I Didn’t Come Here to Sit Back

I struggle with carving out a place of my own when starting a new job or joining a new team, because many dynamics are already established. I don’t feel like I belong at work until people are trusting me to get things done on my own, or I’m doing those little things that make people take notice.

Oprah says, “When you do well, people notice,” and oh do we want to be noticed – to be validated. The question always is, how do I get noticed?

It seems to take patience. Patience with yourself that your career is a jog and not a sprint. Patience with the idea that opportunity will appear if you’re preparing for. But preparation requires having your eyes wide open, and your ears perked, because opportunity can be quickly missed.

Working in public relations, there seems to be three reactive situations that breed opportunity. 1.) A teammate is overloaded with tasks to complete. 2.) Anyone with seniority is away from work. 3.) The client makes a small ask that not someone may not act on.

The key is to leveraging these opportunities is that we have to step up to take over a task, step in to lighten someone’s load and/or step forward with progress related to a client ask.

This often means carving out special time to get whatever the assignment is done. But I find it work it when I know I just propelled my career a little forward.

I didn’t move to New York and start a new job just sit to sit back, and you didn’t make moves in your career to either. Look and act on opportunity.

Now Listening: Sia – Opportunity

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