Using an entrepreneurial approach for career stress management 

Don’t expect too much from yourself too soon in your career.

The seemingly ‘instant’ success stories Elon Musk, and many other young entrepreneurs such as Jodie Fox, co-founder of Shoes of Prey and Jane Lu, founder of ShowPo, feed into an ever-accelerating cycle of millennial career propaganda. This is founded on the notion that if you have not ‘made it’ within the first few years of your career, or your business life, then you are doing something wrong. The reality is that it takes many years of hard work, persistence and determination to establish a solid career.

One effective approach is to ignore everything you think you should be doing and instead adopt an entrepreneurial mindset towards your career and life.

The ‘domino strategy’, described by Ramit Sethi, is an approach used by many successful entrepreneurs around the world. It involves setting one small career goal and knocking it over first. The beauty of this approach is that it removes the immediate psychological pressure you may feel to be an ‘overnight success’ by accounting for timelines that fall outside your direct control.

So, for example:

1. Your first step may be to update your resume
2. Your second step may be to send your resume to your ideal prospective employers

It could be a simple matter of sending an email to inquire about current or future vacancies. This helps you determine whether your idea for your career has potential. From here you can decide whether your skills and experience match the needs of the organisations or firms you wish to work for.

3. If your skills do not match, you can adjust your strategy and put your next steps into motion. For example, by obtaining an extra qualification or gaining more experience in a related field.

“Put the dominoes in just the right sequence so that each small step makes the next, bigger step possible” – Ramit Sethi

If you try to knock over the final domino before you have tackled the necessary preceding career steps, for example, the domino won’t fall. This means that you won’t be offered the job, and you will fail to achieve your ambitions this year.

A ‘domino sequence’ that works for one individual will not work for another – the challenge is to work out which sequence is right for your career.

Look at the career path of people you admire and replicate it

Well-rounded people have well-rounded careers.

One way to map out your perfect ‘domino sequence’ is to study the career pathways of people whom you admire and wish to emulate. A quick LinkedIn search can reveal the educational and professional histories of key industry players and give you a basic idea about what steps you should be taking. Ask yourself:

• Where did they study?
• What did they study?
• Where have they worked?
• Which job was the critical nexus that naturally flowed into their current role?

You can even go one step further by reaching out to these professionals.

Connecting with like-minded, experienced and accomplished individuals in your industry – whether for professional collegiality or mentorship – can help you to maintain healthy long-term wellness strategies and to cultivate strong industry support networks.

Expanding your professional network can not only provide balance and perspective to your work life but also drastically advance your career prospects. Justice Neil Gorsuch, one of the youngest U.S Supreme Court Justices appointed in recent history has credited his rapid career progression to the mentoring and support he received from other high-achieving judicial officers.

Relax and go with the job flow

Your first job out of university will not be your last.

A recent report by the Foundation for Young Australians found that the skills you develop through one role can be transferred to an average of thirteen other positions.

If your current job is still a few steps away from your dream job, then consider a side hustle. This could take the form of a passion project like design work, freelance writing, building websites, teaching fitness classes over the weekend or even chasing your professional interests through a part-time Masters degree. For current and future employers, this highlights your ambition, drive and creative talent.

It is highly likely that your first few jobs out of university will not be a perfect fit, but the flexibility and skills you acquire early in your working life gives you more career mobility.

These initial ‘dominoes’ help you get closer to where you really want to be in your professional life.

Develop your professional skills

Most employers seek applicants who have flexible skills that can be adapted and applied in many different forms. If you want to avoid the wilderness of unemployment or accelerate your career progression in a specific field, a postgraduate qualification can give you an edge over top candidates for competitive positions.

A practice perhaps pioneered by Susan Kiefel, the recently appointed first female Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia who completed her law degree part-time while working as a legal secretary in the 1970s, it is increasingly common for graduates to balance part-time postgraduate study with busy lifestyles.

