In this post I’m going to share the beginning of my own personal journey to success. I will start by saying that I believe I am still on my journey, and as you will learn, I believe that success is not a destination in the future, but rather our attitude along the way.  We all start somewhere though, and today I want to share with you what started me on my current path.

Rewind to Fall of 2015.  I had a fascination with electrical work and knew that I wanted to do something along those lines. I had also grown up with an electrical engineer as a father and knew that I didn’t want to do his job. I am a very hands-on person, and the thought of sitting at a desk job all day programming sounded awful to me.  I also did not want to be a blue-collar laborer my entire life.  I had no idea what the name of the career was that I was searching for, but I knew the field I wanted to be in was out there. The beginning of my current path- I like to think- had a couple of false starts. 

First, I thought the career that I wanted was to be an electrician, then I thought I wanted to work in maintenance.  But both of these career paths lacked certain aspects that I was searching for. After a lot research and asking questions I finally became aware of the field of controls engineering.  A lot of people aren’t aware of this type of engineering.  I myself didn’t even know it existed until I was talking with a professor one day about how I couldn’t seem to put a name to the job I wanted, and he suggested I look into this field.  Once I started looking into it I soon realized that this is what I had been searching for over the past few years.  This realization is really where I began my current career path. 

I started with taking a two-year technical degree to get my foot in the door as a technician and am just about to finish my bachelor’s degree (which is the final educational requirement to become a controls engineer).  Along the way I have had a couple of set backs and detours, but once I could put a name to my overall goal, I found I have had a lot more success in tailoring my decisions to help me reach it. Ever since I have created this goal in my mind, my ability to advance towards better financial security, personal fulfillment, and overall happiness has increased greatly. I have learned from this experience that it is really important to know what you want to do. A lot of people study different fields of education because they are interested in them but find that they can’t seem to find specifically what they can/want to do within them.

My experience with taking a few years to even identify what it was that I wanted to do has taught me just how important having a clear path in mind is.  If I had known about the controls engineering field a couple years earlier, I would be that much farther along in my career goals. Now, that being said, if it takes a couple years to figure things out, that is okay. The lessons I learned along the way to my beginning truly prepared me to jump right into my training.  Whether it takes 5 months or 5 years to figure out what your career goal is I cannot stress enough how important it is to take the time and put in the effort to ask yourself what you value in a career and then to have the patience to find out what it is.  For some, their dream job may be easy to identify, for others (like myself) it make take a couple of false starts, and asking a bunch of questions, but I promise that your dream career is out there and the beginning of your journey to success starts with you being willing to put in the effort to find what that looks like for you.

A while ago I started thinking about getting a residential journeyman’s license. Which is a similar qualification in a related field to mine but wouldn’t necessarily help me in my current career path. I have gone back and forth on whether I should do it or not. I concluded that even if it didn’t help me in my current career, it would further my qualifications, diversify my experience, and be a good fall back should anything happen at my current job. Also, I just wanted to do it.  It wouldn’t give me a pay raise or promotion in my job but seeing as the investment required isn’t that much (6 months to a year of additional training), I decided that it would personally be worth it, even if it wouldn’t make much of a difference professionally.  I am currently in the process of achieving this goal, and I know I have made a good decision.

There have been other training’s/further education that I have considered that would not have been worth the sacrifice or that would’ve taken my overall focus away from my current career goals.  Luckily, I feel that I have largely avoided wasting a lot of time or resources on these, but this experience has led me to ask myself the question of what makes further training/education worth it? When is it appropriate seek additional learning/experience? And does it always need to be related to your job field to be justified? I will go over a few rules that I have found helpful in deciding whether or not to pursue further education.

Rule #1 – How will this affect your current job/career?

As much as they care about our personal goals, employers are jealous entities.  Companies will often be supportive of someone wanting to go back to school or getting additional certifications, but there is definitely a balance that needs to be struck.  While adding another demand to your life may require you moving around hours or responsibilities at work you should always have the company’s point of view in mind.  Obviously, you should never make your final decision based on the company’s needs, but you should be willing to consider that if your new commitment would interfere with your ability to be a good employee maybe you shouldn’t do it, or if it is still worth it, you should consider quitting and making the new commitment your full time commitment. My point is, if it negatively impacts your good standing at your current job, you need to re-evaluate whether or not it is worth trading for.

Rule #2 – Consider the R.O.I.

