Some months ago, I was a panelist on a global career bootcamp and was asked to talk about how to develop the right mindset & build confidence as a professional. I shared 5 strategies that I have utilized over the years in building a thriving, long-lasting career path. They are:
1.Self awareness/ Self reflection: Do you know who you are? Do you know your strengths and weaknesses? Proclivities & triggers? Skills and expertise? What you want to do is apply yourself to your strengths. Use self awareness to steer you to your winning options first , while you work on your weaknesses.
I see a lot of people stumble into the professional world without understanding who they are professionally. You know why interviewers ask the famous “Tell me about yourself” question during the early stages of a job interview? It is to gauge how well you know yourself because that reflects how accurately you define the value you intend to bring to the organization and if your vision compliments the company’s.
You cannot fully apply yourself to your field in an excellent way without an understanding of who you are. What do you love? What are your skills? What comes easily to you but not to others? Are you analytical? Do you love numbers? Are you a great communicator? Do you do well leading teams and managing projects? Are you a people person and relationship management comes easily to you? Knowing these things can help you map out various career paths best suited to your areas of competence. Your career should be a place where your skills, knowledge and passions intersect.
Adequate knowledge of yourself helps you avoid FOMO. Taking courses because everyone is taking them. Getting into professions because it is trendy and has all the buzz. This ends up leaving a lot of people stuck in careers with no growth trajectory and in turn does nothing for your net worth because you haven’t been able to build a personal brand or expertise in any field. Many people are miserable in their current jobs simply because they are operating outside of their skills & talents, thus struggle everyday. I always say if you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything. Self-awareness is the most valuable gift you can give to yourself in your career.
E.g For me, I’m a communicator. I have the skills of writing and speaking. How did I apply this? I studied mass communication in school and majored in Broadcasting. After school, I applied to jobs on TV, Radio and didn’t get it. What did I do next? I applied to the next best thing within my field of study: Marketing communications. I didn’t major in it in school but I had sufficient knowledge of the subject matter and have a natural inclination to marketing and consumer psychology. I got my first job and I’ve been rolling with it ever since. I may not be a broadcaster but my communication skills have served me immensely as an AdTech sales & marketing professional.
2. Self Perception/Identity: How do you see yourself? Do you have a value system or belief code for your career? Do you believe in said values and how do they impact your career growth strategies?
It’s possible to be self-aware but lack positive self perception. Self awareness is knowledge of oneself while self-perception is how you interpret that knowledge to form your identity. Identity encompasses the values that create one’s sense of self & impacts everything about your career from the kind of jobs you apply for to how you negotiate your remuneration package.
When I was interviewing at Google, I literally had zero Canadian experience and most people I had heard of or spoke to while coming to Canada had mentioned how difficult it is to get a good job upon landing as an immigrant and how one might need to take a paycut etc.
However, I didn’t let that discourage me because that isn’t how I define myself. My experiences, values & relationships built my confidence that I can operate on a global scale and I held on to that. My value doesn’t diminish because I crossed borders. So my job search started with me listing out the top 10 ad tech companies in the world with offices in Canada and I started applying to them. I got many rejections but that didn’t deter me because rejection doesn’t dampen my value and we’ll touch on that in the next point.
So remember, value is not regional! True value is recognized anywhere in the world, you just need to find where you are in demand and go there. From your self appraisal exercise, what skills do you have that are exportable and are in demand globally? Make a list of those and begin from there.
Confidence comes from knowing who you are and that comes from being grounded in your identity - which by the way can only be defined by you.
3. Lean into the fear/Do it Afraid: “Everything you’ve always wanted is sitting on the side of fear” - George Addair
The body physically reacts to change or adventure in the form of fear and many times we make the mistake of interpreting that to mean quitting or not going through with the task at all.
While discussing the power of identity and positive self perception, I mentioned experiencing my fair share of rejections during my job search in Canada. It’s worth highlighting because many people are afraid to apply for jobs because they are afraid of rejection. They’ve internalized rejection and taken that to mean they are not good enough. No! Sometimes you might even be overqualified for a role or you just aren’t the right fit at that time for the organization and that’s okay too. It says nothing about your worth.
I had applied to Google Nigeria multiple times but never got a call back. When I knew I was moving to Canada, I started applying to Google Canada and was turned down twice before landing my current role. If I had given up and started applying for lesser jobs because I felt I wasn’t good enough, I would have sabotaged my own career growth.
Doing it afraid doesn’t mean you’ll get it right all the time. It means daring to believe that your dreams are valid and trying again, and again and again until you get it. Avoid internalizing rejection and keep going!!! Your tenacity will pay off I promise.
4. Adequate Preparation/Research: "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail! Success = Opportunity + Preparation."
Confidence is defined as a feeling of self-assurance arising from one's appreciation of one's own abilities or qualities. Confidence in your career journey can be built through adequate research and preparation. How much do you read for personal development? How much do you know about your industry? Do you read articles/blogs within your industry?
I like to define success as opportunity meeting preparation. This means you have to always stay ready if you are looking to make a leap in your career. Read! Do your research!! If you're job searching, have you examined your potential employer's company vision & mission statement? Have you researched & tried connecting with current employees on Linkedin to understand the values and work culture of the organization? Have you tried setting up a virtual coffee with any of them (if they are willing) to get their views on the company and your industry as a whole?
In addition, seek out information and curate your social media consumption to topics/subject areas that matter to your career so the algorithms can bring you relevant content . It’s amazing what you can learn from a recruiter’s 1 min reel on IG. Nowadays, learning doesn’t have to be formal or done in a classroom. We have an abundance of expert content online for FREE! Take advantage! Watch videos on YouTube. Follow the right people on Linkedin. Keep learning! Keep growing!
5. Habit Building: Have you cultivated good habits that could be implemented in your life to aid your career advancement?
Do you have habits that are tailored to your career goals? Early on in my career, I was blessed to have a boss who taught me good habits that have followed me to this day. One of those is to try to learn one thing everyday. It doesn’t matter where or how but commit to learning something new everyday that’ll make you show up as the person you want to be in your career.
An example of a good habit is ensuring you read 2 articles every morning about your industry to keep you abreast of trends. Another example could be reading a self-development book once a month or once every 2 months, if you’re a slow reader or life is busy. Another example is committing to building your personal brand by writing 2 Linkedin posts per month or even per week.
Whatever it is, your habits should be in alignment with your goals. Also in doing this, apply the 4 laws of behavioural change that James Clear wrote in his book Atomic habits to enable you stick with your new habits:
I hope you found these tips helpful.
