It was just another evening while I spend the afternoon sipping on the mint tea from the garden.
Life has been generally good as far as the perception of goodness stemmed from my self made beliefs. I sometimes wondered if I was living in my pinkish fantasies and whether there remained much to be done.
Relatable?
Disclaimer : The following article is based on a true conversation over the fence with Col Amit Verma. I’m sure you’re just like yester me and many with thoughts of been there done that, so heads up for some confrontations which though salty, are very real and existing as you read this. Some characters are fictional, most of them real and so are the circumstances. Thoughts remain personal and perceived perceptions can be applicable on a case specific scenario, if you’re ready to take somethings home.
1. Is your 45.9 clear ?
Q : How do you eat an Elephant ?
A : Piece by piece.
The first step of undertaking a project is knowing what to do, high level plan of how you’re going to do it and what does the end product or deliverable looks like. If I don’t know what do I want, even sketchily, it is possible that efforts and investment may not end up yielding the desirable result and costing me time.
Time is Money.
Has this question come across to you as to despite you having all the QR’s and experience to back you up along with the gifted soft skills, why is it so difficult to make an entry or transition to a career of your choice?
Let’s try and explore the possible answers which may aid clear some air.
In the forces, one of the first thing that’s imbibed in a young leader is
“Selection and maintenance of aim”
- Do you know your goal ?
- What is it that you want to achieve in your longer run ?
- Where would you want to see yourself say in a couple of years from now ?
- Have you been asking yourself the right questions ?
- What would you choose if you were told you can do anything and what is required to break into that industry or company so that you are at least holding the right ladder before you begin to climb.
Once this is decided, only then we can take measurable actions and steps towards shaping a future for ourselves.
A conversation with your spouse/parents is solicited as they would be very closely associated in your journey towards gathering of requisite skills for breakthrough or transition.
Once your goals are decided, Write them down along with timelines. WRITING them down is important.
Now that we have completed step 1, let’s get on with the equally important part.
2. Actions: Doing what it takes.
No one is coming to do your Push-ups.
The sooner we realise and accept it, more is the time you have for action. Call them delusions of grandeur or whatever, be honest to yourself and I can totally accept that I very genuinely and very wrongly thought I had all it is required and I am sure if you’re reading this , you’re particularly familiar with this feeling and phase in your life.
While I was lucky to find out that it took much more than mere fate, unless your uncle is CEO and joining his company is your life goal! It wasn’t in my case, and that called for actions. Actions that speak for themselves.
Yes, I am talking about the certifications and professional qualifications.
Suppose you went on to buy a product which is new on the shelf. It is considerably new to the market and and is pretty decent on the pocket. Now, would you straight away go and buy it or check the specifications? Maybe speak to some people who have been using the product, may be even those who have done their market survey and because there are not many reviews (which is again desirable) you might want to check for the certifications it possesses, the quality standards it has passed and adheres to and the cost benefit analysis of value it brings to the table in comparison to the expenditure.
Apply the same to your personal brand. When someone who is going to spend a considerable amount of money from their pocket or company’s budget to fulfil a position with you, they need to be convinced that you’re a good value for money and that you have all it takes to deserve the pay. Certifications and professional education aids in breaking what’s called an entry barrier. It is not only a tool to filter applicants but also speaks about your level of relevance to the profile.
So after step 1 is done, you might surely want to speak to people in the industry who are already in the shoes that you endeavour to be in. Understand what it takes, modify your goal timelines keeping in conjunction the latest trends and emerging qualification that will not only give a boost to your resume but also help immensely in performing your work in the profile. We shall talk more about “RESUME” later.
So till here, you have identified what is it that you are aiming for and also you have done your homework to chart out your industry specific certifications that you are eyeing, spoken to people in the roles you aspire and things have kind of falling in place. Make sure you have a deadline for completion date of this task which is realistic but not too long. A week of good research and efficient communication should be enough to help you getting the road map.
Someone may teach you how to tie the laces but on the field, you will have to run yourself!
The moment you take out the dependency on that holy invisible imaginary figure who’s going to give you a job sitting and doing nothing about it, the closer you get towards your goal. I reiterate, Doing and not only thinking about doing. Its not going to be easy, you’ll loathe in picking up the books, you will be tempted to switch tabs with Netflix but know this that it is an inescapable step and the moment you embrace it, it is there to award you.
Execution is the key.
3. Overcoming the inherent shame in asking.
Remember the times when we were really young and if you can recall the occasions we were sent by our parents to return a substandard product that we bought from some shop?
I can accept, I didn’t like it, thinking it was a blow to my macho for me to have not checked it at the shop or asking to return it and thoughts of facing the shopkeeper kept me busy formulating the presentation of my case as I cycled towards the shop. Handled the conversation anyway, learnt from it and smiled my way back.
I went to attend a transition seminar last year which was hosted in a nice hotel like most good seminars are. Many eminent speakers, C Suite executives and industry champions. Now the part of attending to what they had to say was easy and was processing all the gen they were to impart. Then there was a tea break and I found myself looking for familiar faces to catch up and be warm inside my comfort zone. Given the fact that I was one of the junior most officer barring one or two people, I couldn’t find many familiar faces.
