555: How to Create Your Ideal Role Within Your Current Company

Learn how Laura created her ideal role within her organization by figuring out what she wanted, networking internally, and having bold, transparent conversations with leadership

Listen

Guest

Laura Parker , Lead Customer Account Manager

Laura made the switch from law to technology but still found herself struggling to enjoy her career.

on this episode

If your ideal role doesn’t exist, it may be up to you to create it!

It’s all about figuring out exactly what you want and need out of your career, and then asking for it.

After working in law for 12 years, Laura decided to make a big career change and began working in a brand new industry, technology. However, 2 years into her technology career, her role was no longer fulfilling her.

She began to consider what she needed to change — did she need another complete career change? What she soon realized was that she was enjoying the technology industry, and even working for her organization, but she was not enjoying the duties that came with her role.

The work that had to be done was figuring out what she needed to feel fulfilled at work, and what was missing from her current role? That’s when she reached out to us! She began working with a career coach to gain clarity around what she wanted and needed out of her career.

Laura soon realized that her career change goal could be to find a new role that fit her much better within the same company, so she bravely approached leadership about making a change.

Her company’s response was supportive, but they asked her to figure out a role she would be interested in moving to, which proved to be challenging for Laura.

“My issue was, I know about all the jobs that exist, I don’t know what future jobs people might be thinking about creating. So I was struggling, I didn’t think I wanted to do any of the jobs that I sort of saw existed that people I interacted with regularly.”

Luckily, she knew coworkers who had changed positions internally so she began networking with them to fiugre out how they did it. She also began reaching out to colleagues across different branches and countries, trying to find a department that resonated with the work she wanted to be doing.

“I started getting in touch with people in departments that I thought I might want to work in. We’re not very big in London here, you know, there’s only about 14 years now. So I was contacting people in our San Francisco, Melbourne, New York offices. And just they were people who who would either shifted roles quite significant. And I wanted to find out how they’ve done that. Or they were people, as I say, who were in departments that I thought maybe I’d be interested in working in.”

Through this networking, Laura found a department she was excited about, and began working with leadership to create a role within it!

Laura’s story shows the potential for creating a customized role that aligns with everything you want and need out of a career. It highlights the adaptability and openness of forward-thinking companies, and most importantly proves that it is possible to create your very own ideal role.

”Look at what you can control and start working on on those pieces. A lot of it you can’t control but there are bits you can and that’s where do you need to focus your efforts”

What you’ll learn

  • How to be transparent and effectively communicate with leadership about your need for change
  • The significance of internal networking to discover potential roles within your company
  • Why gaining clarity around what you want and need out of your career should be the first step you take
  • How to navigate an internal change within a company

Success Stories

All the stars aligned and I ended up finding the right thing at the right place at the right time, and it was you guys! Everything that you said was speaking to me and the things that you had done in the job that you had transitioned out of and into. Also how finding work that you love is your passion for people! Honestly, it was you Scott, I mean, the way that you talked about it, how passionate you were, I was like, there's no way he's gonna put out a faulty product. So I'm gonna try it, you know… I recommend you to all my friends, you know, even if they don't realize that they're looking for a new job, I'm like this is the first step, let's do this! Even if you maybe don't move out of this career. This is going to help!

Maggie Romanovich, Director of Learning and Development, United States/Canada

My favorite part was focusing on the signature strengths. I really liked that concept and hadn't heard it before. I realize I'll never be a singer or a triathlete… Then focusing on what it is that I really want to do. I also liked that both of you were pretty transparent with your stories regarding career and finances. That is always uplifting, knowing you speak from experience.

Lily Kreitlinger, Senior Instructional Designer, United States/Canada

Laura Parker 00:01

I just noticed it really wasn't paying to my strengths, it was taking up a lot of mental energy because I was having to re-adjust actually some of my baseline values to a certain extent, and it was exhausting.

Introduction 00:20

This is the Happen To Your Career podcast with Scott Anthony Barlow. We hope you stop doing work that doesn't fit you. Figure out what does and make it happen. We help you define the work that is unapologetically you, and then go get it. If you feel like you were meant for more, and you're ready to make a change, keep listening. Here's Scott. Here's Scott. Here's Scott.

