As a leadership trainer, I do a lot of public speaking. At a recent college forum, a woman in the audience asked me how she should go about looking for a job, since she feared it would be her first and last job.
Why was she worried about that before she had even started her career? Her question unfortunately reflects the kind of “sticky floor” thinking that cuts off opportunities and jeopardizes personal growth for many women. Through my work as a leadership coach with women across the country, I’ve seen similar kinds of behaviors, assumptions, and beliefs that can self-limit promising careers.
Too often, women believe that new jobs and promotions are a linear process: get hired, do a good job, get promoted, stay put. They don’t set up their own framework, based on their strengths and goals, for sizing up opportunities, taking risks, and creating opportunities for themselves.
I argue that if you are looking for a new job or another spot in your current company, you actually need to think about what you want your next two jobs to be. Figure out how to get the first one, then the second one.
Here’s a realistic timeframe: in year one, you are learning the job. In year two, you are doing it well, producing results, and making meaningful connections with people in your new circle. In year three, you’ll want to start looking at what else you can do in that job to build toward your overall plan. It’s also time to start discussing opportunities for job number two with your new boss and other people inside or outside your organization who might be able to create the opportunity for you.
Following are a few questions to think about when considering your next moves.
- What’s your dream job or end goal?
- What skills or experience do you need to add to your resume to prepare you for that role?
- What kinds of jobs will give you that experience? Could a single new position do it, or will you need a few different jobs, perhaps with different organizations?
- Are you looking for sequential positions with increasingly broader or bigger responsibilities? Or will you need a series of lateral moves that will cumulatively provide the right mix of experience? Of those several next jobs you’d like to have, which one makes the most sense to go after first?
- What experiences or skills do you need to make sure you develop in the first job to best position yourself for the second job?
- How does this line of thinking frame your next job hunt? What sorts of jobs will you say yes to and which ones will you turn down?
I enourage you to look for opportunities to leverage what you can do into something bigger or at least broader. Trust that the right people will look up to you if you take control of your career and make the moves that you know you need to get yourself closer to the executive suite.
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1 Comment
hkader
02/20/08 11:27 PM
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