What I am Thankful for Professionally
Happy Thanksgiving kids. I decided I would write a piece about what I am thankful for professionally this Thanksgiving. It has been a wild ride to get to where I am currently but this holiday has given me time to reflect on my personal and professional blessings.
First thing I want to acknowledge is my new career coach. I have had my fair share of people helping me on my road to success but she is the newest addition to my metaphorical corner. My last career coach was not someone who I gelled with. His pointers tended to reside on spamming people on Linkedin and hope someone decides to help you. If any of you have read my blog on networking, you would know this is not a style I endorse. This is not meant to be a piece to bash him but I think it is fair to compare the upgrade I have gotten within the last month. The advice she has been giving me is to learn more about myself. I wouldn’t say I was skeptical about this advice but I wasn’t sure how this would help. I kept and open mind with her advice and I learned a lot more about how to put into words how I think. You may be thinking “How would this help you in your job search?” I have to be honest, I wasn’t quite sure either. Since I have taken a couple personality assessments, I have found it is easier and more natural to talk about how my brain works and sell that to potential employers. I got practice at this just yesterday. If you are curious, check out this link. She has really helped me hone my skills in conveying who I am and I couldn’t be more thankful for that and her.
I should also talk about how thankful I am for my hospitality jobs at the moment. This may sound silly but as I have touched on in my previous blogs, bartending and serving can be a great networking tool. Since I had written that, I found myself with a part time tech gig from a regular of mine at a jazz club I bartend at. After hitting it off, we got to talking about my story and I got to talk about my journey into software engineering. He got to know me a bit more and let me know that he runs a software engineering company and though the work I am doing is not in my speciality, I am learning new skills and growing my personal connections in the field. I couldn’t have made this connection without my bartending gig. Recently, I have also met two HR employees at tech firms. Even if those don’t lead to a job immediately, it is giving me great insight on how to connect with people in charge of hiring who may not be tech people. These two things aren’t the only things I am thankful for though.
Lastly, I am extremely thankful for the risk I took over a year ago. I have not reached the milestone that I set out for but I see the work I am putting in every week getting me closer and closer to that goal. I enjoy sharing this journey in my blog, it makes it feel like I am writing a journal while I am on a ship sailing to my new home. I have been on this ship for over a year but I have faith that I am going in the right direction and I look forward to looking back on this blog in a year and see how far I have come. Happy Thanksgiving to you and I hope you have a chance to reflect on how lucky you may be even if things aren’t ideal at the moment.
