When you KNOW better you DO better….hopefully

Like many others, I recently, found myself in a career rut. After  many years of doing the same thing, not only was I feeling  unfulfilled, I also didn’t know how or where to begin changing my situation.  Again, like many of my peers, I was encouraged to go to college however; the emphasis was strongly geared toward securing a stable job/career.  So as you can imagine, the mere  idea of possibly entering the present job search market sent my head spinning. ( I may be dating myself) but I completed under grad back in 1998, with little to no guidance of a mentor or anyone else but my network of friends who were more-less in the same situation as I. We mostly took the same track, entering the NYC Civil Service System.

Subsequently upon deciding to apply to Graduate school in 2002, I had begun dabbing into volunteerism and learning about professional organizations.  This is when the light bulb went off, up until this point, this was an area I knew absolutely nothing about.  Suddenly the  language was totally different; leveraging relationships, marketing your transferable skills, personal branding, social responsibility to name a few, were all terms that I  just wasn’t a prevalent in my world. Initially I was embarrassed by this after having thinking that I had made fairly decent accomplishments. I did stop beating myself up and started doing my homework and aligning myself in different circles.

As a result, I had to do what felt and still feels like starting all over again.  I had to figure out what I liked/wanted to do, what were my skills and accomplishments versus just task that I had done as part of a position and what how I needed further develop in order to learn. Identifying the resources that I needed to get to the next level has been a huge one of the blessings in this journey. Allowing my self to explore my passions, stepping outside of the familiar comfort zone and investing into myself beyond just formal education/training.

I came across a Professional Development article on one of my favorite blogs by NYULYP.  The article kicked up these memories and reminded of that old saying, ‘if I knew then what I know’ and just how costly some of my earlier decisions had been however; I’m thankful to be where I am while moving further toward where I want to be.  Interestingly enough, the article was geared toward young professional but I assure you there are some lessons for the not so young as well. Kudos to the young professionals, millennials, and (social) entrepreneurs as well as to the late bloomers.

I was not surprised to see that the person who penned the article was Aisha Taylor of TAYLORmade Professional Career Consulting who was actually the resume doctor responsible for the extreme makeover to my own resume and cover letter which garnered quite a few hits which honestly, contributed to a sense of restored confidence in myself along this journey.

When you know better, you do better….hopefully.  Spread Love, It’s the BrooKlyn Kisha Way!