18 months ago, I found myself in my 26th job. Ten years into the workforce I averaged two jobs per year since the age of 14. Suffering like the rest of us pre-med martyrs, the grind of full time patient care, full time school, and part time gig work to pay the bills had me drowning. Craving consistency and meaning, I scrutinized my resume praying some other vocation might jump off of the page and hit me with a plan to get to destination dream job.
During my nightly routines, I was in constant debate–fingers running through my hair as if shampoo could cure me of the flaky career path I’d built. In pursuit of achieving the title ‘Doctor’, fulfillment was always three steps away and like a bad case of occupational dandruff, the itch for something greater continued.
Overworked, underpaid, and unhappy – my lifestyle sucked. In today’s rapidly evolving professional landscape, there had to be a better way to reinvent my career future. If I could just build a boat, I thought, with the right mix of work experience, resume padding, and candor, I might just go somewhere with my career rather than barely staying afloat.
The building began, as I sought out purpose-aligned work with room for growth outside of medicine. To me, that meant leadership in Health or Education at a growing company. Fifty job applications and two years later, I work as a computer systems analyst for a non-profit leader in Early Childhood Education. In my role, I lead by helping set the standards for data quality, governance, and analytics in the field and at the company.
In this article, we will explore the strategic approach I used to get here. From getting my foot in the door to applying for my dream job, we’ll delve into five actionable strategies that will chart you on the path to success, and help you build your career boat.
1.) Chart Your Course: Destination Dream Job
Before building begins, every good sailor needs a motivating destination for inspiration when the going gets tough. So, whether you’re unemployed or seeking new employment, the first step is identifying work at a purpose-aligned company worthy of your dreams.
If this is where you are, I recommend The 2-Hour Job Search by Steve Dalton. Soon after encountering Dalton’s work, a list of actively hiring dream entities, turned into a reinvigorated vision of potential impact opportunities. Rather than continuing to dwell on hating where I was currently at, I found myself excited about my destination.
When charting my course, I sought out a workplace that was purpose-aligned with opportunities for growth. Growth in an organization means opportunity for innovation and chance-taking. Chances to build your niche as an employee are great when your company is looking to do the same. Add in alignment with a sector or issue you care about, and you are ready to go.
2.) Gather Materials: Plywood and Past Experiences
With a destination in mind, your focus should no longer be on sinking. So stop splashing around like you’re helpless, and focus on pulling some pieces together to build your boat. Armed with my list of dream jobs and newfound motivation, I pulled my resume together to apply for jobs.
Each past experience I could relate to the position meant another piece of plywood, and every conversation I had in preparation for an interview helped me construct a story I hoped would get me hired.
Rather than focusing on a fancy job title, starting out I focused on organizations with work I believed in and applied for any job that would get my foot in the door. After about 6 months, I had interviews and offers for three full-time positions. I chose the job at the most exciting company, with the greatest potential for growth. At this point I was really on a plywood raft, but the building had begun and I was no longer sinking.
3.) Don’t Just Paddle: Build Community
Once you have your foot in the door at a purpose-aligned company, you need to focus your energy on building a sail. It’s one thing to just paddle along by meeting expectations in a new job, but if you can add value above and beyond expectations you go from paddling to sailing.
First, ask meaningful questions to discover problem areas you might be able to contribute to.
With a background in patient care, cancer research, and Health Sciences coursework, my questions naturally revolved around data and analytics. By staying curious and asking questions, my Niche uncovered itself. I didn’t understand my potential to impact industry data until I was surrounded by it.
Once you uncover a problem area, the second step is doing your best to solve the problem! Now, I know you may be thinking; “Holy crap, this problem is WAY too big for me to solve!” That’s ok! If not you, then who?
Even if you don’t have the power to implement the solution or full access to the issue, share your solutions with your boss or another person who has power or access to the issue. Maybe it is above your pay grade, but businesses are not lacking compliance. They are lacking leadership and innovation. Don’t paddle when you can sail.
4.) Find Your Crew: Build Community
Finding a supportive crew in your niche involves more than just adding LinkedIn connections to your network. It involves developing meaningful relationships with people who will support you along your journey. Find support internally at your company and externally in your community, friends, and family groups.
Internal community can be anyone at your organization who believes in you. Ideally, your current boss is an ally, but it doesn’t have to be them. You can identify anyone in your company you want to connect with and go from there. Schedule an in-person or virtual coffee to start building a relationship. From there, you can share more about your goals and see what advice they have for you.
As you build a career-specific external community, reach out to anyone in a role related to your destination dream job, or area of passion. In the space of data, this could be a data scientist, any sort of analyst, a software developer, or an IT manager just to name a few. Start with an informational interview and ask them about their story. Informational interviews are great places to generate ideas for career development, and can really help contextualize your place in the field.
As I prepared to transition into analytics, I reached out to cold contacts, friends, and family members. Talking about my goals in the field, and how they aligned with my purpose helped me solidify my interests and prepared me for job applications. Having a crew of supporters with me built confidence and skill in my sailing–I was making faster progress with far less fear of failure.
5.) Build Your Boat: Qualify for the Next Step
Now that we have some confidence in sailing, it’s time to keep building. Unless you are Jack Sparrow, people rarely go from sinking to captaining the black pearl in one go (Pirates of the Caribbean). So now we focus on upgrading your boat by qualifying yourself for the next step.
Don’t worry about the 5 year plan or making it to the ultimate job. Acknowledge that renovation takes time, and work on the next step. I recommend starting an online certificate, taking a class, or reading relevant books from leaders in your niche. My next steps involved all three–combining into a one-year plan I would follow to become a leader in analytics at my company. I even shared the plan with my boss and asked for feedback.
The plan consisted of completing the Google Data Analytics Certification– a Coursera offered certificate with 8 courses, reading five books: In the Plex, Measure What Matters, What the heck is EOS, Daring Greatly, and Infonomics, building a crew of people I could learn from, and leading three data projects aimed at finding business solutions for my company.
It took about 14 months to get through my plan, apply, and receive an offer that would get me closer to destination dream job. At month 14 of working in a role with -30% job growth, I transitioned into my current role as a Computer System’s Analyst.
I’m still not sure if it’s THE job, but as long as I continue charting my course and building my boat, I will keep moving toward a destination I desire-one worthy of dreams.
Lauren Nellie Anderson
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