The ones I did, I employed the part time of lunch break to catch up with them and the rest shuffling through the kiosks. The importance of communication and networking had been harped upon adequately by most of the speakers and the formal closing of seminar was about to take place with the mentoring and interaction as the last activity. With all the belief of the executives believing what they preached, I mustered courage enough to walk up people who were excelling in their fields including the ones that I would’ve really admired to be in, and introduced myself and trust me , not one of them bit! Instead, this was the juice of the seminar, getting your unanswered questions which google won’t tell with such industry specific precision. It’s a lot different hearing it from the Horse’s mouth. They were all tigers in their fields and yet so humble. All motivating and guiding which then inspired me further as I picked up pace, switching people, tables, exchanging cards, connecting on Linkedin, talking about training requisites in this ever changing technologically evolving business world.
Why I shared this story in a professional write up? To me, it was a milestone in understanding the nuances of going beyond your comfort zone and reaching out for help. Within the fraternity or otherwise, I realised maybe it was the strong hierarchical system in the organisation that I was so used to or maybe it was also about ,
“What are they going to think if I ended up saying something stupid ?”
The reality is, no one has time to think so much as much you’re thinking(about what anyone else thinks of you) and you’re not all they have to think about in their life.
Think of how would you react if someone approached you for mentoring or asking an advice on something that you’re into or informed about. If it was me, may be I would try my best of capacity to understand the query and answer it best to knowledge with maybe some marination of motivation and boosting. I am sure almost everyone would’ve heard this more than once in their lives:
“If I can do it , anyone can do it.”
Agreed that the world is a tough place to be, but what separates us as humans is the ability to feel comprehend, support and trust. You’ll meet many kinds of people on the way and revisiting your life experiences until now, you like some people profoundly , you’re indifferent about some and you don’t completely agree with some of them. Similarly, some people like you immensely while others may be neutral or may be even dislike you and this all is OKAY!
It’s very important to know that at the end of the day you can’t make everyone happy. Instead what I would rather do, is to be a person I think I would really admire and aspire to be, learning and improving all the way.
With this approach in background (thank you for bearing with me and kudos to your patience) we need to now look at whom to network with.
Networking can be upwards(people higher in positions), downwards(Team members/Juniors in transitioning) or side wards (peers with domain knowledge in your experience level). While the general perception is to connect with people who are higher, better or more successful, I would like to contest that and the answer to the question Why would I do so and so should you is answered very beautifully by Sonal Bahl Here.
Thank you for such an amazing life advice Sonal.
So you see, the world is after all not all that bad a place and there is hope in which I so firmly believe supplemented by actions. Hope that will come to you when you’re sweating it out and not merely on the couch. Hope that you would soon be imparting once you get comfortable in your shoes. Hope that has been given to me and the amazing pool of friends and resources that you already have who would be happy to help you in your journey.
Look Out , Reach out, Ask the right questions with the right person, keep playing your part hard and right.
Reiterating, reach out, have a support system , do your bit, no one will kill you for asking things. Attend relevant seminars, WEBINARS, industry specific chapter meetings, virtual conferences etc. Everything is here but you.
It’s grind season Homie!
A quick recap, you’re pacing up on your amazing journey, selected the field/industry/company, spoken to all the people you could’ve (This is an iterative process), explored the path that is best suited for you and are taking actions to make the initial entry (Up skilling, courses, certifications, you and midnight oil) and networking shamelessly. (Read #decisively )
4. The heart wants what it wants
Remember the times when you were hopelessly in love with someone in your early teens or twenties and went around wearing the colours and outfits of the choice of your hon. Or may be the early parenting time when you wore bunny ears to be in the same vibes with the kids.
It’s just the same when it comes to industry specific / Company specific or HR specific requirements. Would you really think that it’s Akshay Kumar’s personal choice to wear a glittery golden button less jacket? Maybe it is, but what is more important to understand the requirements of the organisation. Like companies understand their consumers/customers the way they do and improvise the advertisement or enhance the product features. I am sure all of you who are reading this listen to music on Spotify.
Did you ever pay attention to the ads?
Now if you sit on the process of finding why would someone add dog or cat in a music app advertisement you would realise how important is it to be relatable. Apply the same context to yourself and understand the requirements of the domain specific / company specific / People specific value addition that can help you get in . Understand, speak to people, do the market research, read about the vision statement, top management, the values company aspires and then marinate this info into a profile they would cut to have. No one would ever speak about this as they would want a competition between the options and not the options leveraging the company on their T & C’s. Learnt this the harder way, be the trophy that everyone’s looking to bag rather than looking around to bag anything that comes by.
It’s very much possible and if you dive deep in your connections, you would surely find people who have worked & networked themselves enough that companies would kill to have him/her the next day they quit.
Reiterating, work towards self improvement , investing and reinventing yourself, being technologically updated and flexible enough to learn and repeat.
By this time , you would’ve
- Completed some very relevant, industry specific , entry barrier breaking qualifications,
- Mastered the art of networking, mentoring and being mentored, networked with many who have been there and done that,
- Have started applying already, looking out for improvements rather than only referrals. Invested time, effort
- Taken up an internship in the relevant field to gain the hands on Job experience.
- Getting the calls / interviews and if not, you’ve mastered the art of identifying the bottlenecks and how to create workarounds.
- Have a mentor and are mentoring and motivating someone.
I hope this article laid some clarity on the approach to you as much as it did to me. Thanking you in anticipation of continued learning and looking forward to our transitions.
To our amazing versions coming soon!
#BetterTogether
About the Author : Shubham is on his journey in whatever you so patiently read till here and is full of gratitude for all the help,love and support from professionals like you. He’s also looking out for a mentor and if you think you have some love and advice to share , feel free to reach out.