In a recent study on education and work by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it was found that:

In May 2016, approximately 1 in 5 Australians (20%) aged 15-64 were enrolled in formal study [and] … People with higher levels of educational attainment were more likely to be employed, with 80% of persons with a Bachelor degree or above, 75% of persons with an Advanced diploma or Diploma, and 76% of persons with a Certificate III.” 

In an increasingly specialist legal marketplace, employers recognise the value of postgraduate study with Masters qualifications frequently listed as ‘highly desirable.’

Making the decision to study

If you are freshly graduated or revising your career goals after a few years of work experience, or are concerned that your existing skill set has not prepared you for the job you want, further study may be one of the key ‘dominoes’ you need to invest in your future.

Ask yourself the following questions to determine whether it is the right career move. Are you pursuing postgraduate study to:

• boost salary and career prospects?
• prepare for senior roles in firms and organisations in the public and private sector?
• enhance specialist skills and knowledge?
• progress an existing career or kick start a career change?
• fulfil yourself?
• be seen by potential employers as more qualified than other candidates?
• develop relationships with leading industry professionals?
• develop your practical skills and your ability to express those skills?

If you answered yes one or more of the above questions, it may be worthwhile exploring which universities offer study options that align with your current lifestyle and goals.

A number of fast and flexible online postgraduate qualifications, such as a Masters of Business Law through Southern Cross University, are specifically designed to integrate with full-time work commitments and require only 15 to 20 hours of study per week.

Conclusion

In his book The One Thing, Gary Keller, (founder of one of the largest real estate franchises in the world) says:

When you see someone who has a lot of knowledge, they learned it over time.
When you see someone who has a lot of skills, they developed them over time.
When you see someone who has done a lot, they accomplished it over time.
When you see someone who has a lot of money, they earned it over time.”

This year, follow the lead of successful entrepreneurs. Rather than setting yourself overly ambitious and unrealistic goals, aim to start small and enjoy the ups and downs of your professional journey. Line up your ‘dominoes’ and build momentum steadily, over time, towards your dream career.

Once you knock over those first few ‘dominoes,’ the rest will effortlessly fall into place.

This post is proudly sponsored by Southern Cross University. For more information on how to jump start your legal career in 2017, click here.

Nowadays, the pressure to stick with and succeed in one chosen field has, in many ways, lessened as more young Australians vote with their feet and regularly change careers.

Commonly referred to as a slash career, these alternative career pathways can manifest in many different ways. You may hold down a full-time job but have a side hustle or work on a passion project over weekends. You might run multiple projects simultaneously or even focus on one full-time job but consciously change careers every few years to keep your interest alive and skills current.

This type of career can blend multiple professional titles, such as writer/lawyer/entrepreneur, or it can involve making giant career leaps from actor to banker to lawyer. However you choose to look at it, slash careers are widely considered to give you a competitive edge.

Now, a growing trend is seeing many Australians pursue further education as a means of segueing into a different career or upskilling to increase their chances of securing a better career opportunity.

Latest research

According to Melbourne-based startup, training.com.au, more Australians are turning to upskilling through further study to ready themselves for a career change.

Many within the education industry are predicting that online education and course delivery is the way of the future, with the annual growth rate of the Australian university sector projected to slow to 1.6% (IBISWorld, 2017) between 2017-2022.

In a recent survey of over 3,000 Australians, training.com.au sought to gain a better understanding of what motivated people to consider further study as well as the role of technology in the delivery of courses.

Marketing director, Mike Thomas said:

We were surprised to find that 43% of all survey respondents advised that they were seeking alternative employment in the coming 3-years and a further 41% identified that a lack of qualifications was their greatest professional limitation.”

Although 55.06% of survey respondents said that technology had positively impacted their ability to upskill, not all suggested that online education was their preferred study stream. Times Higher Education has reported that about 20% of students who choose external study options drop out in their first year, compared with approximately 7% for those on campus.

For tertiary institutions, this could mean potential losses in student fees since student course completion is a prerequisite for securing fees through the HECS-HELP study assist structure.