Scott Anthony Barlow 00:45

One of the things that we've noticed behind the scenes here at HTYC is that so many people go through this same cycle again and again. They try a bunch of traditional job search methods, and then they get a role, then they don't see lasting results. Usually, they start out really excited about their new role, and then at some point, start realizing that something's off. Sometimes the role or company doesn't match their values. Sometimes the role doesn't match their strengths. There's a billion different things that they realize that they haven't considered when they get into that new role.

Laura Parker 01:22

The response back from the business was, "Well, you need to tell us what you want to do if it's not this." And my issue was, I know about all the jobs that exist. I don't know what future jobs people might be thinking about creating. So I was struggling. I didn't think I wanted to do any of the jobs that I sort of saw existed, the people I interacted with regularly.

Scott Anthony Barlow 01:44

That's Laura Parker. She used to work for a global law firm for 12 years. And then she made a change to this technology company two years ago. It didn't take her long for her to realize that she needed to make another change. And that's where she found this podcast. But hold on, I'm getting ahead of her story here, we need to jump back first and see why she needed to leave that law firm in the first place.

Laura Parker 02:05

Before joining this technology company, I had spent about 12 years working predominantly for one global law firm, and I had a variety of roles, I had the opportunity to go to Hong Kong with them for a couple of years. But I knew after I got back from Hong Kong, which was probably about four years ago now, that I was going to need a new environment, a new working, a new role. I knew I wanted to lead professional services, anyone who works in professional services will probably understand where I'm coming from. But partnerships are their very own special working environments. And for me, they have some frustrations after being in that sector for 12 years. For example, it's quite hard to get partners to make decisions. They will call it a collaborative environment. But it's quite difficult because typically no one person has leadership. So you can end up sort of analysis paralysis by analysis type situation. And after being in that type of environment, trying to create change for that period of time, I knew that I had to move on to really stretch myself and work in a different environment that was more empowering. There were lots of specifics as to what I thought I wanted to do in a new job, I wanted to move to a smaller, more nimble company, more agile. I was interested in trying to move into technology just because I thought, for no particular scientific reason, I just thought it would be a good thing to move to in today's world. I wanted to get a bit more back on the frontline of sales, which I haven't been working in partnerships, you don't really sell in the way that you do when you're selling a product. So I wanted to get back on the frontline and sales. So I had quite a lot of criteria that I was looking for when I made the move. But essentially, I just knew I needed to be in a different, more empowering environment. But it took me a long time, I was probably looking for another job for probably about two years, actually, before I found this one. It was very hard to move industries. I didn't know any other recruiters beyond the legal and professional services environment. It was quite a hard piece of work.

Scott Anthony Barlow 04:12

So you worked for around two years to make that change, which was coincidentally also about two years ago. And then, you did all this work, and all this effort made the change, and then somewhere along the way found that you wanted to make another shift. Tell me about that.

Laura Parker 04:35

My experience in the law firms have been looking after or managing the largest clients. So most recently, it was investment bank clients. Most of them were worth about between 1 and $10 million to the law firm. And when I was offered the role here I was offered the opportunity to manage and upsell to the largest customers at the time in the EMEA region. What happened was, though that by the time I'd done my notice period which in the UK, you know, for senior people, it's typically around three months. By the time I'd worked my three-month notice period at the law firm when I joined here, the team that I was meant to join looking after the largest customers no longer existed, they made a decision to disband it. So my role ended up being looking after hundreds of customers, you know, I've had nearly 150 at one point and trying to sell to those customers. And that after probably about 12 months, I just noticed, it really wasn't paying to my strengths. It was taking up a lot of mental energy because I was having to re-adjust, actually some of my baseline values to a certain extent, and it was exhausting. And I just thought this is not what I want to be doing. As I said, I was a bit frustrated to find myself in that position so soon after making a big career shift. But that was where I was, and I really wanted to own it and do something to improve my situation, but that I owned,

Scott Anthony Barlow 06:02

I think that's a place where a lot of people find themselves. And I'm a little biased because we run a company where people find us when they want to make career changes. But often, when we get to interact with a variety of people around the world, they are in a similar position to what you experienced where you decided, "Okay, this is not working" and that working with the global law firm, and in that industry, that area, wasn't working for all of these different reasons. It wasn't the right type of collaboration, etc. And then you did all of this work, all this effort, which is pretty awesome, to make a change, knowing that you needed a few different pieces. And then you got to the new role, which again, kudos to you for doing something about it and owning it, as you said, and then you realize that there were some other pieces that you maybe hadn't necessarily considered, like, I heard you say something about, you know, some of my baseline values weren't adding up in the way that I wanted them to. So what would be an example of that?

