Hey OPB!
I hope you all had a great weekend. We're back this week with a quick call to live up to your best self and pass along a message to a friend or colleague letting them know you're thinking of them.
It takes less than a minute, and it could mean a lot in nurturing your relationship.
Be sure to send them this link and have them join us if they're as like minded as you are :)
Ok...onto this week's OPB...
Challenge, Connection and Ways to Meaning in Your Career
Unemployment is rising fastest among 22–27-year-olds with college degrees. For recent grads, getting that first job is harder than ever.
For established professionals, the opposite problem tends to hold true. Many are entrenched, having lost sight of the meaning in their work.
So, we’re covering both issues this week – leaving you with some concrete ways to rethink finding a career or learning how to make meaning from a career you’re already in.
How to Find (and Keep) Your First Job
[if you're just starting out]
Research suggests, and as Cal Newport popularized in So Good They Can’t Ignore You, success doesn’t come from passion—it comes from building rare and valuable skills, or what he calls career capital. However, with little to no experience beyond what they learned in school, many struggle to know how to increase their marketability and develop their career capital.
Here’s how:
I wrote about changing the word “networking” to “connecting” in edition #13 of OPB. Research would support a similar frame. It’s not just about being in a network—it’s about contributing to one. Relationships you develop, not just have, create your “Know-Whom” capital.
“Know-How” is the development of skill and knowledge based competencies beyond higher education.
“Know-Why” is a sense of career motivation that one may have to drive in a direction that is meaningful and purposeful – connected to one’s values and identity – and doesn’t appear haphazard or wayward.
These aforementioned areas are defined as the “skills, knowledge, relationships and personal traits” that make you more valuable in the workplace – otherwise defined as “career capital”. By developing your career capital, you create the necessary leverage to enter into the workforce even in spite of not having the requisite skills or knowledge post grad.
Pay particular attention to “Know-Why” – this can be a critical, yet under emphasized area of focus for many. In our work at Valiance, we see many who are struggling to get reconnected to maintaining a personal development plan that sees the work that they are doing as part of the puzzle for living a fulfilling life. After all, even the Stoic’s knew that we were meant to work, so we should be attuned to the work we’re doing and why we’re doing it.
Having Trouble Finding Your “Know-Why”?
That’s why I built a totally FREE career coaching AI agent to help you with your process. Backed by over 1000 pages of literature I use in my work with clients, this tool can help you:
- Clarify Career Direction
- Align Success with Fulfillment
- Empower Midlife Career Shifts
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If you’ve already found yourself in your career, but are struggling to find meaning in your work, it may be helpful to pay attention to the following areas of focus; ask yourself:
- Am I being challenged? It’s human nature to want to continue to progress, and if we’re not progressing at work, that’s a significant area in our lives that can leave us feeling underwhelmed.
- Do I have agency/autonomy? Evidence suggests that if employees feel as though they have control over their work, they tend to express themselves at work as well.
- Do I feel competent? Humans aspire towards mastery. Of course, despite wanting some challenges at work, if the work is TOO challenging, and mastery is not possible, people can become demoralized and find work lacks meaning.
- Do I feel connected relationally? We’re social creatures, and even for the most isolating and introverted amongst us, we need to feel as though our work relates with those around us. You could just as easily substitute belonging here as a synonym. If our work provides us a place of belonging and a sense of community, we’re more likely to find meaning in our work as well.
Finally, it may be worth checking out this article to learn more about finding purpose by letting go of that mission all together, and chasing what you enjoy.
Whether you're just starting out or trying to rediscover purpose, the most meaningful work blends enthusiasm, experience, and the will to keep learning.
Thanks for reading as always.
Time to win the week 🏆
See you next week :)
– J
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