New Things
Recently I've started a couple of new things, and they have both reminded me how uncomfortable it feels to fail at something, make mistakes, or not learn as quickly as we would like to. As we move ahead in our careers and our lives, we all get into routines. Many of us are doing things that we've now done so much that it's an easy routine. When we start something new — and changing jobs or even just interviewing for jobs falls into that category — it can be very uncomfortable.
In the strength training that I'm doing, I'm learning all kinds of things that are new to me. Luckily, I have a very patient and kind person — a professional — helping me. When I ask for the tenth time for clarification, she never looks annoyed. My son reminded me that my brain is activating all kinds of new neural pathways as I learn physical things I've not asked my body to do before. I need to be as patient with myself as the person training me is!
In the part-time work I'm doing for a small nonprofit, I'm learning a whole new CRM system. While it's intuitive, there are days I feel just silly for not catching on more quickly how to access data. But when I spend a little time and learn the process, I'm pleased with the outcome. Just because something isn't obvious and easy at first doesn't mean it won't be soon. Patience again wins out.
As you jump into a job search, it may feel overwhelming. Technology changes so quickly that you may look at LinkedIn for the first time in several years and feel lost. Where to start?
· Do one thing. Update your LinkedIn profile first. Make sure everything is current and make sure you have a good first look — a summary at the top, your education added, your most current work included. In newspaper language (and I know some people still read paper copies), you want the information "above the fold" to be clear and compelling.
· Be patient. See my comments above. This is often the hardest part. If we haven't learned something big in a long time, we might have forgotten what it feels like when we're in the newbie stage.
· If you fail at something, take that as a data point not an ending point. I have a good friend who is a smart educator and she said something to me when we were talking about AI recently. What AI does really well, my friend said, is to take a failure and learn from it and move on. It doesn't abandon the problem, but it looks for better ways. As humans, we're often crushed by failure and we abandon an effort without looking for a more effective process. Don't give up just because you fail.