Laura Parker 07:09

The main example that comes to mind is when you've got targets, and you've got a large customer base to try and sell to, to reach those targets, it feels very transactional in nature. And that is not what I had spent 12 years doing beforehand. My strengths, and I guess my values, aligned to really building relationships for the long term, bringing value to people, understanding what they value, and then figuring out how I can bring that to their table. And I just didn't have the opportunity to do that when I had to try and keep in touch with 150 different customers, and try and tell to them, it was just very transactional. And that, it meant I was turning up on phone calls without... I was used to knowing everything that went on in the customers I had before, probably more than the partners. And that wasn't the case here. I was sort of having to be dropped in without having done research, without having had the time to sit down and talk to people, without really potentially ever having met people before on the customer side, that was probably the prime example of where I thought this just isn't sitting well with how I want to operate. It's just that the job. It wasn't, you know, there were plenty of people out there that will love that sort of moving fast pace, moving from customer to customer, but it just didn't fit well with me.

Scott Anthony Barlow 08:22

Well, then it sounds like for you, for you to get the most out of your role, and work, you need to have a continuous relationship, for lack of a better phrase, and that continuous collaboration, and that know what's going on. And that is much more fulfilling for you, I'm guessing, shot in the dark, than the parachuting in and making the sale.

Laura Parker 08:45

Yes. Absolutely. I love the wind of a sale. I do love getting those signatures on the dotted line but I want to do it because we found a solution that really works for that customer. And because we're going to help that customer's business and we're going to help our stakeholders look good, feel good, do their job better. And for me, that just means I prefer to spend more time understanding what that looks like for as many people as I can.

Scott Anthony Barlow 09:10

Very cool. That's amazing that you know that about yourself. So my question then becomes, at what point did you decide, "Okay, you know, I did all this work, I now recognize that I need to make a different shift in one way or another" what transpired to have you say that, "Okay, now's the time."?

Laura Parker 09:30

I mean, I knew it probably after about nine months. We're very quarterly target-driven business. So I'm thinking in quarters. How many quarters I miss my target and why I was missing my target. So after about three quarters, I was thinking, it had been a really steep learning curve, and I completely underestimated that but I've done learning curves in the past, I have moved industries, most jobs I've had have moved me from industry to industry, but this was a really steep learning curve. So I found that quite difficult. But by then the fact that I wasn't paying to my strengths. So I was probably about nine months in, and I did have conversations with my manager. I mean, I think, the manager does play a role in these conversations. And if you've got a great one, then you really need to leverage them. So I was being open. But the response back from the business was, "Well, you need to tell us what you want to do if it's not this." And my issue was, I know about all the jobs that exist, I don't know what future jobs people might be thinking about creating. So I was struggling. I didn't think I wanted to do any of the jobs that I sort of saw existed, the people I interacted with regularly. I was struggling to think, "Well, what's the new job that I might do?" And I started talking to people, but actually, then I got put onto your podcast by a colleague. And that sort of set me on a fantastic path.

Scott Anthony Barlow 10:51

Well, I'm so glad that your colleagues set you in the direction of our podcasts because it turns out very well in the end. But I'm curious, when you started down that direction after you found the podcast, what happened next?

