9. Staying in the Game

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[00:00:06] You're listening to careercompass, a Himalayan learning audio course. Be sure to check out all of theother awesome exclusive content in the Himalaya app or on himalaya.com. Welcomeeveryone. Thank you for joining us today. This is Nereda Salinas. Your host forcareer compass, an audio course for those on a journey to find work that moreaccurately aligns with their career compass.

[00:00:36] As you'll recall, the first partof this course focused a lot on the necessary introspection that leads tofinding a true career path. We talked about. What it is that you're mostinterested in and what are the skills and strengths that you want to use inthis next position and the type of area that you'd want to use them in.

[00:00:59] We explored a few differentopportunities for how to understand the terrain that you're about to enter andthe importance of creating a community of connections to help you understandthis terrain and the different organizations and individuals that mightdominate a particular area. In the next few episodes, we're going to focus moreon the nuts and bolts of sourcing jobs of applying for them and of getting theoffer.

[00:01:26] However, this episode is goingto be a little different from both of those areas. When we were creating thecourse outline for this audio course, one of the pieces of feedback that weheard more than once from individuals that we really respected was. Make surethat you take some time to talk about the importance of staying in the game,make sure that you share with your listeners how important it is to have anintentional proactive effort in taking care of oneself during this careerjourney, whether it's a transition or the first time that you're getting outthere, or a pivot that you might be making.

[00:02:09] So today we're going to focus onthree different aspects of self care that are always important to consider, butespecially when jobs are changing and these are your financial, psychological,and physical well-being.

[00:02:29] So when it comes to thefinancial aspect, you need to be thinking about the financial implications ofthe decisions you're making. And I understand that finances is something thatmany of us feel very uncomfortable talking about it. But the more wefamiliarize ourselves with the terms and the concepts, the easier it is to havethese conversations and to start demystifying these concepts.

[00:02:56] So whether you're an undergrador graduate student or an independent adult, as you begin managing your careersearch, you really want to be thinking about what types of budget constraintsyou're dealing with. It's important to think about what these are, thesedifferent constraints and how you plan to manage them and together, thesedifferent aspects are going to give you a sense for the type of timeline thatyou're going to be working with.

[00:03:25] And we're going to come back tothis in a moment when it comes to finances, you really want to be thinkingabout what your expenses are, and it's good to have a sense of these on amonthly basis. So when we think of your monthly expenses, we're talking aboutyour living expenses, your rent utilities, credit cards.

[00:03:45] There may be other things thataren't happening in your life on a monthly basis, but maybe it's a quarterlybasis or some type of periodic basis. For example, there's car insurance orhomeowners insurance, and then there's other expenses that are going to behappening on an annual basis. So you want to start writing these down.

[00:04:07] You also want to start capturingwhat types of dollar figures are associated with these for you and make surethat you have a place for unforeseen expenses, because something often goeswrong with the car or the house, or maybe there's an unexpected trip that yousuddenly need to take. One big, important piece of all this is healthcare.

[00:04:29] Remember that if you've quityour job or don't currently have a job, you may have to arrange for Cobra,which is that bridge that allows you to pay for your own healthcare with yourformer employer. If you're on the younger side of the spectrum, you may stillbe able to qualify for parental coverage through your parents' healthinsurance.

[00:04:49] Or if you're partnered withsomeone you may qualify for spousal coverage, that's a really big, importantimplication in all of this health insurance. Sometimes people start feelingoverwhelmed by all these different aspects of expenses. And one resource Ireally want to underscore to you is these great templates that generationwealthy has, um, on their website in a downloadable format.

[00:05:16] They have a spending trackerwhere you can track a lot of the different places where your money goes, thatyou may not even realize there's a monthly bill tracker for tracking yourdifferent monthly bills and a budget template that you can use for the expensesand revenue and be able to track all of these.

[00:05:35] It's a great website. And in thenotes section for this episode, you'll be able to find the link to thesetemplates. The other thing you want to think about in terms of your monthlybudget template is your savings. So you really want to think about how muchsavings you have and also how much you're willing to dip into this.

[00:05:57] Because if you've been spendingthe last few years, building up a nest egg, Chances are you probably don't wantto dip into it too deeply, but you're willing to dip into it to a certainextent. So having those honest conversations with yourself or with your partneras to how much can you actually go into this pool that you've been saving?

[00:06:19] And once you have a sense forwhat your monthly expenses are, you can also begin to estimate about how muchtime, whatever fraction of your savings you're willing to spend down is goingto buy you another option you may want to consider. Are what cost cuttingoptions do you have available to you either at the beginning, middle or end ofyour job search, for example, is moving in with family, an option for you.

