E10: Creating a job you love
with author and career coach Becca Carnahan
Key Takeways
Seeing my kids start to learn and explore and appreciate the world in their own way. I was like, you know what? I haven't taken a pause to figure out what kind of work actually gives me the most energy. What am I most excited about in my day to day?
When I started talking with other moms, sitting around in the playground about what they were doing for work. And oftentimes it came up that they were at inflection points, trying to figure out what they wanted to do next in their career. I want to use my experience in career development to help his other moms who were pretty much like myself to figure out their next steps.
The whole job search process is stressful. Let alone doing the work of figuring out what it is you actually want to do.. I wanted to come at that subject from a place of humor and joy and something that felt relatable. So I pulled in stories from parenthood, a lot of toddler stories.
Job crafting is basically where you make the job you have into the job you want, and it's been shown to really help with job satisfaction and burnout.
As I got more experienced and was doing the job for longer, I was able to find more efficiencies, carve out some more time as part of my day to take on some additional writing projects, to work with our marketing department here and there, to brainstorm with other groups, get pulled into different meetings. If I hadn't raised my hand and said, I want to do more creative work and share that with my manager and share that with other people in my office, they would have never thought to pull me into those meetings or to ask my opinion on this.
So I wanted to make sure the time that I was spending away from my kids at work was the most enjoyable and fulfilling it could be.
So when I think about job crafting for other people, I do think it starts with the self-evaluation piece understanding what kind of work gives you energy rather than draining from you? That's a big question. And then how can you relate that back to your day job? There might be something there that you haven't thought of before, about how you can contribute in a different way. And that can be a launchpad to an entirely new career, or it could just be more happiness in your current job and finding a new way to love the job that you're actually in, rather than needing to go find something different.
There was definitely times that I was very overwhelmed and needed to just to have a good cry and be like, all right, press the reset button. I think allowing myself to feel the emotion of it to not try to push it down.
One thing I think that has helped on the home front to keep burnout at bay is thinking about what I could outsource looking at my time, seeing how was I spending my time and where could I find extra pockets of time?
Other things that I think I do now to just take care of myself are blocking off time in my calendar. Setting up those meetings with myself has actually also really helped to give me a sense of control. Cause when I feel it, when I feel in control, I feel like I'm less likely to burn out.
I’m a people please so it's easier for me to put time boundaries on a calendar with technology than it is for me to say that out loud. And then if I need to be a little bit flexible outside of that I don't need to be flexible outside of it all the time, which I think is helpful.
Confidence, accountability and clarity are key coaching issues for working moms.
I think part of it is having open conversations around career development is a big one. Having your managers be well-trained in talking with folks about their fulfillment and work and how can we help them tap into their best potential at work. Having managers who are well attuned to understanding that people have work and life needs, so that people can talk to managers about things that are going on, that they don't have to feel like they need to be someone different at work than they are in other parts of their lives.
I talk about empathy and creativity and problem-solving. And being flexible, adaptable and there are a lot of skills that are certainly honed after becoming a parent. There are a lot of things that you're doing on a daily basis that have sharpened up some skills that you can use in the workforce.
I just think if more people embrace what they're great at, more companies ask those questions and then supported those people as whole people. Then the organizations that make up our society are going to thrive and then the people will thrive as well. I think there's this big circle of people supporting each other as whole human beings that can make people happier. And if we can be happier that's that for me is a big goal in itself.
Bio
Becca Carnahan is a career coach, author, and mom from Massachusetts. She is the founder of Becca Carnahan Career Coaching & Communications where she specializes in helping mid-career professionals find more joy and fulfillment in their work. She also writes and manages the working mom blog, With Love Becca, which helps women manage motherhood, manage careers, and manage to laugh through it all. Becca gained her expertise in the career development field over a 13 year career at Harvard Business School, where she still works as a career coach, and while earning her Masters Degree in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In addition to her career coaching work, Becca is also the author of Belinda Baloney Changes Her Mind, a fun and inspiring “when I grow up” children’s book and When Mommy Grows Up: A Guide to Parenting Yourself to a More Fulfilling Career.
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