Regardless of individual preferences to study online or offline, it is clear that technology is playing an integral role in modern learning environments. Although the results of this survey show that flexibility of course delivery, technology and online learning options influence overall student interest in further study, it is clear that student preference for traditional campus delivery is still very much alive and well.

Have you considered further study as an option to help smooth your transition into a different career? Let us know in the comments!

From everyday predicaments like whether you should go to the gym or go out for dinner with your friends; forego precious sleep and watch just one more episode of Mindhunter; to bigger life decisions like whether you are on track with your career or if it might be time to change course this year.

We are bombarded from all angles with social media noise about how to fix our biggest career problems ‘in 10 simple steps’ – and with so much conflicting information about how to be successful, it’s not surprising that many of us have come to doubt our natural instincts and decision-making strategies. Instead of pausing to listen to our inner voice we label it as an untrustworthy saboteur and quickly tune it out. How many times have you chided yourself for not making a decision you ‘knew’ at the time you should, but didn’t?

What value can your gut really offer in developing better decision-making skills and how can you use it to improve your career prospects this year?

How do we make everyday decisions?

When it comes to decision-making, our brains use two main systems:

1. Deliberative (conscious): researching, analysing, weighing benefits and deciding on the most logical approach based on facts.
2. Intuitive (subconscious): trusting your gut, following a ‘hunch’ or choosing an option that just ‘feels right’ based on past knowledge and experience.

In his book Thinking Fast And Slow, Daniel Kahneman refers to these two different but complementary systems as ‘slow thinking’ and ‘fast thinking’.

In our examples above, difficult decisions that take time and conscious thought, such as applying for a new job or making an important career move, generally fall under the cognitive end of the decision-making spectrum. Emotional decisions to do with relationships, on the other hand, correspond to the intuitive side of the decision-making spectrum.

For many years researchers believed that the conscious, pragmatic and objective mind was best able to make logical decisions; however, most experts now agree that a combination of analytical and intuitive decision-making yields the best results.

According to research published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes by researchers from Boston College, George Mason University and Rice University:

Intuition has long been viewed as a less effective approach to critical reasoning when compared to the merits of analytical thinking. Yet as society and businesses place a greater emphasis on the speed and effectiveness of decision-making, the intuitive approach has been identified as an increasingly important tool.”

How lawyers make decisions

Traditionally, lawyers are trained to ‘think slow’ and make decisions based on hard evidence and facts. It’s a form of industry-championed analytical thinking that begins in law school and carries through to legal practice with the primary goal of mitigating unnecessary risks. So when it comes to making career decisions it should come as no surprise that most law graduates and young lawyers fall into the trap of using a similar formulaic approach, based on measurable facts and metrics.

For example:

If I thoroughly research a potential employer, have excellent grades, gain as much relevant experience as possible before applying, nail the interview, have all my social profiles up-to-date and project a professional image, then I will be in the best position to secure an offer.”

Unfortunately, real-world recruitment practices almost never adhere to a clear and predictable formula. Having perfect grades and relevant experience is no longer enough. This is because the hiring process is largely intuitive. While your qualifications and experience are objective markers of your suitability for an interview your personality and likeability are an equally important (but often overlooked) subjective factor that plays an important role in your overall employability.

A hiring manager may be excited by your application on paper, for example, but choose not to hire you at the interview because of a ‘gut feeling’ that you will not fit their company culture. This could be because you did not show a demonstrated passion or interest in the type of work they offer.

In this situation, you might need an extra edge to push yourself over the employment line – one that blends a deliberative and intuitive decision-making approach to your legal career.

Getting the edge: Conscious analytical thinking and raw gut instinct

Employers favourably regard applicants who demonstrate high emotional intelligence, well-developed self-awareness and the capacity to make sound decisions. Spending time developing your interpersonal skills, learning how to communicate effectively, and honing your ability to formulate an opinion on raw data and your intuition is one way to achieve this.

