Feed Your Career

What are your goals, your dreams? Take a moment to ponder these questions. I’ve spent many moments chewing over such questions. These questions do not just belong in job interviews or over dinner with friends. We should be asking ourselves all the time. If we don’t, how can we achieve our goals and dreams?

My journey

For the past six years I have been working towards one goal: to become a registered dietitian. Now I am only weeks away from taking my exam and applying for jobs. It is a little scary, but even more exciting. Throughout this process my passion for helping others has not changed, though the method of achieving this dream has morphed a few times.

When I began college I was sure of what I wanted. No one could sway me; in fact I had spent three years already gaining practice in my field of choice, journalism. Work at the high school paper soon turned into work for the college paper, and things looked promising. Then, it all changed. One nutrition course awoke a burning desire to learn more about healthy eating and to share this knowledge with everyone I knew, and many people I didn’t.

Now I am finishing graduate school, and my dietetic internship, and I have noticed that my love of writing has never diminished. In fact, my journalism background has helped me get into grad school, become a TA, and led to many writing projects throughout my internship. Who would have thought that a change in majors doesn’t mean you have to give up on your former dreams.

Though writing and nutrition can be put together successfully, I saw this as a far off dream, a 10-year-plan. Not something to put on the resume just yet. But why not? Why not strive to start my career in nutrition by involving both skills? At first the idea seemed more of a dream than a realistic goal, until one after another of my internship preceptors began identifying my writing ability as a unique skill in our field. One preceptor in particular strongly suggested putting together a portfolio of my writing clips to include with my resume, a novel idea that I am currently executing.

Now your turn

So what are your goals, your dreams? First, ask yourself, ‘What do I do best?’ and ‘What do I love doing?’ The answers are very important and can be the key to reaching your ideal job, career, and life. Whether just getting started, like me, or reassessing your career at any point, it is possible to incorporate your skills and reclaim your dreams.

Don’t set aside your passions simply because they may not fit into your work right now. Instead, map out a plan that involves your skills, all of your skills. Odds are your history can improve your future.

You are more prepared than you think you are. So wake up, but keep dreaming.

–Laura Jeanes, Dietetic Intern and Guest Blogger

I recently met with a mid-career nutrition professional who wanted some advice on the direction she should go.  She had narrowed her search to three different directions she could go with her career. She was mapping out her career road map out for the next several years.  I commend her on reaching out to me to ask for help.  I enjoyed meeting her and as usual, gleamed some new things from our encounter.

A hard thing for me is to ask for help on my behalf.  I have no trouble asking on behalf of others (kids, coworkers, friends, family).  But when it comes to my own requests — where did you get those fabulous shoes, can I get your help on a project I am working on, can I have a copy of your recipe for the mushroom risotto, or can I have a few minutes of your time to help you reach cutting edge nutrition professionals.

I usually opt for the research route and find answers myself online or in books.   I am from the stubborn stock of people that believe they can do or find whatever they need themselves.  I mislead myself by telling myself I can do it all alone.

Famous Words from Robin Plotkin

Recently, I had the honor of interviewing Robin Plotkin, culinary and nutrition communications consultant. She is an awe-inspiring entrepreneur.  Be sure to listen to the entire interview.

One point she made during the interview that really struck me was “if you don’t ask, you don’t get.”  This is also a famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi.  Robin was advocating  people ask for help/ advice.  She employed this ask philosophy herself to find the dream work she is now doing.  She used the career exploration techniques informational interviewing and job shadowing. I am sure the people she reached out to found they received from the experience.   Additionally, years later, these kind professionals have made a great contact for themselves – the successful Robin Plotkin.

Receive More Than You Ask For

As Feed Your Career grows and gains more recognition I am seeing how the art of asking is far more than a question and answer exchange. When you ask someone you are opening the door for opportunities that never could exist by doing a search in Google.  When asking people for help often times you get back more than you requested – a high dividends payout!

When I met with the nutrition professional I gave her two contact names and  I gained a sense of helping someone.  No frequently asked questions webpage page can replace these perks.

The other day I received a LinkedIn request to connect.  Instead of blindly pressing the “Accept” button, I sent a personal message.  After a couple exchanges with this nutrition professional I was offered a review copy of his soon to be released book.  If I had not reached out to him, I would have missed out on the opportunity to review his book and he would have missed a valuable PR opportunity for his book.

A recommendation I made to the nutrition professional mapping out her career was to conduct informational interviews with professionals in jobs she is interested in.  The goal would be to find out the experience, skills and credentials she needs and determine which direction matches her personality, talents and passions.  I am betting if she reaches out to these professionals she will gather more than information, she may find answers and opportunities she never knew were there.

If I look back over my past I can think of many times where I stubbornly chickened out from asking for help.  I vow to step out of my old comfort zone and “ask for advice or help” with a passionate heart in the future.

This past week I gave a presentation at the California Dietetic Association meeting with Steve Sphar, a seasoned organization development consultant and attorney with over 20 years experience advising business leaders and facilitating positive change.  He spoke for first half of the presentation on Taking Charge of Change.  I spoke on later half on Chart Your Career: Critical Steps to Getting Places in Your Career.  The combination was a great fit.

Taking Charge of Change

Steve gave an overview of what the change process is and how our bodies process it.  It really hit me how much of how we react to a change is in our minds.   I have many times focused on what I am loosing through the change thus feeding feelings of negativity and frustration and prolonging the second stage of change called Concern.  I would fare the change better if I would first ask myself  if I have any control or influence over the change.   This would help me move through the stages of change quicker and get to the last stage called Commitment.  If I can not control the change like:

* the current state of the economy
* a change in take-home pay
* a change in job responsibilities
* others’ reaction to a change at the workplace,
* a change in policies governing reimbursement for my services

then I need to move on and embrace the last stage Commitment where I can focus on what is exciting and use my energy to move forward and find new opportunities that come out of the change.

