The Honesty Experiment for Figuring Out a Career is a 30-day self-improvement challenge to kickstart your career search. You get daily tips and questions to help you learn about yourself, explore your options, and take action. Sign up!
In week 1 of the Honesty Experiment for Figuring Out a Career, participants thought about these questions:
- What courses were you best at in school?
- What do your friends ask for your help or advice on? What do they praise you for?
- What strengths would you list on your resume?
- What articles or books do you like to read?
- How do you spend your free time?
- What things do you like to talk about?
- Do you ever experience “flow”?
The goal is to start getting some insight into careers they might be interested in. Here’s how they’ve fared so far.
Stella
What’s the biggest lesson you learned this week? That you should look for opportunities in adversity both at work and in life. We had a bit of a restructuring happen and I choose to look at it as an opportunity to learn and get better at my job.
What’s the most surprising insight you gained? I tend to panic. I always thought I was very calm, but I guess I need to work on staying calm then.
What career opportunities have you thought about? Quit my job and get into the transport business.
Do you have any misconceptions or reservations about figuring out a career? I realised that I may not be necessarily content in my current role and would like to diversify my portfolio. I think I may be unhappy in my current position.
What next steps could you take? I am definitely thinking of taking time off to rethink starting a business versus working for someone else.
Anything else you want to share? I’m really, really thinking about quitting my current job.
Lisa
What’s the biggest lesson you learned this week? I learned that not all of my interests and strengths are present in my current job.
What’s the most surprising insight you gained this week? I think I would thrive in a more creative space, doing things that are interesting and challenging to keep me engaged and focused.
What career opportunities have you thought about? Interior designer, PR professional, website developer, pastry chef.
Do you have any misconceptions or reservations about figuring out a career? I have discovered that I would probably be more satisfied in my career if my work included something I am interested in, did well at in school, or enjoy talking about. However, I’m still not sure how one can find work doing something they love. If someone worked at their favorite hobby, would they not love it anymore because it is work?
What next steps could you take? I could update my resume to include past experience that is relevant to the job market where I want to be. I could seek out individuals in the career I would like to ask them questions and see how they got there.
Claire
What’s the biggest lesson you learned this week? I noticed that when it comes to highlighting my strengths and weaknesses, I tend to overlook and even doubt the value I’m able to offer in producing quality work.
Where I hail from, pragmatism is so embedded in our culture that we become overly cautious of situations where there is net risk. Asian values rarely deviate from tradition and we believe in being hardworking in order to achieve success. With that being said, there is an underlying sentiment that we are often told that as labourers, our skills are always easily replaceable and thus this instills an unhealthy self-esteem with regards to our perspective on careers. I’ve realised that I’ve not been highlighting my strengths, both as an individual and an employee, in a strategic manner that allows potential employers to see beyond the surface of my paper qualifications.
I should be more confident in my abilities and let them speak for themselves rather than portraying myself as a weak individual.
What’s the most surprising insight you gained this week? My leisure activities are not bringing me as much value as I had thought they would.
What career opportunities have you thought about? A career involving food. I’m known in my social circle as a “foodie,” someone who’s often at the forefront of discovering new places to wine and dine. While I generally detest that label, it’s something I’ve been avoiding since there is no shortage of folks here who have established successful careers in food – be it in publishing, being a restaurateur, or being employed in the industry. I wish I could be involved in it in some way other than what I’ve mentioned above, but I can’t seem to put my finger on it.
Do you have any misconceptions or reservations about figuring out a career? I too often equate rejection from a job interview as being underqualified for the responsibilities asked. I should look at it slightly more optimistically as I am unsuited to the job requirements; my skill sets are desirable too!
What next steps could you take? I need to build up on my self-awareness and talk to my friends more about my personality traits and dispositions. It’s difficult finding out about yourself by yourself and I need to learn to take criticism and use it to highlight my strengths even more.
Anything else you want to share? The idea of equilibrium and balance has piqued my interest a lot in the last few years, but I’ve seemed to be musing about it a lot lately. Everyone’s idea of a career and what it can offer them varies between individuals. Ultimately, while I would love to have a career doing what I love, I need to put into perspective how that would come to play in the equilibrium of my life. Too often we become entities that are defined by our jobs and I very much dislike that idea. A career should offer me a piece of the pie (called fulfillment) but life is about balance; my sacrifices need to pay off in a wise way.
Jon F.
What’s the biggest lesson you learned this week? My career is not the same as my job.
What’s the most surprising insight you gained this week? Our baby was born this week, and so I took care of my wife’s usual work during the day raising our three other kids so that she could focus on caring for the newborn. It was a lot of work but it all felt really important because I could see who it was directly affecting, plus I already have a vision of how my labor now with the children will affect them forever.
So, now it’s back to “work” on Monday at my regular M-F job. This is hard because the projects at work don’t feel as important as the ones I just explained. Maybe because it’s harder to see how it affects others. One colleague once told me that the bottom line of our job is to make a profit so that we will have enough money to support our families. Well okay, but that reasoning isn’t enough to make me want to say, “Wow, I love my job so much that it’s worth sacrificing all this time to my employer.”
One nice thing about this Honesty Experiment is that it’s helping me take the time to look for what I value and what’s important to me so that I can merge that with my career.
What career opportunities have you thought about? I realized that I have some career goals that my job cannot provide. For example, my job is in water treatment but only a small niche in the overall industry. Yet, I yearn to know more than just my small niche. In order to meet these goals and expand my niche, I will need to find ways to accomplish them on my own initiative. The first way I thought of doing this was to work as a full-time 30 hrs/wk employee using the rest of the time to meet the career goals my job can’t provide.
The second way I thought of doing this and to expand my knowledge might be to keep a blog in which I interview others in order to learn about the parts of the industry my job doesn’t include.
Do you have any misconceptions or reservations about figuring out a career? I think the thing that prevents me from finding/recognizing my career is my tendency to think that “the grass is greener on the other side.”
What next steps could you take? Interview somebody who does something I’m interested in knowing more about.
What have you accomplished this month? I’ve done a lot of reflecting on the things I do and do not want to do on the job. I was able to be honest with myself about what is important personally and professionally and what isn’t. I am starting to see the pathway to creating a stable yet fulfilling career. I gained some new insight and tools as well.
What have you accomplished this month? – I had a little girl born into our family that reminded me the importance of having a job in order to help provide for my family’s temporal needs.
The Honesty Experiment 