[00:06:49] Is it possible to take in anextra roommate in your home? Having either of those options ready to pull thetrigger on by a certain date. If certain things don't start coming to fruitionfor you is a very real possibility that can give you a greater peace of mind asyou're entering into this journey.

[00:07:10] Another aspect of this budgettemplate is the revenue piece. Many people continue working full-time whilethey are job searching. And that's a question that you want to ask yourself,are you going to continue working full time is working part-time and optionthat you can begin to explore. If it's not, there's always the possibility ofthinking about, can you do some consulting on the side and work on an hourlybasis for something that's going to start generating some revenue for you?

[00:07:42] And if so, how do you go aboutworking on an hourly basis as a contractor or a consultant? Another aspect withrevenue. Is, are you in a committed relationship where your partner is willingand able to absorb more than their share of their historical share of expensesuntil some point in time? And if so, how long are they willing to do this?

[00:08:06] Again, these are some of thetough conversations that are really important to have in an open and honest wayahead of time. So where is all of this going? Ideally, you're going to belooking at your monthly tracker and beginning to assess, am I going to have asurplus at the end of every month? Am I barely going to be able to break even?

[00:08:28] Or am I going to be running aslight deficit and need to decide how much of my savings that deficit is goingto start taking it? You also want to be thinking about milestones or triggers.Maybe I'll give myself three months of doing something or six months or ninemonths. And if certain things don't fall into place by these differentmilestones, if certain milestones aren't reached by these specific timeperiods, then I'm going to take other actions.

[00:08:59] Remember you can always.LinkedIn your career search timeline by increasing your revenue, maybe you takeup more contracting or you pick up a part-time job or revisiting your expenses.You know what suddenly moving in with my sibling doesn't seem so bad. And thatreally helps me save on rent. You want to be thinking of always having a plan, a,B, or C, and you may have to end up going down further in the alphabet as well.

[00:09:31] For example, plan a might be youdo this job search without leaving your job. You start doing research in lieuof a social life, informational interviews during lunches a few times a week,but you do get to keep your revenue constant that way, because you get to keepyour salary, but for some career pivoters, they may feel, you know, this is tooslow for the kind of traction I really need.

[00:09:56] Or I'm going to try this forthree months and see how far I get. Then there's plan B. Maybe you can keepyour job on a half-time basis. This is going to give you some additionalflexibility and perhaps more opportunity to connect with more employers, morequickly plan C might be where you go after a period of time, and it might havecertain triggers built in.

[00:10:22] So. If I haven't landedsomething within three months, then I'm going to reassess and maybe then I movein with family or friends to drastically cut my expenses. Or maybe I considerif I want to move to another city where this industry that I want to work in isstronger, because I know there will be more opportunities there for securing ajob because there's more hiring going on.

[00:10:45] These are, these are the kindsof aspects that you want to be thinking about. So to summarize. You want to gothrough the very hard, but very important exercise of assessing your monthlyexpenses, your burn rate. You want to think through how you might be able toadjust your revenue and you want to come up with a few different contingencyplans in case things don't immediately work out the way you want them to.

[00:11:14] Those are some important aspectsto keep in mind, as you think through your financial wellbeing.

[00:11:28] Now let's move on to your mentalwellbeing. One of the toughest parts of the career search process is rejection.Okay. Well, many people will accept your invitations for informationalinterviews. Many will not respond or some will respond and say, sorry, I can'tmeet rejection. Whether it's from an informational interview, you're trying toset up.

[00:11:52] Or from an actual professionalinterview, rejections hurt the big ones, the small ones. Every time there's arejection, there's a certain amount of pain associated with it. You have toremind yourself that rejection is rarely personal. You have no idea what isgoing on on the other side of that decision to not reply, to not talk to you,to not interview you.

[00:12:19] And often it has absolutelynothing to do with you. One especially important part of this journey is tofind ways to ground yourself in your sense of self-worth. Whether it comes fromfamily from dear and close friends, from your faith, from the pets in yourlife, the community around you are gardening, wherever it is that you gatheryour own sense of self-worth.

[00:12:46] Be sure to ground yourself in itbefore you start your job search and to frequent it often throughout the jobsearch, these are the things that are going to give you energy and a sense ofvalue when the ugliness of rejection throws itself in your face. One thing todo is to go in with a mentality that rejection is going to be part of theprocess, know that it is a reality.

