Ways to feel confident in taking action for the things you care about
CARE CAREER COURAGE 🌱 BLOG #5
CARE CAREER COURAGE is your bi-weekly dose of eco-friendly refuel when you need one (no oil-schooled thinkers featured).
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Hi there,
Happy London Climate Action Week!
Read below for inspiration and encouragement to take some action for yourself and the greater causes you believe in. ✨
Lets do what we can, seek jobs made for us and prepare for when we are leading decisions. 💚
You cannot do all the good that the world needs, but the world needs all the good that you can do.
I can’t remember where I first heard this phrase, but it stuck with me. Often when we are caught up in the day to day and our energy feels already fully spent, going the extra mile for a greater good, or even the most basic actions, can feel as if they are asking too much of us. Or drives us to ask what’s the point in it all.
So, I find this mantra can be useful in freeing us of senses of guilt or burden, to instead care and act with enthusiasm for the causes that we can in whatever ways that we can. It’s a good check in exercise - do you feel you could do this something more or are you content in the energy that you’re currently putting in elsewhere?
Let’s do what’s needed and what we can with joy in doing so.
Is the thing about a career simply trying to make your day job into something more than what it is day to day?
Whilst the end of my graduate scheme was fast approaching, in January I realised that for a permanent position, I was first role seeking before job hunting. I didn’t know what kind of role was possible for me to take on yet, but I knew my interests, my skills and my qualifications, as well as my preferences for ways of working and team dynamics. My own special mix didn’t point to a clear job opening, but by now, I knew that didn’t mean there wasn’t a space I couldn’t fit in and bring value.
So, I made the hunt about discovering where I could bring this value and how it could be packaged up, coupled with an approach of pursuing all directions until I had solid offers to weigh up. Inevitably, this meant a lot of fluctuating between feelings about the differing, potentially available roles and the future career paths they could lead me down. If you’d asked me one week, I might have assured you the geoscience team would be the one, and then the next week it’d be rocket science! (OK maybe not rocket science, but you never know hehe). It was a confusing time!
When I did eventually receive my first official offer and was then notified to expect a second, the stronger choice began to emerge. The tricky thing is, we won't know what's right until we’re doing it. So, here are the steps I took to make myself feel as confident as I could in choosing my next career move:
1. Open up your options and pursue discussions for all potential routes
2. Talk with peers who do similar work. How do you imagine your day-to-day would look in this role?
3. Get to know career journeys of senior colleagues or industry leaders in these fields. What do you imagine the story you’ll have to tell in 10 years will be like? (Roughly - we’re not looking for a planned out path here, more of a vibe).
4. Consider how your work/life priorities and opportunities might change in the future, what might be possible for you now that might not be in a different life stage?
5. Explore what’s best for self-development, such as vicarious learning (in-person), training and networking opportunities, where could position you best to find your ideal role later in your career?
6. Now, consider your personal values and go-to life mottos (if you have a life mission statement, now’s a good time to refer back to it). How do these align with your options?
If you are using these steps - you got this and goodluck! (And remember, everything happens for a reason). ;)
*deep breath* (coughs because the Victoria line smog is real)...
I’m on the way home from an event, left with a mixture of feelings and thoughts after differing a little from my expectations. Having just spent 2 days with senior colleagues for whom sustainability was at the bottom of their agendas, I had gone along to this network event in the hope of meeting other like-minded early careers professionals and to inject some enthusiasm back into myself. I had not realised that there would also be a talk given, usually something I welcome with open arms, but as it started I found myself sighing. It was the same climate crisis talk I’d seen been given multiple times. I had come here for energy and hope, not doom and gloom.
But then… maybe I was a little too quick to judge. The speaker sprinkled in a couple new nuggets of notions that stuck with me. Gifting some hope among the stark warnings of crisis.
One was on the underrepresentation of future generations in the making of leadership decisions, something that in my role at the time had crossed my mind many times before. What if we were to put youth representatives on boards of directors? Now that’s an idea I hadn’t heard of before!
Another was on a similar issue, and gave me some reassurance in the internal battle I’d felt inside before when not agreeing with business choices being made, but complying with (and sometimes even working for) them. I’d been thinking that I just lacked the knowledge or confidence to face these situations in ways in which I could be satisfied that I gave my two pence in, whether taken on board or not, but left often with a feeling of disappointment for not being able to fight for the cause of sustainability sufficiently. But, the speaker offered a new angle of reasoning; that as young professionals, we often don’t have the privilege to speak our opinions in these rooms. Whilst I had felt privileged to be in my position and technically had space in which to speak up in front of senior business leaders, I didn’t have the privilege of security or seniority to fight the battles that must be fought. (So, having a senior leader or manager who does, can be a real godsend).
But what can we do when we’re still left with the feeling that we care more and could have done more??
Sometimes the best thing you can do is to go away and prepare for when it’s the moment that they ask you for your opinion, when they give you the mic, or when you get to call the shots. Consider what you would do differently in their shoes, how you could always improve and do things better. Be ready for when it is our turn to lead.
Stay caring and courageous,
Izzy