Building a More Satisfying Career and Life

by Anne Benveniste ‘03, Career Coach and Founder of The Career Studio

It’s been 16 years since I’ve enjoyed some proper back-to-school shopping, but I remember the anticipation, the sense of a fresh start as I selected new notebooks and over-priced gel pens at Staples. Even now, I find that September brings a sense of new beginnings. It’s a great time to reflect on where we are and where we’re going. 

Combine this seasonal prompt to begin anew with the tumult of a pandemic followed by a year of heavy-handed layoffs in tech and ancillary industries, and I imagine that many reading this are considering the possibility of a career change. 

Maybe you’re actively job searching, or maybe you’re quietly reflecting on your future. Maybe what you’re being paid to do no longer fits the way it once did. Maybe you’ve found yourself working in a toxic environment. Maybe you ended up on the wrong side of a re-org. Maybe you’re generally engaged but always looking to optimize how you’re building your career and life. 

If any of these maybes resonates with you, read on.

I find that the challenge for most people who are reflecting on what comes next professionally is that there is a lot of noise out there about how to build a career. It can be overwhelming. Which advice should you pay attention to and which can you ignore?

When you boil down the noise, there are actually four themes that come up time and again. Think of these themes like the foundation of a house: Just as you need a sturdy foundation to build a house, you need a sturdy foundation to build an energizing career that you love. If you focus on these areas first, you can create clarity on where you’re going, momentum toward getting there, confidence in who you are and how you want to live your life, and energy to do what you need and want to do.

What follows is a short introduction to these four essential concepts. After I present each concept, I’ll prompt you to rate how strong you think you are in that area, so that by the end you have a sense of where to start. 

Let’s dive in. 

Own Your Brand. 

I mean own your brand in the most authentic sense – because it takes less energy to be yourself. When we’re trying to mold ourselves onto a career path we think is the “right” one, we waste energy trying to be who we think we need to be. Consider how draining it is to do tasks or projects that don’t play to your strengths, interests, or priorities. While no job is perfect and every job requires growth, if we’re in a space that’s not best suited to the person that we are, we will miss out on the opportunity to shine as brightly as we could.

Personally, I spent years trying to mold myself into someone who had the quantitative and strategic strengths of a management consultant – even though qualitative strengths are where I’ve always excelled. I thought I needed to grow an early-stage tech startup to be successful – even though I’m really not interested in tech. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t thrive. In fact, I was pretty miserable for three years, until I eventually got fired. That experience was a wake-up call to reorient my career around what I was naturally good at and genuinely interested in. A wake-up call to stop being who I thought I needed to be and own who I actually was. So I became a coach.

 And guess what? Work is easier, more energizing, and more fun. And as a result, I have a thriving business.

So rate yourself on a scale of 0-5: How well do you know your natural strengths, genuine interests, and lifestyle priorities? If you give yourself a relatively low score here, take the time to reflect on your strengths, interests, and priorities. This is the compass to direct your career.

Talk to People.

People are the lifeblood of your career. They can guide you and open doors. Often, we get stuck because we aren’t having conversations. I recommend lots and lots of conversations. 

Talking with others is how you're going to sort out all those career questions, fears, and concerns that are swirling around in your head. Clarity and conviction are not going to arrive one day fully formed and give you permission to finally go after an idea. Rather, clarity and a certain level of conviction will emerge through informational conversations with people doing the things that interest you. These conversations can help you figure out what direction is right for you, while helping to build your network and cultivate mentors who can assist you now and in the future. 

Create Open Mindsets.

Often when we’re stuck in a career it’s because we’re stuck in our mind. Definitively phrased fixed and closed mindsets like “What I want isn’t possible” / “It’s too late” / “I’m too old (or too young)” / “I don’t have what it takes” / and “It’s too hard” lead to resignation and stasis. 

Remember that our thoughts are really just interpretations of the facts of our lives. Our thoughts shape our feelings, which drive our actions, which create results. Growth and change come when we recognize the power of our thoughts and our ability to choose what we think. 

Choosing more open mindsets like “What I want could be possible” / “It might not be too late” / “My age could be an asset” / and “I can do hard things” will foster curiosity and self-confidence – emotions that will facilitate your exploration into what comes next.

So rate yourself on a scale of 0-5: How open is your mindset about what’s possible for you? Write down your thoughts about whatever you're struggling with professionally. Look for the fixed and closed mindsets. Replace them with phrases that are based in self-belief and possibility. 

Protect Your Time.

Sometimes the reason we’re depleted professionally is that we aren’t saying “no” and creating the space we need in our schedule to rest and recharge. Despite what American work culture might tell us, at a certain point, more time at work does not equate to more success and happiness.

In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell famously presented the idea that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. However, this number comes from a study with a wider message. To be successfully realized, those 10,000 hours need to be combined with 12,500 hours of deliberate downtime and 30,000 hours of sleep. That’s 25% more downtime than work time! The fact is, you can't rush your way to expertise.

We need time away from work to decompress. To process what we’ve learned, connect the dots, form ideas. This is why we often get our best ideas away from the computer – on a walk or in the shower! If you’re not making space for non-work activities that energize you, your work product will suffer, and you will eventually burn out and be forced to take a break.

So rate yourself on a scale of 0-5: How good are you at closing your laptop and filling your life with non-work activities that feel energizing? If you find this area lacking, consider what activities energize you outside of work. Block time on your calendar for them first, at the start of the week, before scheduling your work commitments.

There you have it. If you’re thinking about how to evolve your career and aren’t sure where to begin, these four concepts offer a solid approach. A strong foundation not only creates clarity, momentum, energy, and confidence but also acts like a playbook that you can come back to again and again as, inevitably, who you are and what you want evolve. 

Where are you the weakest? Start there. If you want to go deeper on any of these four concepts, listen to the first four episodes of my podcast, where I dive into each one in detail. Here's to taking the reins and designing a path that feels authentic and energizing to you. Anyone can do it once they know what to focus on.

To learn more about Anne, read “Out of the Wheelhouse and Down off the Ladder" from the spring 2020 issue of The Potomac Term magazine.

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