[00:13:14] Celebrate when you have a successin terms of securing a conversation or an informational interview, andeventually getting a job and know that rejection does not define who you are.All of these other things, the family, friends, community, those are the thingsthat give you your sense of who you really are and the things that define you.

[00:13:40] Another important aspect that Ifind helpful when it comes to rejection or anything else in life, honestly, isthat pain times resistance equals suffering. So if you think of a painful experiencethat you're going to undergo, nothing is going to stop the pain from happening.But if you resist the pain, you suffer so much more through it.

[00:14:06] But you were the one whocontrols your reaction to the pain. So yes, the rejection is going to hurt andyou can't change how much that rejection hurts, but if you just kind of stopresisting it and say, okay, I didn't get that job. Or I didn't even get thatinformational interview that I've already reached out to someone to set uptwice.

[00:14:26] I don't like that, but I'm justgoing to ground myself in that other successful conversation. I had two weeksago and maybe just, you know, remember how much I really am enjoying learningabout this new area by focusing on these other things and that resisting andfocusing so much on the rejection and the pain that you experienced, you dodecrease the suffering that, um, is associated with it.

[00:14:50] So, although you cannot controlhow much something hurts, you can control your reaction to it and how long youresist it. And therefore how much suffering it brings about for you. The otherthing to remember is to seek out emotional support from those accountabilitypartners, those critical friends that you have that you know, are going to behonest with you and not sugar coat things for you, but at the same time aregoing to be there to help you put yourself back together.

[00:15:20] When the rejection, um,monsters, you know, sticks, its head out. So remember rejection is always goingto be there, ground yourself in the things that give you your sense ofself-worth remember to celebrate the successes and remember that pain, paintimes resistance equals suffering. So remember that while you can not controlthe pain, you can control the resistance and thereby decrease the suffering.

[00:15:53] There's a great article from themuse that I included in the episode notes that highlights a number of differentthings that you can do in terms of your own mental self-care. Yeah.

[00:16:11] Third aspect I want to talkabout is your physical well-being. The career search can be a very stressfulprocess. And remember the importance of sleep, exercise, and nutrition, andhelping to reduce that stress. Keep in mind the power of structuring your timeintentionally so that you can work sufficient, sleep and exercise into yourdays.

[00:16:36] Creating a schedule is a reallyimportant component of managing a good career search. For example, maybe you'restill working full time and the most you can realistically do is one hour ofcareer research per week. And if that's it, then set your goals for what you'regoing to get done with your one hour and bit by bit, that hour will make adifference, but maybe you have a lot more time to devote to it.

[00:17:04] And you're actually devotingmultiple hours per day. Whatever the case may be. You break down your tasksinto smaller parts and chip away at what you need to get done. One thing Iremind people is that more is not always better. If you are job searching fulltime, you're not going to be able to work on your career search for 80 hours aweek.

[00:17:30] There's simply the law ofdiminishing returns. The first few hours of a day. You may get a lot done. Butthen as time wears on, you're going to get more and more tired. I often remindpeople who are career searching. Full-time that it's a really good idea to havean excuse that has nothing to do with their career search to get them out ofbed in the morning.

[00:17:56] That way you're up by a certainhour. You've either walked your neighbor's dog or your own dog. Maybe youvolunteered for a few hours at the food bank, whatever it might be. And youhave the entire afternoon and evening to focus on your needs. Most of thatbeing focused on your career search, but definitely being able to leverage theschedule so that you're getting flow, getting value out of wherever you drawyourself worth.

[00:18:25] And then focusing on this careerresearch is one. Approach to take. You also should give yourself permission,but sometimes you just need to take a break. And one of the articles that Iinclude in the episode notes, they talk about the importance that sometimes,especially if you've been in a few rounds of interviews with a few differentcompanies and nothing is panning out, you just might need to give yourself amental break.

[00:18:50] And even if it's just a fewshort days of, you know, staycation in order to then refuel recharge and go atit again and start a new, finally, I just want to underscore the importance ofexercise in managing stress and trying to keep an optimistic outlook on theentire process. Exercise will release endorphins, which really impacts yourself confidence and just your general outlook on life.

[00:19:20] There's an entire article onthis, in the career notes for this episode, and I encourage you to read it. I'mjust making sure. Even a 30 minute walk a day, a habit can really add up to amuch brighter outlook on the way that you perceive the entire process.

[00:19:42] Thank you for listening toepisode nine of career compass, a Himalayan learning audio course. Be sure tocheck out all of the other awesome exclusive content in the Himalaya app or onhimalaya.com.