. The organization was great, the location was excellent and the salary was out of this world. It was the perfect job for me. Out of 200 applicants, I made it to the final round of selection. When it was down to the final round, I went on a second interview and it went well. I just knew I had the job – I knew it was mine. Then it was silence, I never got the call that I’d been waiting for. After a couple of days, I called the manager that had interviewed me and asked if a selection had been made and he told me yes. They were impressed with my package but another candidate was chosen and it was a very difficult decision for them to make. I was crushed. I had to face my current supervisor and co-workers (some of them knew that I had gone on interviews – thanks to the supervisor) after that rejection. It took me a couple of days, but once I got myself together I made up my mind: that next time I come that close to getting a job, it’s because IT’S MINE! I didn’t care about circumstances, other candidates, or interviews. I was going to ace it next time and get the promotion. Sure, there were other applications I put in afterwards that weren’t accepted. I tried other avenues and looked at other careers in which I could advance. Nothing really happened for the next couple of years. But over that time I nurtured that one thought I had after the disappointment I faced with the dream job. I took the positive from the situation; the fact that I made that far out of 200 applicants spoke volumes. I interviewed well and I knew what I was talking about which meant I had pretty good market value. I just needed to keep trying and not stop until something happened. That’s what rejection does to you – if you handle it the right way. I didn’t let it consume me, I let it teach me (ha, I like that! (c) New3Creation Writing).

Preparation

After learning from the hurtful bout of rejection and making my mind up to never be in that situation again, I started making preparations to actually be in my new job. Did I have it yet? No, but I was doing my darnest to get there! I increased my exposure to various parts of my career field, I went to seminars, I read guidelines and regulations, I volunteered for projects that no one else wanted to touch and went to meetings no one cared about. I picked management’s brain about career moves and what I needed to work on in order to advance (annual performance reviews weren’t enough for me and I made sure they knew that). Were any of these tasks giving me promotions? No, but they were definitely increasing my knowledge and helping me ad more accomplishments to my resume.

After taking a break from applying and pushing for a new job, I mustered up the energy to start applying again. I went hard core, or as a friend of mine says, went into “beast mode”. All of the interviews I previously went on, suddenly served as fuel because I’d become familiar with questions and expectations of positions. All of my responses helped me regain confidence in the push I was making. Before I knew it there were SEVERAL OFFERS on my plate for me to choose from!

Setting sail

I star my new position in a couple of weeks and I am ecstatic about it. The faith and hard work has definitely paid off. I say all of this of course to apply to writing; I want to advance in this career as well. I’m learning that it’s a slow process (molasses!) but I’m enjoying every moment of it as it continues to grow for me.

Tell Folks about it!

10 Things I Learned After Moving out of Mom’s House

I know I’ve already posted for today, but I came across the Daily Prompt after the fact and just couldn’t resist. 🙂

I love lists, I use them for just about everything, all the time. So when I saw the Daily Prompt’s assignment to make a list of something it made me dig a little deeper. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m trying to develop my personal voice in the world of blogging. So, here it goes!

1. How to show affection.

2. Relationships aren’t only defined by who does favors for you.

3. Hold your own.

4. Emergency funds!

5. It’s not “unchristian” to speak your mind.

6. God is a person, not some wizard or genie in a bottle.

7. Secrets can kill.

8. Cherish good people and their friendship.

9. Let shit go – it’s not that serious.

10. Be real – open your heart and let emotions flow. It’s not a weakness to do so.

 

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The Here and Now

I was doing my usual channel flipping the other day and came across one of Oprah’s programs (I can’t remember the title). They were talking about “the here and now” and it basically sent my mind racing. It triggered various thoughts as the the words resonated with me.

I thought “hmmm, I think I get it…”

A lot of the times we worry about what’s going to happen, what we can do about it and how everything is going to play out. Because of worry and fear, we make a lot of bad decisions to gain insight into the unknown. Bad intentions also develop because of this type of fear. A person may work themselves nearly half to death just for the sake of having a safe cushion financially. This is fine but when do they actually take the time to enjoy the fruits of their labor? It’s pretty pointless to keep such a mindset if you never have peace of mind. How about if you’re trying to lose weight? You’re focusing so much on your target weight that you get frustrated in the process and just give up after a while.

The reality is, we can only control what we are doing today. Sure, it’s great to set goals and aspirations, but those are vastly different from trying to form and control the future. From my experience, we can only take one step at a time. Get rid of each bad habit and develop good ones….one day at a time.

Do what can be done TODAY.

This is where the self-discipline war comes into play and a lot of folks fail or just give up. The fact of the matter is you won’t be able to skate your way to anything good no matter how much you pray, how good of sweet talk you may be or how magnificent you are at plotting and scheming. Again, I’m speaking from experience. At some point you need to nurture the drive by strapping on your boots and getting to work. No one can help you with that. Its about what you can do in this moment. Over time, it just may set you up for tomorrow and things will be taken care of.

So what are you going to do? Are you going to stay comfortable in your habits, which include worrying about the future, or are you going to tackle it a day at a time?

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Time Management (Ugh!)

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My recent decision to start blogging has definitely come with its challenges. But it’s a decision I’m completely comfortable with since it took me forever to think things through and do it. As I mentioned earlier, blogging is not a full-time activity for me. I have a full time job and it takes up a lot of my time. By the time I want to sit down and put in some work to my websites, I’m too drained to do it – physically and mentally. The past couple of months have been so overwhelming as I research the blogosphere, the do’s and don’ts and what I can do to improve my style. The plethora of information can be confusing if one is not careful. You’re advised to find a core audience, open accounts with every social media outlet in existence, master this app, subscribe to this mailing list, it’s so much. One day I had to buckle down and come up with a way to keep my interest in writing online while maintaining my personal activities.

 

Honestly, I’ve always been horrible at time management. I procrastinate a lot, so when things pile up I usually don’t perform until the pressure’s on. I know, bad habit. But there are a couple of things I’ve taken on that has helped me manage blogging and my full time job effectively. Everyone has their own system, so if you’re building your own maybe these tips will help:

  1. Invest in a good notebook/writing pad – take it with you everywhere you go. If you’re a daily commuter like me, you can use your time on the train or bus to jot down any thoughts that come to mind and not have to worry about forgetting them. This has helped me a lot.
  1. Blogging doesn’t have to be an everyday thing; set one day aside if need be – before I started blogging, I would read through my favorite blogs and be amazed at how much information writers were able to put out on a daily basis. How did they do that? Well, one of the tricks I learned was they don’t write everyday. One blogger told me she sets one day out of the week to write up all of her content, then schedule them to be published throughout the week. Who knew? I sure didn’t!

6810521155_289f7c15bb_z3. Don’t force anything, the inspiration will come – don’t sit at your desk beating your brain on what to write about next. Just do what you normally do during work hours (whether or not you’re actually working is between you and your cubicle J). The time you spend stressing on coming up with a hot topic for your blog will just pile up more things for you. Remember, there’s a time and place for everything. Once you get a flow the ideas will come one after the other. Keep that notepad handy!

4. Cover yourself: not exactly a time management issue, but an essential as a new blogger. Check with your ethics department at the job to make sure there will be no conflict between your writing and what your employer represents. This is something you may want to consider no more how laid back or sensitive your job may be. That way you won’t have to worry about misrepresenting your employer or yourself. Be sure to get something in writing that will cover your employer not having any problems with you being a blogger.

I’m still learning as I go along, so this list will change or improve. Where are you with your blogging experience? Are you just starting out or are you seasoned in your writing? What tips can you share to help the newcomers?

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