Laura Parker 11:06

I listened to a few episodes of the podcast. And then I think it was literally at the end of one of the podcasts, I think you say, "You know, you can email me if you have any questions." And I just thought how, or I argued this email thing ago, let's see what really happens. And you replied. And I was like, "Wow, this really exists." And then it all happened quite quickly. I had an initial call, I can't remember who it was, sorry. But he was asking some great questions about my situation and what I thought I wanted to do. And then that sort of got me on to the career change bootcamp program. And I just thought, you know, it was quite a lot of money upfront, but I thought I had been, for me, damaging careers situations in my 20s. And my dad had happened to me twice before, and I've managed to get out of them. And I promised myself, I'd never let that happen again, because I know how damaging is it takes a long time to build up your confidence when being shaken. You know, you can lose your confidence very quickly. And then it takes a lot longer to build that backup. And I really didn't... I really wanted to try and nip this in the bud this time. My competence was struggling after that sort of nine-month period I mentioned. So I couldn't believe that I was in this situation. But I thought I just need to really do something quite, drastic the wrong word, but what I wanted to do was have something that would do something and own something that had longevity. And that's what I've loved about the program is that I know I've got access to these resources forever. And the coaching sessions have been amazing. And they've really helped me understand things about myself that I hadn't been able to piece together before. But even so, notwithstanding that, just having access to the resources and the worksheets has really helped me create an environment that is feel sustainable. They all happen quite quickly. Once I had that initial conversation, I thought, "No, I am going to put my money where my mouth is. I'm going to do this program. And I'm going to make it work so that I don't keep finding myself in this." You know, I'm in my early 40s now, so that's why I kind of couldn't believe that 20 years on, I'm back in a position I remember being in many years ago.

Scott Anthony Barlow 13:11

So share with us what, at this point, has happened? Because as you said, for you it has moved rather quickly. But what are you getting to do right now? Because you're in a state of transition, right?

Laura Parker 13:25

Yes. I kicked off the career change bootcamp and was quite religious about that. Set up my coaching sessions, did all the pre-work, and I blocked the timeout, you know, make the time to do it all. So that was all sort of following the process. At the same time, what I had decided to own as well was start talking to other people around the business here to find out and quite a few people here have changed roles, like significantly change from department to department. And I started a couple of people in the London office had done that. So I started talking to them about how they have done that. And the common theme was, being clear with your manager that you want to move, but also going out to the business and finding out what's going on and bits that you don't know about, parts of business you don't know about so that you can actually come up with some options. So that's what I did. I started getting in touch with senior people, not so senior people, people in departments that I thought I might want to work in. We're not very big in London here, you know, there's only about 14 of us now. So I was contacting people in our San Francisco, Melbourne, New York offices. And they were people who were either shifted roles quite significant, and I wanted to find out how they've done that. All were people ever say who were in departments that I thought maybe I'd be interested in working in, or there were all just quite senior people that have a broad scope of what's going on. They see more broadly what's going on than I was so I could get their take as to what they thought the challenges in the business were, went some extra effort would be valued. And I had all those conversations, I worked through what my questions were going to be that I was asking them. So I kept the same questions for everybody. So that allowed me to have some things coming out from all those conversations, so I could spot patterns and actually come up with a plan and not just have lots of random bits of information that didn't connect. So I got some really great intelligence from that. And it was through those conversations, plus all the career change bootcamp stuff to help me really understand what my strengths were, that allowed me to design, essentially, I've designed a job for myself here. I took that to... My manager was great that he supported me in getting that up to the leadership. And where I'm at now is leadership bought into it, they didn't want it to be a sort of all-in right now. So that's the transition point. Also, because I do carry a target, and we have investors who care about revenues. So I can appreciate that there's a bit of a business imperative for me trying to keep bringing in some of the revenue that I'm targeted for, but they have dropped my revenue target by 20% to allow me to spend 20% of my time on the new role sort of scoping it out. And then I know they've created a backfill for they're starting the process for having a backfill for me in the summer.

Scott Anthony Barlow 16:20

Okay, so in that 20% and the role that you're shifting to, what do you get to do?

Laura Parker 16:26

So right now, a couple of key things have happened, I was an off-site in our San Francisco office for a group of people that are quite instrumental. So the role I scoped out does involve supporting our largest customers, you won't be surprised to hear, we have about 80 of those across the whole business. And we have a group of four people that are responsible for kind of delivering our product to that customer. Those four people had an off-site last week in San Francisco. So I went to that off-site and wouldn't have been able to contribute to that. And part of my role will be to start to understand, at the moment, all four of them is kind of treating that role a little bit differently, the delivering different things in different ways to the customers. So we're trying to bring some standardization to then allow people to flex where they need to, but where we're kind of starting from a bit more of a more standard approach. So that was one thing that I've kicked off. And then other than that, the main thing I'm doing for the rest of this quarter, and again, I've really been very clear as to how many days this quarter, the 20% means I can contribute, you know, that helps set expectations and help people not expect too much for me or me expect too much for myself. So with the time taken in San Francisco, I mapped out how many other days I had left. And I'm using those days to start connecting to other people with this new hat on to see what they think the value that I could bring in this new role and what challenges they've got that they'd like some extra resource and support around. So I'm on a bit of a fact-finding mission for that until the end of March, for sure, initially.

