#3 - Bird by Bird
Hello,
Here is your weekly dose of ideas for a better career. I hope you find something that resonates with you, sparks actionand brings you value and joy.
If you missed last week’s edition - how to figure out the real job-to-be-done of your job, how to measure your life, and 3 things no money in the world can buy - you can catch up right here.
New Article
Interview Tips: How to Describe Your Achievements Actions speak louder than words. And if you have only words, use action verbs. This week, in a debriefing after a mock interview with my guest, we spent time discussing how we can better present our key achievements. How not to sound bleak, boring or vague. How to present one's accomplishments in a way that is both relevant and engaging. In this article:
The right mindset to reflect on your achievements
The ARCH model to describe your achievements
A tip for hiring managers: right action verbs are more important than the "right stuff"
Solutions when your achievements seem impossible to quantify.
A Book Recommendation
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott. It strikes me how good advice about writing is relevant for someone in a career transition. Bias for action, short assignments, shitty first drafts, perfectionism as your enemy, mess as your best friend, calming down the 'KFKD radio' in your head - these and other ideas will strike the chord if you are writing a new chapter in your professional life. This book is among the best on writing and life.
More Ideas and Inspiration
Designing Your Work Life - IDEO U podcast with Bill Burnett. This podcast is about applying the principles of Design Thinking to your work. Its motto? Don't Resign, Redesign. "Get curious, talk to people, try stuff, tell your story. The first step to increasing your job satisfaction is understanding what drives it. Many people are held up by dysfunctional beliefs—the trade-off between money and meaning, for example. If you believe that you can either make lots of money or find meaning in your work (but not both), it can feel like a zero sum game with no solution. But that’s not actually the case. We get paid for the things we do in three ways: money, impact, and expression. This is our Maker Mix. Assess your current Maker Mix, design your ideal mix and look beyond your work to other areas of your life. You have a lot more options than you might think you do. Your ideal mix creates a target. Now, start prototyping into that target by doing small tests to see what works." Listen to this podcast to learn about four strategies for redesigning your current job to be a better fit.
Love in the times of Corona virus. From Singapore, where life still looks pretty normal despite alert level up to orange and several worrying new cases, it's hard to imagine how it feels to be in Mainland China in these extraordinary times. Amidst a never-ending flow of news, real and fake, and stories of grief and courage, this post written by a friend in Beijing went straight to my heart. No one really knows how long it will take to go back to "normal" and whether the peak is at sight. But we have faith, love and hope.
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Stay healthy and kind, and have a great week ahead,
Arina