Deep Dive: Design Your Career

Do exercise that help you reflect and plan what you want to do.

Do you wish for a wonderful career?

A career is more than a job. It is a journey. How is it going for you? Happy? Not so much? Do you feel you could do more? Or that you want to do something meaningful?

Being employed is great for some. Others own businesses. What is your dream? Explore it with a few exercises. Reflect and plan.

As my friend

David Marlow

asked in our podcast episode:

“What would you do if you were done?”

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Contents:

Reflect

1. Work questions

2. Work inventory

3. Competence matrix

4. Failure twister

5. Put it all together

Plan

6. Mind tree - where you find value

7. Designing scenarios

8. Step forward

Wrap up

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REFLECT

No, again? Hell, yeah. Without reflection, you can’t move on. Answer what you did and liked vs. what you did not like and wanted to change.

Take a pen and paper and write down the first thing you are thinking of.

1. Work snap questions

• Why do you work? If you don’t work, why don’t you work?

• What is the purpose of your work?

• How do you know you do a good job?

• Is your work worthwhile?

• How do you describe a good work?

• What would you do if you would not have to care about money?

Source: https://www.brosix.com/blog/work-memes/

Good. Don’t pretend how your work makes you feel. It’s showtime but only for you and only you.

When you understand your work and values, you can easily see if your current job is aligned with them or not. After all, work should have a purpose and fulfill your life. It should not make you miserable.

Yet, leaders often experience tiredness and burnout. How much you can give, and how much do you need to get back?

What have you found out?

2. Work inventory

Now, let’s move on to an exercise I have learned in my past job and still find fun to do. It’s a work inventory that combines time, jobs, and motivation.

Try to create a timeline of your work career so far and combine it with your motivation:

Source: example output

For instance, you started your career as an intern. You were quite motivated (60%). Then, you became an office manager and had the first real job (90%). Sadly, the job was terrible because the boss was toxic (dropped to 50%). You tried to change the department and became a product manager in the same company. Yet, it continued to be bad. Your motivation dropped to 20%. You decided to leave and found a new job as a team leader. And so on.

You can approach this exercise as:

• Mention the most important jobs.

• Or think about, for instance, your last 10 years.

Important is to see when and why your motivation grew or dropped. What made you happy or dissatisfied? Write it down!

You may see a pattern, for instance:

• You get bored when you spend too much time in one company.

• You don’t like working in project management.

• Salary is not important.

• Etc.

This exercise uncovers how you’ve been approaching your career. What made you change your job or stay in for a while? Be honest, no one is going to judge you for your decisions.

3. Competence matrix