Employers also want staff who are actively engaged in both self-development and professional development. If you apply for a role with a corporate firm, for example, a simple way to position yourself ahead of your competitors is to make a calculated career move by pursuing an online Master of Laws (Business Law) .

Expanding your career arsenal through further study shows a potential employer that you have a thirst for knowledge, are committed to developing your professional skillset, are actively engaged with the latest trends in your industry, are eager to refresh your existing skills and to build a solid career with their company.

These are qualities that all employers seek in a new hire. This is especially so as they are making an investment in you and will see your potential long-term value to their company.

Developing intuitive thinking in your career

In an interview with Fast Company, Angela Jia Kim, co-founder of women entrepreneurs’ network Savor The Success, outlines some questions to ask yourself to understand your gut feelings:

• “Do I feel good around this person or choice?”
• “Does this person or situation give me or take my energy?”
• “Do I feel empowered or disempowered?”
• “Am I going toward an adventure or running from fear?”
• “Am I listening to my lessons learned from the past?”
• “Would I make the same choice if I had a million dollars in my pocket now?”
• “Do I feel respected and valued?”
• “Am I trying to control the situation or am I leaving room for expansion?”

Intuitive thinking can boost your career by helping you to:

1. Make faster and more accurate decisions

Your ability to follow a hunch and quickly assess a work situation develops with time. In many cases, sound professional decision-making skills are tied to your level of knowledge or experience in a given area. This is referred to as domain expertise, meaning that the higher your level of knowledge in a subject area, for example, where you have climbed the ranks in your industry the more effectively you will be able to make intuitive decisions.

Invest time in further study related to your speciality, read online journals and industry news, listen to podcasts and inform yourself about new developments that impact your current or future roles. A strong baseline understanding of such issues flows on to helping you make faster and more informed choices, which are attractive qualities in any employee.

2. Be in a position of power at interview

If you are offered an exciting job, it does not always mean that you should take it. Our gut is often our best tool to navigate personal and professional relationships. Consider a situation where something seems ‘off’ about your selection panel at interview. Maybe the company values do not align with your own, or perhaps you have an off-putting sense that you may be discriminated against because of your gender or cultural background. You may dislike your new employer or feel that taking the job is not the most strategic career move.

Trust your instincts – if something makes you feel uneasy about a job you are under no obligation to accept it. Remember that simply because a job is highly competitive does not mean that you should blindly take it, especially when everything in you screams that it is the wrong decision.

3. Know the right time to make a big career move

If you are in an unsatisfactory work situation, and things are not improving, your gut is often the first indicator. Pay attention to warning signs such as a constant heavy or nagging sensation, experiencing discomfort or anxiety, feeling ill-at-ease throughout the day, sensing a continuous sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach.

In this situation, going with your gut involves coming to terms with the fact that your work situation is unlikely to improve and using your analytical brain to decide on a change.

Bear in mind that listening to your gut takes time and practice, so be kind to yourself and don’t expect immediate results. Your intuition is not a voice that comes over a loudspeaker, but something much more subtle. It’s an inkling that reveals itself only when you quiet your mind. It makes you want to go in one direction over another for reasons that you may not be able to fully articulate.

Conclusion

While legal reasoning and analytical thinking focus on breaking down complex problems into small digestible parts, intuition is about looking at the bigger picture. Making career decisions based on intuitive reasoning looks to patterns and your long-term career goals.

Your career is more than the sum of its parts, which is why it is important to consider and trust your instincts. Every day your intuition makes millions of rapid assessments that tell you whether something is right or wrong – it will let you know which direction your career should be taking you.

Relying on your inner voice is a skill you can learn. It’s a habit you can cultivate in your personal and professional life. Cultivating your gut instinct can not only help you get, and keep, a job in today’s competitive market but also help you make healthier and more confident decisions about your life.

This post is proudly sponsored by Southern Cross University. For more information on jump starting your legal career in 2017, click here.