Scott Anthony Barlow 18:05

How would you describe some of your strengths and how they fit into this new role? Which I understand this role doesn't have a name yet, and honestly, I think that it might be easier if a lot of different roles have a name and we've just focused on what they actually do and what your function is, and what results you deliver. But for you, you have done a great job identifying some of your strengths and what you want. But if you can share just a little bit about how you describe your strengths and where they fit into this role.

Laura Parker 18:34

So actually, I have all my coaching sessions with Jennifer and all the work that we did through Strengths Finder, the phrase that really resonated with me that she, of course, came up with, because she's fabulous, was the idea of being a conductor in an orchestra, that sort of was the best way that I could visualize it. And when I look back at where I've been most successful, it is getting people focused on an outcome, bringing the moving parts together, trying to streamline things, but enabling people at the same time. And that was the crux of what I thought I could bring. We're a fast-growing business, we'll probably double in size again this year, it's a really real opportunity to get people aligned in a direction, as I say, help enable people to focus on aspects they might not currently be able to so everyone's too busy rushing around. So that idea of being a conductor, just bringing people together like defining what we're trying to achieve, bringing people together getting people focused on delivering that, and empowering them to do that is pretty much where the main crux of the skills that I wanted to put to use.

Scott Anthony Barlow 19:44

You know what is, I think just crazy. I see it all the time. I'm still blown away by it. The simple fact that when you, and I think you've done such a great job of this when you go through and get clear about what you want, all of a sudden that puts you in a much better position to be able to ask for exactly what you want. And the crazy part is that when you ask for what you want, then people are so much more likely to get what it is that they actually want. And I think you've done such a phenomenal job of that here. So kudos to you, first of all. And then second of all, I'm really curious about something that you said earlier. You had mentioned the idea of confidence, and you promising yourself that you're never going to let yourself go down the track where your confidence is depleted or diminished so much because you know just how long it takes to bounce back from that. And I would absolutely agree with that, you know, thinking about my own experiences and the experiences that we see all the time, we see sometimes people that have overstayed in their job for three or four years. And it just takes a significant period of time to be able to bounce back from that from a confidence standpoint. So I'm curious a little bit about what you meant by that. And how did you recognize before it got to that undoable point, that this is something that needed to change now, not later?

Laura Parker 21:16

Yeah. I mean, I recognized that quite quickly because of having been in the situation before, albeit it was a long time ago. But I recognized it quite quickly. It was a while before I figured out what to do about it. And I had a conversation with my manager that I wasn't enjoying where I was, I knew I wasn't delivering what they needed the role to deliver, that I was struggling with that, as I mentioned, for some of the sort of values way I operate. So I have had that conversation. What actually worked really well, that kind of also really helped move me down this path, apart from my colleagues here tell me about your podcast, was it struck me my managers in San Francisco, he's American and I'm British, and it really opened a doorway when I was much more, well, for me quite blunt about where I was at, you know, British people skirt around things, and we read tones. And I think I hadn't been blunt enough with him. So he hadn't appreciated where I was at. And I got to a point where I just had a really open conversation. So I don't want to be in this role. That helped a lot because at that point I was able to say, "But I'm doing something about it." By that point, I'd signed up to the bootcamp. So he really valued the fact that I was doing something about it, that he understood finally what I was really saying, rather than me being British, and not seeing it clearly enough for him. And from that point on, he was able to sort of connect me and open a few doors. But I knew my competence, I recognized it quickly. It's just a few things came into line, that meant I was able to do something about it, which was finding out about Happen To Your Career, having that open and frank conversation with my manager, and really getting to understand my strengths and then doing something about it.

Scott Anthony Barlow 23:01

What did you feel, like, was the hardest part of making this most recent change? And I know it's still not complete, however, it's well on its way, and it's going to happen in entirety, it sounds like, on some kind of timeframe here. But what did you feel like was most difficult for you?

