3 Steps to Unlocking Your Next Career Move, From an Expert in Continuous Improvement
By Erika Westbay
As the Director of Process Excellence at Best Friends Animal Society, I help make ways of working and collaborating easier, kinder and as successful as possible.
In our work, as in daily life, there is always more to know and everything to be curious about. I am driven by the pursuit of our fullest potential, and am committed to ways of being and working that are always getting better.
One rewarding aspect of my career has been helping others realize their own potential through moments of career transitions.
If you’re asking “what’s next?” in your career, give these three steps a try:
Step 1: Make Your Hidden Strengths Visible with a Life Resume
Every job is more than a job description, and each one of us is bigger than our resumes. So, let’s be bigger.
Think of all the roles you play in life, all the challenges you have taken on, all of the opportunities you have seized, and all of the problems you have solved. Break the rules and write a full resume of you, for you.
This exercise is not about ego, it’s about uncovering your full suite of experience, strengths, interests and qualifications. Some examples:
Do you serve on a homeowners' association or parent teacher association? This could speak to your natural leadership and propensity toward community-based work.
Do you walk/run/cycle/swim/compete in cause-based events? If so, you have exposure to the fundraising world, plus you’re demonstrating that you are someone who is disciplined and goal-oriented.
Do you work on cars, houses or gardening in your spare time? These activities could point to your passion for passion and continuous learning, a patient nature, and an attraction to big, complex projects.
It can be difficult to see your full self like this. Invite your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues or classmates into the exercise—they all have valuable insights and perspectives to share.
Now, sketch/draw/write a resume that describes the full you.
Step 2: Create a ‘Me-Cube’
Did I do a nice job installing a new mailbox at my home? Yup. Do I ever want to do it again? Absolutely not. Having done something well—either once or repeatedly—does not automatically mean you enjoy it, or that you should keep doing it.
Because it’s more common for our performance to get noticed than our passions, we can find ourselves performing ourselves into roles and situations that bum us out and have little to no relation to our fuller potential.
When looking at where you are or where you might want to go, draw a “Me-Cube,” or a quadrant that plots out your talents vs. desires. Place everything from your life resume into its appropriate quadrant and add anything new you think of. (See an example of a Me-Cube ).
Next, spend time understanding why each item is in the quadrant it is in. Move things that you discover should be moved. Give yourself the permission and the privilege to revise. Then, write why each item is located where it is. What patterns do you see? Bring what you have just made visible to yourself into step #3.
Step 3. Define What a ‘Dream Job’ Means to You
For me, a “dream job” used to mean anything with a full-time salary and some benefits. I took jobs that came my way. I stuffed envelopes, tended bar, bound books, worked emergency preparedness, and managed projects and people. This is what circumstances demanded.
But when I had an inkling of breathing room, the Life Resume and Me-Cube tools started to crystallize in my mind. I ventured into passion-driven employment choices over scarcity or fear-driven choices. A dream job for me became high-risk, fast-growth, big-business work in tech. Part of this shift was privilege, but it also took a lot of calculated courage.
Fast forward a bunch of years, and I shifted into wanting to work for mission-driven organizations. At this point, a dream job for me was in the environmental field. Despite not having a traditional conservation background:
My life resume illuminated to me all of the ways in which I was qualified for the leap.
My Me-Cube helped me identify the right opportunities and to confidently present myself to employers.
Three decades later, I’m lucky enough to be in another dream job: animal welfare. Did I have prior animal welfare background? No, no I did not. But, I did have the knowledge, skills and experience to successfully shift. You get the picture.
Finally, take your Life Resume and Me-Cube and create your own job description. What types of qualifications, responsibilities and challenges might utilize all that you are capable of and maximize the impact you can make?
Now, explore what careers exist that, at face value, wouldn’t seem like a match, or anything for which you are qualified. Think again, and think longer. There’s only one you, and you are qualified for so much more than your current job-seeking keyword search. Be as big and multi-dimensional as you truly are.