Ok, let’s talk some serious business.
Focusing on positivity and internal growth and finding your own balance sounds good. But it takes time and it’s a continuous process throughout your entire life.
Meanwhile, we need to also be practical and have a way of paying the bills, or the shoes or the vacations or the kids’ nursery. This means being part of the workspace.
Unless you were born a princess, in which case this article is not for you.
If you are like me or most people, what you studied has little to nothing to do with the job you’re doing.
Which made me think: What drives the professional path? On top of external circumstances. The answer to that question brought me back to one of my favorite topics: personality and social skills. If you haven’t done it yet, or you did it but want to check if your personality evolved in any way, you may take this online personality test that is free:
It will give you a good idea about what personality traits you have and the areas where you can use them. It’s not a magical formula which will tell you the perfect match for a career, though!
Nevertheless, being self-aware of your own skills makes it easier to decide on which hard skills to focus further when thinking of a profession or a change of direction in your career. And Internet offers endless courses on how to master any hard skills you want to add to your CV.
In my case, I worked in several industries that had nothing to do with what I studied. But one thing that all my jobs had in common is the fact that I got along well with people which, in the end, drove results.
My elevator pitch can be summarized in one sentence: “I help people work in synergy to get the best possible outcome from a situation”. So, here I am today, working in Technology without any technical background, because even tech companies need people that get well with other people. Isn’t that ironic?
Therefore, don’t limit your options based on what you know or have learned or studied. A job title doesn’t define a person. If you have a broader look on your capabilities and keep an open mind, the possibilities are endless.
And for the current and future workspace, adaptability is one of the key soft skills. By the time our generation will reach retirement, a lot of the jobs we started with, potentially, won’t even exist.
Unless you were born a princess, in which case this article is not for you.
Xtina