Chart Your Career

I spoke the last half on how the job marketplace has changed dramatically in recent years and how to position yourself.  A longitudinal study by the US Department of Labor found for those leaving the workforce now they on average held 10 jobs for between ages 18 and 38 (do the math – two years per job) and experts expect this to rise much higher with the current state of the economy and marketplace.  Many people in the workforce are unaware of how significantly career management has changed from when they last were out looking for a job.  Career management now revolves around job security while you have a job and not wait until you are out of a job.   You must be proactive and make yourself valuable and remarkable at what you do.  What better way of finding work you can do remarkably than doing work you are made to do — work you feel passion and purpose in.

This is why the first thing I covered was Discovering Yourself .  This means delving into your skills, strengths, values and interests, passions and creating a purpose statement.   When all these factors are purposely pursued in the work place, then there is no stopping you, you are it!  You are indispensable.

This is what we aim to do at Feed Your Career. We work with professionals that want to find their niche in the workplace where passion, personality, talents, and values come together to create purposeful work where they feel they make a valuable contribution. We focus on being competitive in the marketplace while making a contribution in the form of work that can only be done by you – it has your unique fingerprint all over it.

Watch for Feed Your Career webinars on Discovering Yourself, Personal Branding, Advancing Your Career, Social Media and other valuable job topics to help you excel and find toe tingling enjoyment in what you do.

Time Magazine had a feature article in March on the job market. An interesting point was  think job security, job longevity.  They spoke of a trend of looking for work that is sustainable into the future.  Jobs that will weather the economy and advancements in the robots industry (workers being replaced by robots) must build on a human being’s unique abilities, like problem solving and creativity. In food, nutrition and dietetics these skills are necessities.

On the medical side of nutrition problem solving is a backbone. Dietitians every day are faced with solving human nutrition problems – patients or clients needing help with chronic disease management or achieving optimal health.  Creativity — when you work with changing lifestyles and habits of people, creativity is a must.  What works for one client, will not work for another client, each is unique and has different needs.

When I was in foodservice management, problem solving was the biggest bulk of my time.  My day usually started with some shortage of employees to find unique and creative ways to cover for including me at times pitching in at the dishwashing line.  After human resource there were the budget challenges that required planning, analyzing, forecasting,  improvising skills in addition to problem solving.

For culinary professionals, problem solving is key from front line positions like wait staff and servers to management and owners.   Menus and food should be synonyms for creativity.  Making customers’ palate happy and keeping food costs down is a true art left best to professionals.

Job Security

You can see, in the food, nutrition and culinary industries problem solving and creativity are here to stay.  What I see needed for job security in our industry is a keen focus on providing a service or product that there is a paying market for.  Lately the economy has resulted in changes in customer behavior.  If your employer is loosing ground in connecting with your customer/client, then you need to turn things around and repackage what you do so it outshines any competition, it brings in more customers.  When you help your company succeed, everyone benefits.

More good news. A Best and Worst Jobs List released by the Wall Street Journal in January 2010 ranks dietitians 28th out of 200. List is based on five criteria — environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress.

The job market looks great for dietetics, food, nutrition, and culinary fields into the future.  There are jobs.  What professionals instead should focus on is being successful in a job so that the job always exists, never becomes redundant (British term for job no longer needed).   Today, job security is far more than working hard or even harder than others.   Job security is being great at what you do and partnering with your employer for success in the marketplace.  The fastest way to do this, find work in something you excel at, something you are passionate at.  When you are working from within your strengths in an area of passion, it takes less work from you to accomplish things.  Imagine if you worked hard at something you loved, then move over moon and stars — here you come.

Last week I gave a webinar on topic -Chart Your Career: Critical Steps to Getting Places in Your Career. It was wonderful to see a large interest in this topic. When I came graduated from my internship  ‘Career Management’ was emphasized as a well written resume showing off your better qualities and being interview ready. Often this was an equation for having a good shot at the position.  Now, things are so different.  Career management is critical now even if you have a job.  You must not wait until you are out of a job to start managing your career.  The life span of a job is decreasing and never guaranteed, the economy can change up or down, insurance reimbursement can increase or decrease, anything in the environment has potential to change.   The only constant we have is change.

Having a job does not mean security.  Job security is having a career plan, charting your career and at all times working on challenging yourself and taking yourself in the purposeful direction of your strengths, talents, values, and passions.

I like the analogy of life being like the potentially turbulent or calm ocean.  Boats are our careers on the ocean of life.  How are you steering your boat, your career?  Are you up-skilling to be proactive in the current and future marketplace?  Do you have a career vision, goals?  Is your personal brand strong and will it  be able to get you through a storm?  Can you reach out to your contacts and those following you in your tribe to adapt to any marketplace change? Or are you taking things day by day and saying yes to everything that comes along so that you start to get behind and are just barely staying afloat? Do you feel like you are running in circles and your career is not pointed in any direction?

What happens if the waters of life start to get rough – unexpected things happen in your career?

• company downsizing
• company takeover
• insurance bill passes that reduces your take home part
• biggest client has to cancel

Do you stay afloat or does your boat capsize?

With a career plan – called a career portfolio or roadmap, you can stay afloat.  This is not to say you may not get into rough waters or need to take detours or even change your destination goal all together, but you are prepared, full of energy for life, making a difference and feeling valued. You do not say yes to everything, you have priorities defined by your career portfolio.  You pursue opportunities in tune with it so you do not get weighed down or distracted.  Your boat is sturdy and is ready for anything that might come its way.  And most importantly, you have a career purpose and can direct and redirect yourself so you are employed at all times and feel like you are making a difference.  This is career management at its best.