Laura Parker 23:21

I think the most difficult but it's probably still to come, if I'm honest. I've done brand new roles before and I know that what makes them successful, one of the things that makes them successful, is sort of being given the authority to do the role. And this role is even more interesting. I've never designed a role, I've been the first person to do a role, but I've not actually created the role before. What will be interesting now is I don't have a job title, I have an idea about what team I'll be in but that is still to be fully decided. So, therefore, I don't know yet who my manager is going to be. I know my current manager feels very strongly and what I'm doing, he believes in his heart, I think that we do need someone doing what I propose. So he's backing me up at the moment, but I will have to move out of his team in the not too distant future. So what team do I go to? So I think the challenging bit is going to be getting that authority and being able to sort of start working, assuming that I have some of the authority to do what I think I want to do.

Scott Anthony Barlow 24:25

When having been in a similar situation before too, when you're creating something new, there has a tendency to be ambiguity around it, and working through the ambiguity to still make sure that you are getting whatever results are either necessary or that you want to. And a lot of times even defining those things can be a challenge in the first place. So I totally can appreciate what you're saying in terms of some of the challenges are yet to come.

Laura Parker 24:57

Absolutely. I think so. Something I've learned about myself, not necessarily through the bootcamp, but I know I'm not, you know, one of my strengths is not planning to the nth degree, I am someone who tends to just get on with stuff and then I'll course correct as I need to. That's been okay so far. I've put some high-level goals in my proposal, I put some success criteria to what I think successful looks like. But I haven't got a completely defined roadmap as to how I'm going to get there. I'm fine with that because I know that the more I talk to people, the more I'll get that defined. But I'm also conscious that just for the business, I do need to show that there is some direction and I'm not just sort of off chatting to people without really putting anything together. So I'm alive to that as well.

Scott Anthony Barlow 25:40

One of the things you said to me before we started here, and before we really got going was, I didn't expect to have so many concrete results so quickly. And I've got to ask you about that. Because here's the general response we usually have when we get the opportunity to work with people. Usually, people say something along the lines of, "Hey, it was way different than I expected, it was far more amazing than I expected. It also took longer than what I thought it was going to." And that's the general response. So I've got to ask you about this because it's different than what I hear on a normal site. And you've done such a great job helping to speed up the process for yourself and really grabbing and taking control of that. And quite honestly, that's usually where I see more results more quickly, as usually those people that take more action more quickly, quite frankly. But what do you feel, first of all, when you say that, what did you mean when you said, "I got more concrete results more quickly than I expected."?

Laura Parker 26:47

I was very surprised that how quickly I mean, I mentioned to you, I think before we started recording that my target, I have a call to the target and my target was dropped by 20% fairly easily, like within a couple of weeks of me putting this proposal out there. And that was a shock to me. Like I think, as I say, this business runs on targets. That's how we show our investors that we're progressing. And my boss is very target-focused. So once that happened, I was like, "Okay, this is really happening now." And that was a signal for me more than having a job title or knowing which bit the business I was going to sit in. Because we've had to readdress what we're delivering as a business because of that, that happened really quickly. I was thinking before we started that I wanted to show people that I'm just an ordinary person. And this is just sort of happened to me. And it's not an extraordinary, I didn't want people to feel this was an extraordinary thing. So I've been trying to think what was in my control that facilitated that. Because some things you can't control, like, you can't control who the manager is, you can't control whether they have the right outlook to support you or whether they care. But when I think about what actually progressed, definitely doing the bootcamp helped. And, you know, obviously, I would recommend people do your bootcamp. But I think what it showed the company here was that I was serious. And I actually came with some pretty decent value adding information when I had that proposal, like, I'd been through some good thought processes about myself as to how I got to where I got to. So that was valuable, I think, and you know, people can own that. And the other thing that really shifted was me having a very frank conversation with my manager, which I highlighted already. For me, I was at the point where I just thought I would just rather get this out in the open. If it causes massive issues, then I'll have to deal with that. But I just couldn't. I had to let him know where I was really at. So I would encourage people as as far as they feel possible, just be really open with where you're at. But try and do that with a plan or some thinking as to what it could look like if it was different.

