Bloom Where You’re Planted

by Nick Waleszonia

Is your job growing stale? Has you work become a daily grind? Are your technical communication skills and contributions under-appreciated? If your answers to these questions are yes, well, maybe it’s time for a career change. But, changing your career does not have to mean changing jobs. It may only mean improving your current position.

The topic of the latest STC meeting (in February - editor)was growing your career in your current position, or as the speaker Mike Lynch put it, “blooming where you’re planted.” Mike, the VP of Career Coaching for Centennial, Inc., began his discussion by focusing on career goals. He sees three steps required to outline your career goals, which are (1) take stock in where you are, (2) talk to other people about yourself, and (3) create a vision for yourself.

First, taking stock in where you are requires that you ask yourself a series of questions like “What’s your level of responsibility and involvement in your work?”, “What are the key skills that your company wants you to have?”, and “How are you performing in your current position?” The key to answering these questions is honesty because, as Mike stated, a career change often occurs when we are not happy with our current position. So, we must be honest with ourselves to determine if we are stagnating in a position that promises little opportunity for growth, or if we are merely idling in a comfortable position and letting opportunities pass us by. In either case, honest, introspective answers will help us determine our current position and what we should do next.

Mike then told the attending technical communicators that, after a good session of introspection, we should ask others how they perceive us. Mike stated that we should ask a boss, co-worker, and/or even a spouse a series of questions about ourselves to get them to paint a picture of our working personalities. Namely, we should ask others what they perceive as our strengths, weaknesses, and, most importantly, our passions. Understanding others’ perception of us is important because there is often a difference between how we are perceived and how we perceive ourselves; an outside eye can often spot aspects of our own personality that we would never notice. Also, aspects of our working personality like our passions are often very clear to others, and being aware of them may help us learn what we should be doing at work, as opposed to what we are doing.

The third step in outlining career goals is to create a vision for yourself. Mike suggested that we gather all the knowledge we gained from asking ourselves and others questions and then define the skills that we want to use. Mike also stated the importance of knowing the job scenario for any career goal we set; we should know what skill sets are in demand, what jobs are the least likely to get outsourced, and what industries are expanding.

Mike then shifted his focus from planning your career goals to increasing your importance within an organization. With the threat of outsourcing or layoffs lingering in the background, technical communicators should always be aware of the value they add to their organization. Being aware of the value we add to an organization does not just mean knowing the projects we have worked on. It also means knowing the results of the projects we have worked on and the actual positive contributions we have made for our organization’s success. For Mike, this mindset is the difference between coming to work everyday and doing your job well – which is what most technical communicators do, and coming to work, doing your job well, and helping in other areas, outside of technical communication. This extra effort to add value to an organization is the key to job security.

Mike then discussed some strategies that technical communicators can use to display their value within an organization. The first is to regularly talk with management about your contributions throughout the year – don’t wait until a year-end review to discuss what you have done. Second, develop a reputation as someone who has solutions rather than problems. Again, the more you contribute in different areas within an organization, the more you will be perceived as valuable. Third, when preparing for a year-end review, write a Situation Opportunity Action Results (SOAR) narrative about several projects on which you have worked. A SOAR narrative will help you outline not just what you’ve done, but also the positive results of your work. Remember, the more aware you are of the value you add to an organization, the more others (especially management) will notice it as well.