Andrew Naber, industrial and organizational psychologist and associate behavioral scientist at RAND Corporation shares that on average you will spend 90,000 hours of your life at work.
That’s roughly one-third of your life. Let that sink in a moment.
With that said, it should be important to have work that energizes you, challenges you, and pushes you to better yourself. Too many people dread their job, and hate waking up every day to go sit behind a desk for hours while dreaming of the day they can retire.
When you truly belong, work doesn’t even feel like work.
Everybody deserves to be able to work with a team that allows you to be your authentic self and feel accepted and included. In an article written by Kathy Morris, she explains the sad reality of how fifty percent of workers dislike their job and are unsatisfied. Bottom line – you shouldn’t have to settle for an environment where you aren’t accepted and included, but today’s toolkit stacks the odds against you. Too many individuals then have negative attitudes towards their jobs and that is not the right way to live. Nobody wants to dread the sound of their alarm going off each morning. And not everybody is meant to go sit behind a desk for hours each day, and that is okay.
Today’s toolkit is designed to make you fit into somebody else’s mold.
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives”
–Annie Dillard
You spend your days with your work, make it something you enjoy so your quality of life as a whole improves.
Your resumes, cover letters, and LinkedIn profile all force you to attempt to squeeze your whole story into various tiny boxes. They force you to present a perfect, fake, version of yourself. The net effect is that professional networking sites are filled with ‘perfect’ Instagram-like profiles. The tools that are offered to aid one in finding a job are not tools for expressing yourself and are not fit for purpose. For example, LinkedIn tends to be reductive and ‘buttoned up’. LinkedIn’s main purpose is to hold onto your past job titles and accomplishments, ultimately blocking an employer to see your authentic self. Polished resumes and toxic LinkedIn profiles create an unnecessary block to your true self when looking for a job.
Finding a job can create a sense of overwhelming feelings of anxiousness and worry, and you are not alone if you can relate to those feelings. As mentioned above, creating a professional network for yourself should be built around your personal desires and needs. Filling out a dull LinkedIn profile and refreshing your notifications repeatedly until you get a notification is not the most effective way to find a job. Constantly checking LinkedIn, and seeing your friends post their amazing job offers gets belittling as you may have no offers. Of course, you want to be happy for your friends, but you are ultimately trying to secure a job for yourself, so it is okay if you feel discouraged when using and refreshing your LinkedIn profile.
Rylie Walsh, in her article “How to Deal With LinkedIn Anxiety”, highlights the reality of
why LinkedIn causes anxiety and comforts the reader to know they are not alone. A statement from Walsh’s article comes from Christina, a recent graduate of the University of San Diego. Christina shares,
“To me, LinkedIn allows people to see my experiences and accomplishments, but not necessarily me as a human being… it’s definitely important to remember that it doesn’t show the whole story”.
At the end of the day, when it comes to choosing a career, rather than fitting into somebody else’s mold, you deserve to be your most authentic self, and find work for you.
When looking for a job, today’s toolkits lack getting to know the real you and what makes you an asset in a workplace. The focus needs to shift from how you work- not where you’ve worked.
In reality, creating a professional network for yourself should be built around yourself. What job would be the best fit for you? Are you a morning person? A night owl? Do you work best in an office space, or do you enjoy being on the go? Do you work well with others? Do you prefer synchronous or asynchronous collaboration?
Authenticity is an important role of belonging within your workplace. By understanding yourself and improving your self-awareness about how you do your best work, you put yourself in a far stronger position to filter your next best career opportunity.
If you are on the hunt for a toolkit that is built for belonging in the workplace, we’re so glad you found us! Take a deep breath, and breathe. Candor prioritizes the importance of authenticity, transparency, and personal growth.
By focusing on radical authenticity and understanding what professional growth means to you, you are closer to ultimately making work your happy place. It is important to be authentic in order to feel close to your team and if you feel close and connected to the people you work with, your quality of life as a whole improves! There are many benefits of being surrounded by people you enjoy in a space you enjoy, so work towards making work your happy place and break the trend of toxic ‘perfect profiles’ that haunt you when looking for work.
Candor is here and wants to know your whole story. We see you. And you deserve to find belonging at work.
We can’t wait to get to know the real you! So, whenever you are ready, create a profile here!
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