Uniqueness is in the non-linear
As I spend more time openly communicating what I think about and how I see and understanding things, I find myself often referring to my professional and personal experiences.
Like I had written in another post, I have done things upside down. Instead of sticking on a linear path, I experimented. It seemed the most logical thing to do.
Did you actually know, really know, what you wanted to be doing for your career, how you wanted to be spending your life working? Do we actually know what being an executive associate means? Or a doctor, or an account manager? All these titles don’t really mean anything until you actually do them. And job descriptions don’t do anything to explain.
I believe in the importance of experimenting, of seeing what else is out there that can be useful. I think this approach is reflective in how I saw the world as a child and why I went into international relations. I always believed that the strength is in pooling together knowledge, experience and, understanding of how others have done something and see how it can be helpful and applicable for something else or similar. I think we all can relate to how beneficial our diverse experiences are in how we see, understand and do things and how we have used them.
Here are some examples:
As a personal trainer I understand the importance of physical well-being and its link to mental well-being. But most importantly I understand behaviours, that of habits and triggers (the connection between what someone says and what they actually do). This is significant if we want to make changes.
As an English language teacher I understand how to communicate and explain one thing in multiple ways. I know from experience that what you say will be understood in different ways by others and thus it is important to be able to communicate so that all understand.
As a retail and bar manager I know customer service, I understand how people want to feel. I know how to build relations. I also understand what it means to own and run a business.
As a policy analyst I can gather information that is vast and diverse and provide a picture of what is going on. I can identify information that is significant.
As a (failed) entrepreneur I understand what goes into this work. The ups and the downs, the big picture and the details. The wearing of all the hats from development, to content, to event planning, to community building.
As a consultant/advisor the strength is being an outsider. Providing that sounding board, being the listener as well as the thought challenger.
And what about those jobs I don’t list on my resume?
I worked in a call centre one summer and from that I have understood what it’s like to be on both sides of the phone. This brings compassion when I have to call a centre for assistance. I can visualise how they are set up, I understand when the systems freezes and that it takes time to read a clients file whilst the client is talking to you. All of those nuances I get it.
I worked in a hotel for a few months, which has had incredible rewards. Not only customer service but I understand the complexity of running a hotel. With this brings me compassion as a guest whenever I am at a hotel.
I am curious. I take jobs that help me better understand an industry. For example, the reason I worked at a hotel is because I want to one day open a small hotel and the best way to (a) know if this is what I want and (b) understand how it works, is to actually try it out.
I believe we need to encourage experiments. We need to encourage curiosity as the best way to better understand and be aware. We need to look beyond job titles and at what was required to do the job and what was learned from it. And what about all those personal experiences? These too are examples of how I person manages, organises, thinks, and makes things happen. Often the solutions are not where you think they are but somewhere else.
