College teaches you a lot, but it rarely teaches you how to create a successful career.
Young professionals Kiley Transit and Molly Wagner join me for a fantastic conversation about the top ten things they’ve learned in the first few years of their career that they wished they learned in college.
Themes discussed in this episode
- It’s not personal
- Being stuck is a choice
- Be strategic with your job
- Work to live, don’t live to work
- Time management is a really big deal
- You get to define success
- Your major doesn’t (always) matter
- Organization matters. A lot.
- You can be authentic and appropriate
- Your mental health is worth more
Featured Guests
Young Professional: Kiley Transit
Title: Digital Marketing Specialist at PopSpeed Digital Marketing LLC,
What she does: Kiley creates content and manages social media channels for clients in a variety of industries, including restaurants, healthcare, and education.
Connect: You can find her on LinkedIn.
Young Professional: Molly Wagner
Title: Digital Marketing Specialist at PopSpeed Digital Marketing LLC
What she does: Molly creates content and manages social media channels for clients in a variety of industries, including tech, law, and education.
Connect: You can find her on LinkedIn.
Episode Highlights
Timestamped inflection points from the show
12:50 – Don’t be afraid of a side hustle: If you’re feeling stuck in your current role, it doesn’t hurt to lean into your side hustle. It could turn into a full-time job like it did for Kiley.
13:10 – Be strategic with your professional relationships: You never know if a difficult coworker or client will circle back to you in the future and give you your dream job or become your biggest client. That’s why it’s essential to maintain positive relationships with everyone, even the difficult ones.
19:00 – Prioritize the work life balance: You can love your job and the work you do without making it your entire life. Work to live; don’t live to work.
32:40 – Your degree doesn’t (always) matter: If you graduate and don’t want to pursue what your degree is in, you don’t have to!
Quotes
7:30 – Molly: I really struggled with this in college and at the beginning of my career because I’m a writer, so up until now everything I’ve done has had my name on it. So, anytime I got feedback, it felt really personal. Even though I know at the heart of it, it was just constructive criticism, and everyone just wants it to be better. But now I’ve been able to shift my thinking and realize that what I’m producing is for a client. It’s not mine.
12:05 – Lori: While you’re wallowing, you have to continue to sell the idea to yourself that you aren’t really stuck. You can take action.
19:10 – Kiley: I was in a weird phase of life where I was easing out of sports being my identity, so I took a hard left and made my job my identity. I would not shut off when I got home. There was no balance. I remember I had so many people telling me ‘do not answer emails after five o’clock ever,’ and it was within the first week that I was doing that.
21:40 – Lori: For years, the culture had us convinced that we had to just run run run run run, and if you wanted to succeed, you better be there at ten o’clock at night. We’re not there anymore. We have learned and evolved.
22:50 – Lori: Work doesn’t feed your soul. It might feel like it does sometimes, but what really feeds your soul is your relationships.
32:40 – Molly: If you make it to graduation and you absolutely hate what your degree is in, you don’t have to do it. I noticed in my job search that companies just care that you have a degree, not necessarily what it’s in if you have the necessary skills.
36:00 – Kiley: When you’re with the right company or under the right leader, they want to get to know you. They don’t want to get to know the version of you that’s always on and so prim and proper.
Who is our ideal listener?
This podcast is for young professionals, so they can learn to play the emotional context sport of business and experience less drama and more success.
The ideal listener is anyone struggling on an emotional level in the workplace. Work Mom Says it helps you learn to be strategic at work. This means you can look at the big picture without getting lost in the weeds. How can you be more logical and less emotional? Be strategic, and Work Mom Says can help you.
“I tell people to back up, put down the magnifying glass, and look at the big picture when you’re responding to something,” said Lori Jo Vest, Work Mom. “In doing this, you will understand that what’s really upsetting you right now will be something you don’t even remember next week.”
What value can people get from listening to this podcast?
Listening to Work Mom Says can help you grow your mood management skills, grow your ability to reframe situations, and look at things from a strategic point of view. This makes it easier to go into a work situation and get the most positive results.
On Work Mom Says, we also offer tips and tricks for creating connected positive relationships that last over time. People will want you on the team if you can create connected positive relationships and work environments. You become an asset, and you will be more successful when you’re an asset.
“I also like to talk about developing traits like optimism, persistence, tenacity, stick-to-itiveness, sticking with things, and approaching every project with a curious mind instead of a fearful mind,” said Lori Jo Vest, Work Mom
Why do I do this? A few more words from Work Mom
I do this because I naturally fell into the Work Mom role when I worked in the ad agency business and had so much fun with it. I also realized I had made just about every mistake there was to make. I don’t hold myself as a stellar example of truth and how you should be. I hold myself out there as someone who has been bruised, battered, and beaten up and learned some important lessons. I’d love to share these lessons with young people, so they don’t have to make those same mistakes or be the idiot I was.
I also want to help young professionals realize that many things our culture prioritizes aren’t really important. We talk a lot about what should be important and how to present your best face at the office so that you can succeed.
I’ve learned so much throughout my career, and it’s gratifying to share that with young professionals and help them avoid some of those mistakes and get to that success sooner.
Episode 21 – “What’s Your Trauma?” appeared first on Work Mom Says.