Scott Anthony Barlow 28:52

So that's really interesting. And it sounds like a big portion of what moved to this along for you so quickly, was being able to come to the table at a different level of preparedness, and having thought through a lot of these things, then what might otherwise have happened. And it sounds like there's a lot of contributors to that. Part of it was you taking control of the process. Part of it was getting to work with our team. And part of it was some of the other steps that you took throughout the process too. But I just want to say first of all, congratulations, because I know, you know, going and doing that and taking that level of control can absolutely be difficult, and doing that in such a short time period. I think it shows that almost anybody really can do this if you're focused on the pieces that you can influence and you can control which I think was another factor that you alluded to as well. So really nice job.

Laura Parker 29:52

Yeah, absolutely. As I said, there were things that were within my control. There are things that, you know, having a great manager, having a fast goes company where, you know, I'm in a fast growth company where movement is quite common. That's not in everyone's control, either. But when I think about being open and being honest, and being frank and then taking a bit of ownership over the process of what the future could look like, that is within our control, I think.

Scott Anthony Barlow 30:18

Everybody has the ability to influence that. I love it. Well, I so appreciate the opportunity for us to sit front row and see some of these changes, and you put in trust in us to be able to assist with that. That's amazing. And I really appreciate you taking the time, not just we, before we hit record, we were actually looking at up trying to figure out, you know, how many months has actually been. Well, it turns out that was just back in September where you started to really double down on making this type of change. So it's really only been, four or five months?

Laura Parker 30:56

Yeah, probably more four months, because it just took us a while to get those schedules with time differences. But yeah, definitely by Christmas, I sort of knew that things will know on the cards to change.

Scott Anthony Barlow 31:07

Well, great job going from a listener of the podcast into getting the results that you were looking for. I think that that's absolutely amazing. And thank you for taking the time and making the time and I only have one more question for you. For people that find themselves in that situation where you were, maybe they had made a change or two before and recognizing that, you know, something is amiss– values or otherwise. What advice would you give them when they're at that point and trying to decide, "Should I make a change? Should I make another change?" And if so, what does that look like? What advice would you give them?

Laura Parker 31:42

My advice when I have given this before is do not stay in that negative environment for any longer than you absolutely need to, it's so harmful, and it takes such a long time to get back up to being the best version of yourself. And when I say don't stay in it, I mean, look at what you can control and start working on those pieces. A lot of it you can't control but there are bits you can. And that's where you need to focus your efforts.

Scott Anthony Barlow 32:16

Most of the episodes you've heard on Happen To Your Career showcase stories of people that have taken the steps to identify and land careers that they are absolutely enamored with, that match their strengths, and are really what they want in their lives. If that's something that you're ready to begin taking steps towards, that's awesome. And we want to figure out how we can help. So here's what I would suggest, take the next five seconds to open up your email app and email me directly. I'm gonna give you my personal email address– scott@happentoyourcareer.com. Just email me and put 'Conversation' in the subject line. And when you do that, I'll introduce you to someone on our team who can have a super informal conversation with and we'll figure out the very best type of help for you, whatever that looks like, and the very best way that we can support you to make it happen. So send me an email right now with 'Conversation' in the subject line.

Scott Anthony Barlow 33:08

Here's a sneak peek into what we have coming up in store for you next week.

Speaker 3 33:14

That's what I found really awakening with doing the StrengthsFinder is, "No, these are actually strengths which can be perceived as weaknesses in your current role."

Scott Anthony Barlow 33:26

We get questions every week about assessments, particularly the Clifton Strengths Finder assessment. Is it accurate? Will it tell me what type of career I should focus on? How do I use it outside of my work? All good questions. However, we thought it would be better to show you how people can use strengths, what they are, how they work, and even incorporate them into things, like, interviews, and everything else. And we also thought it would be best if we showed you this real-time.

Scott Anthony Barlow 33:56

All that and plenty more next week right here on Happen To Your Career. Make sure that you don't miss it. And if you haven't already, click Subscribe on your podcast player so that you can download this podcast in your sleep, and you get it automatically, even the bonus episodes every single week, sometimes multiple times a week. Until next week. Adios. I'm out.

Ready for Career Happiness?

What Career Fits You?

Finally figure out what you should be doing for work

Join our 8-day “Mini-Course” to figure it out. It’s free!