Finding Your Best Fit
The need to belong is a basic human instinct. We deliberately seek a sense of belongingness to feel secure and form a validation towards ourselves. There’s also a saying that, “If we’re doing the same as everyone else, we must be doing it right.” Especially as we walk into adulthood, we all want to fit in and find suitable jobs for a lifetime career. Therefore, we need to know the keys to finding our best fit career-wise. We believe that everyone deserves to feel great at their job because no one likes to feel incapable of what they’re doing. This blog post will then cover what we’ve uncovered at our previous webinar.
There are certain things that you can try to explore in finding your best fit. The first is by getting familiar with the current digital era. Our work environment is evolving as much as we are as an individual. Some of the trending jobs we know are likely to be related to digital technologies, such as e-commerce, digital marketing, etc. Consequently, one must have a high discipline, adaptation, and planning to support the gig economy. The gig economy itself is based on flexible, temporary, or freelance jobs that often involve connecting with clients or customers through an online platform. But from an employee perspective, there are also pros and cons in the gig economy. The pros of the gig economy have to develop a sense of creativity. You are very much open to discover new things at what you do creatively. On the other hand, the cons of the gig economy are having the experience of job-hopping and side jobs because the system is that flexible. Therefore, we propose a general formula to achieve familiarity in this digital era.
Plan — Purpose — Routine — People
Making plans and keeping up with a schedule is very important to maintain a specific focus in your life in any kind of job. Whether it’s for personal or professional goals, it is helpful and eventually will determine your purpose. After you set your plans and purpose, you can start to undergo the routines that will take you to the people you want to work with.
The next question is, “What else can we do to expose ourselves to people that we want to work with?” Furthermore, what if we’ve searched for answers about our desired job and industry, but we still couldn’t find the answers? The solution to your problem would be doing informational interviews with someone with professional experience in that field. An informational interview is a safe environment for you to ask questions and just be curious. It is the right kind of an action because it’ll give you exposure to any industry, career advice, network-building, and interviewing skills. You can later read our previous blog post for more details on conducting and managing an informational interview.
Okay, so what makes an informational interview great? Now, a great informational interview should start with approaching your interviewees. You could approach them through LinkedIn, known colleagues, organizations,s or even Clubhouse. Prepare your questions in 15-30 minutes and start with questions that lead to “how” and “what”. The reason is that the interviewees should be the one who explains because you want to learn from them. A quick tip, people tend to like to be listened to. So, ask a lot! Suppose you’re a journalist who wants to get as much information as possible from the professionals; you can adapt these questions in an interview.
What do you like the most/the least about the industry?
What didn’t you know before getting into the industry you wish someone had told you?
What skills, qualities, and experiences people do well in the industry?
Given what we have talked about today, are there other people you’d recommend I connect with?
The idea of these questions is to help you spot the roles and fields that match your skills and experience while understanding how top performers are described. Don’t forget to emphasize the purpose of the interview is networking and thank them for the opportunity. Remember that you’re not seeking a job; you’re seeking advice. Because when you ask for a job, you'll get advice, but if you ask for advice, you'll get a job.
Taking those actions in the process may lead you to some unexpected outcomes. Perhaps, you can’t approach a professional interviewee because he or she rejects your invitation or you fail to conduct an informational interview. Don’t worry! Don’t get discouraged just yet. Yes, we tend to doubt ourselves when we attempt unsuccessful events and by most chances, we could let ourselves drown in self-doubt and feel incompetent. But we can’t let our doubts get in our way. So, how do we change rejection into motivation?
One of our guest speakers, Verrell, has shared his personal experience of going through several turn downs in his professional life. When he didn't get to graduate college, he decided to get to work. He applied several times as a flight attendant but got rejected every time. Up until he sought help with mental health professionals and suggested he do something that he likes, which is gaming. It turns out, Verrell got inspired through his game and was encouraged to think creatively. For that reason, he then established @geekyupdates and currently works in a creative industry.
From Verrell’s story, we could learn that we can get back up even if it takes time. According to Indira, one of our guest speakers, we can try to change our fixed mindset into a growth mindset by learning new things and taking our main focus on learning. She also shared that our brain is very capable of changing new habit structures through its neuroplasticity. The trick is to train the amygdala by immediately diverting to a new interest or activity when the feeling of doubts. As for Raras, one of our guest speakers, she believes that our body, mind, and soul are all connected. Consider the aspects that may contribute, such as nutritional intake, because it could be influential.
Since our guest speakers, Verrell and Raras, are coming from a startup and established company background, we’ve also asked how do they find their best fit in terms of the two workplaces. For Verrell, he prefers his podcast projects aside from radio. Because even if the radio has lots of networks and easier to access, there are lots of regulations to follow and his creativity is being limited. While in his podcast project, he feels the system is more of kinship, and there are no castes between him and his client. If he comes up with an idea, Verrell can immediately give them to be considered and discussed together. For Raras, she knows that she’s not the kind of person who likes to sit in a cubicle for long hours and has a tendency to idealize something. She’s also not comfortable with the hierarchy in an established company. To be clear, it depends on you. Clarify your career values and incorporate those values into your career. Plus, consider the pros and cons!
Lastly, we discussed passion by asking the guest speakers how they know if it’s the “right” moment? Can we make money off our passion? From Raras’ discussion with her seniors, passion will continue to grow until we’re 35 years old, and we can still be looking for it because the learning process is always on the run. She thinks the right moment will come if you’ve accepted yourself. The same goes with Verrell, and he thinks the more comfortable you are with yourself, the more accessible the road will take you. Don’t force yourself to do something that you dislike, or else the results will end up poorly. Embrace your uniqueness 🙌🏻
The bottom line is just to keep looking and exploring your values. You can try looking through the current work trends in this digital era, conduct an informational interview to get more exposure, be aware of the self-doubts, and clarify what values you have that’ll lead to your passion. Asking a lot of questions and be curious is also necessary because, just like traveling to someplace for the first time, of course, we would curiously ask for directions; if not, we would get lost. Assuming that you’re interested in our blog posts, make sure to subscribe and stay tuned for more upcoming posts! Follow our Instagram as well @baikgp and @ayureadypodcast