There are certain training’s that can have a very quick return on investment (such as a company paid for week long certification workshop that allows you to further your responsibilities at work).  Others (such as my residential journeyman’s license) have a much slower return on investment. Financially, it would be useful in doing side jobs, or as a fall back.  But as far as my current job/career path goes, it really doesn’t impact it that much. So how can I justify this additional training? When considering R.O.I I believe you should not only look at things from financial viewpoint, but a personal one as well.  Of course, this additional training can be justified as me trying to diversify my skillets, but if I’m being honest, a big part of my decision to do it was that after I found out it was possible to do without interfering with my current work, I found that I simply wanted to do it.  Sometimes personal fulfillment is a good enough return for an investment.

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1. Change your attitude. – Keeping a positive attitude is essential in determining success regardless of industry or level of position.  Often, individuals will get hired on at a new job and start with a very positive attitude.  Then, as time goes on, or they encounter difficulties in the workplace, they allow their attitudes to become negative, complacent, or jaded.  This type of change in a person’s viewpoint can greatly affect their job satisfaction, performance at work, and even opportunities for future promotion or success.  We sometimes forget that attitude is often 10% circumstance and 90% what we choose it to be. We will never be able to completely control what happens to us- there will be hard days at work, there will be bosses who frustrate or disrespect us, and sometimes we will not enjoy every part of our job duties- but regardless of whatever circumstances you face, you can always choose to keep a positive attitude. Doing so will put you at a mental advantage so that when tough situations arise you will be able to navigate them much more effectively than someone who allows the situation to control their attitude.

2. Define your Goals– Benjamin Franklin is widely known for stating “A failure to plan, is a plan to fail”.  When considering the future of your professional life it is so important to have clearly defined, attainable, and meaningful goals.  I have run into many people who when I asked about their career goals they sheepishly admit that they don’t really have any or haven’t thought that far ahead. In my own experience I have made it a point to clearly define my career goals with my employers from day one.  In my interview at my current company I told them that while I was being interviewed for a technician job, my goal was to move into an engineering position as soon as possible.  I was very straightforward that I did not want to be a technician for very long, and that in order for me to take that position I would need to know that I at least had a real opportunity of moving into their engineering team once I finished my education.  They agreed, and because I had clearly identified my target goals with them from the beginning, my bosses have been able to treat my time as a technician as a training opportunity to help me prepare for an eventual engineering position. Instead of only being given technician responsibilities, I have continually been given chances to widen my range of knowledge and push my abilities in preparation for eventually moving up.  If they didn’t know that this was part of my aspirations, they wouldn’t feel the need to help me prepare for any else but being a technician, and I know for a fact I would not be given such opportunities.  In my own experience I have learned that by not only having a clearly defined goal for yourself, but also by communicating that goal to your employers, you can set yourself up for great success, because at the end of the day we can’t expect to get something we don’t ask for, or even know that we want. 

3. Know your worth/ Show your worth– People often ask for too much pay, or too little. They don’t accurately represent, or sometimes even know, their value as an employee. When you ask for too much money it sends a message to your employers that you are very focused on money- and not in a positive way.  Greedy proposals are often blatantly disregarded or used as a reason to hire someone else. Companies have a lot of reasons for paying employees what they are worth, but they do not like to overpay someone who does not deserve it. In short, a wage must be justifiable.  When people ask for too little, the company may agree to pay them, but their view of that employee and their expectations of that employee are immediately less because of how little the employee values themselves. They not only miss out on an opportunity to make more money, but they damage their reputation by not showing how much they are worth.  There is a story of a man who made handcrafted canoes built with the upmost care and quality.  He first tried to sell them for a bargain price that allowed him to make a minimal profit and sold nothing.  In frustration he asked a friend what he was doing wrong, and the friend replied that he wasn’t charging enough.  In other words, he was undervaluing his product. This man then turned around and started asking a premium price for his canoes. This new revaluation of his canoes saw immediate success and he started selling his product faster than he could make it.  His canoes are now considered one of the best money can buy and are often fought over at collector galas and auctions. I personally love this story, because it teaches the importance of first knowing your value, and then learning how to show it as well. What he did was send a message to his buyers that if the creator of these canoes values his work so much, then they should too.  You can send this message to your employers by coming prepared with a knowledge of what you are worth.  Obviously, to be successful at this, your value must be believable- a production worker cannot expect that a fair wage for them would be the same as an executive’s.  But what they can do is look up average wages for workers in their same position.  Then, they can think about if they have any special skills or education that set them apart from the average and that might make them more valuable to the company.  From there they can think about what they would be worth generally and come to a decision about what they value themselves as, and what they feel is fair to ask the company to value them at.  At the end of the day knowing/showing your value comes down to two major things. The first is knowing that you are worth something, and that it is not greedy to do the research to know what you are worth.  The second is that a fair wage is a justifiable wage- if the only thing you can justify your asking wage with is the fact that you really want that much money then you probably should be asking for less.

