Making the Most of Your Career: Tips for Loving Your Career

If you’ve listened to the exceptional admins podcast, all the way until the end, you’ve heard my closing statement, “Remember, you are the reason you get up every day and work as hard as you do. Do things for you, your executive, and your organization, and remember...it’s all worth it.”

I started the podcast because so many of my candidate phone screens held comment themes. Those being, “I do love this career, but I’m starting to lose interest, I’m tired of working 24/7, I’m tired of being under appreciated, I’m starting to get bored, I’m not sure I’m in a good working partnership, and so on.” I leave 95% of my calls hearing from professionals, “This call was so refreshing, thank you for your candor and passionate energy about our profession.” In hearing these closing remarks, I’m reminded that so many professionals are craving positive energy and encouragement. It is these raw conversations that aided in me realizing, I have a higher calling with Exceptional Admins. 

These daily interactions are a blessing. Talking with people from the admin profession continues to remind me we are a special breed of professionals. The profession doesn't call for the faint of hearts, it calls for the diligent, savvy, classy, and sometimes scrappy professional. My intention with this piece is to either help you keep your flame burning or re-spark your love for a very rewarding career.

Let’s start with unpacking the definition of Career.

Via Wikipedia, “The career is an individual's metaphorical "journey" through learning, work and other aspects of life. There are a number of ways to define career and the term is used in a variety of ways.” Also noted is, “Career success is a term used frequently in academic and popular writing about looking at your career. It refers to the extent and ways in which an individual can be described as successful in his or her working life so far.”

Let’s highlight a word from above: Journey. 

Via Dictionary, Journey has a few meanings but for this exercise we’ll go with, “passage or progress from one stage to another: the journey to success.”

Think about a time in your role where your executive/organization produced the need to triage a series of unplanned events; think about the (entire) movie Christmas Vacation. That movie presented many days of endless journeys. While many of us are frantically producing magical moments, i.e. GSD, during these kinds of days, it is our personality that thrives during these kinds of days. We love the rush, we love the feeling of being needed and relied on, and we love putting puzzle pieces together, and so much more. And, while I know these days compounding day after day result in a heavy burnout feeling, the job can still provide satisfaction.

Let’s highlight that last part: Job Satisfaction.

Via Wikipedia, Job satisfaction can be measured in cognitive (evaluative), affective (emotional), and behavioral components.[2] Researchers have also noted that job satisfaction measures vary in the extent to which they measure feelings about the job (affective job satisfaction).[3] or cognitions about the job (cognitive job satisfaction).

The days where we are on top of our game, we experience high job satisfaction. The days where we are slow, without concrete purpose, and maybe a drop in engagement, we begin to question, “Am I in the right role?” Add many days discouragement, back to back, you start the welcome unused energy of worrying. In my opinion, thinking deeply is both a gift and curse. The podcast episode below is going to offer you wisdom.

As mentioned in the beginning, I’m crafting this piece to aid with your current state, whether in love or falling out of love with the admin career.

The year 2020 really taught us to slow down, pivot, and show up in ways we never thought we’d be called to do, but here we are, in 2021, and we know more about ourselves because of that year and its impressive events.

So, if you are on the precipice of either mindset, I give you this to think about:

• Is the whole situation bad, likely not.

• Is there still some good, probably.

• Is there promise for more on the horizon, if you don’t know, begin seeking.

• Is there security where I’m at, am I relied upon but it’s a slow season, likely.

Remember, life throws us seasons and if you have more good, move away from unnecessary doubt and adapt. I talk about productive worrying in one of my podcast episodes, check it out below.

Tips for working through a period of Flux.

• Unleash your type-A and get more organized

• Watch education videos via Lynda.com or YouTube.com

• Transfer usernames and passwords to a cloud program, i.e. Keeper

• Build out a strategy plan for your goals to tackle in the coming months

• Ask to start a committee, covering any topic that lights you up

• Read a leadership book (or two)

• Review the calendar for the last 6 months and create a spreadsheet (or even PowerPoint) for where your executive put their energy and present it for discussion asking, “Are we using your energy wisely, what do you want to do in 2021?”

Launch Pad:

1) Define what a bad and good day look like so you have personal accountability.

2) Think about why having a basic day is still great and write a gratitude sentence for basic days.

3) Make a list of things to do during days that have little excitement.

4) And, let’s not forget creating and adding a wellness plan. Are you taking a non-working lunch break? Are you getting up and stretching, are you watching where you put your energy?