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1. Failing to make long-term goals/create a long-term plan

One of the biggest mistakes I have seen others make when building their careers is failing to think about the future. One coworker of mine so badly wants to succeed in his career, but he’s not willing to make it happen, he’s simply willing to let it happen. This lack of planning and forethought has affected the education he has received, his choice of employment, and even how he performs his current job duties on a daily basis.  He has the desire to succeed but hasn’t created a plan for doing so. He is stuck in his position and will face a lot harder of a time moving upward because he does not have a plan.

When you create a long- term goal/plan for your career it shifts your focus so that every day and every action you take flows into you eventually reaching that goal.  What education you get, the jobs you apply for, the skills you choose to develop along the way, and the even the type of projects you choose to take on are all affected by having your long-term goal in mind. For a successful career this is one of the most essential shifts of mindset you could have.  

2. Being complacent

Another pitfall that I have seen others fall into when building a career is becoming complacent. Now, before I continue I need to say that comfortable and complacent are two different things. Getting good at a position and staying for a few years to build experience is a good thing. Loving the job you do and sticking with it is not being complacent. Complacency happens when you stop progressing.  It happens when you mentally limit how far you can go. It often comes from feelings of fear, laziness, or lack of confidence. If you are not happy with where you are at then change it.  It may take time, it may take effort, but it is worth it.  One of the biggest things we do stop our own success is to convince ourselves we can’t achieve it even before we try.  Like the age old saying goes “He who says he can and he who says he can’t are both usually right”.   

3.  Not doing your homework

The final thing that people often fail at in building their careers is failing to do their homework. This encompasses knowing what qualifications are necessary to enter into a field, what educational routes can set you up for the best success, knowing about potential employers within your field, and researching technical aspects of your career such as the average pay for your positions, the growth of your market, etc. Taking time to learn these things not only helps you make better decisions in education and employment, but it also sets you up to better negotiate and apply for jobs and promotions by showing that you have a knowledge about the field.

J.T. O’Donnell from Work it Daily is one of my favorite Youtubers that gives career advice.  If you want to see more of her videos you can follow her page HERE.  In this particular video that I am sharing she briefly gives advice to viewers on how to act in an interview generally, but mostly she focuses on the question “How do I respond when I am asked ‘Why do you want this job?’”.

 She offers some great insight into why hiring managers ask this question in the first place, 3 things they are trying to figure out about the interviewee, and some pit falls interviewees often fall into.  Finally, she shares what you should say in response to the question.

She shares that this question is an opportunity to show the employer how much you respect and admire them, as well as what they will get from you as an employee.  This is an opportunity to share what she calls your “emotional connection” to the job and show the employer why you would be more qualified, dedicated to, or better suited for the position than others.

I feel every potential employee should be prepared to answer that question effectively if they are serious about their career. It is often an unutilized opportunity to let yourself shine and stand out from the other applicants.  It is also an opportunity for you to shift the conversation to really whatever you want.  You can learn to answer this question in a way that helps you highlight your strengths, ambitions, and to connect with the interviewer on a more personal level. It is in your favor to leave an interview with the interviewer knowing your name and something specific to you. You never want them to have to go back and read you resume to remember who you were.

As a final thought, I will give a quick warning. You never want to overshare personal information- and this applies to every meeting from job interviews to raise negotiations to job performance evaluations.  You need to speak their language.  It’s a hard balance to strike, but it is essential that while you learn how to effectively open up and share a bit of who you are you must always keep it professional. Interviewers are not you counselor, best friend, or mom so save water works, or long drawn out stories, and keep your answers on point and on topic. There is nothing worse for an interviewer than when an applicant starts rambling.  They want to get to know you as an employee- not your life story. So, there you have it- the secret to nailing your answer every time you are asked “Why do you want this job?” Watch her video and let me know what you think! Feel free to share any personal experiences you have had with this question being asked in interviews, or any other questions you might have! I love feedback so also let me know if this post was helpful or not! As always, I hope you all enjoy your journey to success.