Monthly Archives: January 2023

Considering a career move?

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The start of the new year is often a career transition time for people. We’ve heard much in the recent period about the great resignation, silent quitting, and remote work options being in demand. And we’ve seen significant layoffs in the tech industry and to an extent in healthcare providers dealing with significant financial challenges. If you or a colleague are considering a job change, some of my previous posts may be useful to revisit.

Career advice revisited is a list of posts providing career advice that I wrote prior to May 2021. I consider many of them “classics” that are still useful – they cover dealing with a competitive market, questions to ask yourself, interviewing and resume tips, and more.

Two more recent posts since that time provide additional perspective and advice. I wrote Reflections on recent career conversations after talking with many colleagues at the 2022 CHIME Fall Forum. And the post Paying it forward with career advice from late summer 2022 includes links to useful articles and tools for comparing opportunities and deciding whether to stay or go.

For more focused posts here are two more to check out – STEM or not, own your career and Know someone interested in a nursing career?

If you are looking for a career coach to help you through a transition, the post, When to use a career coach, could be helpful. I am happy to talk about how I might assist you.

Note – I am taking a short break from writing new posts the next few weeks. With all the blog posts I’ve written over the past 8 years, I’m using this break to share some of my “classics”. Thank you for being a subscriber – I hope you will encourage your colleagues to subscribe in the coming year.

New Year’s Resolutions – one month in

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Do you make new year’s resolutions? Do you share them with others for accountability? Do you use the new year as a time for reflection and goal setting?

I have made explicit resolutions in some years and not others. A few years ago, I framed them as intentions – they were balance, passion and engagement. Regardless of what form it takes, the start of a new year is a good time to reflect on the past year and plan for the coming year in both your professional and personal life.

My resolutions at the start of 2022 revolved around life/work balance and I’m happy to say I have made good progress. In 2022, my work schedule was very manageable, I spent more time with family (including fun times with grandkids), got a lot of exercise (including becoming a Pickleball addict), and vacationed without worrying about work.

More time with family may sound like a cliché – maybe more available to family is another way to say it. So, what are some examples of being available? When my daughters tell me about a game or performance that my grandkids are in, I now have the flexibility to say yes, I’ll be there. When my daughters ask if I can take care of their kids for a few days, I now can say yes. That included “Nana Camp” last summer. And when my sister’s husband passed away back home in Minnesota, I was able to spend extended time with her.

I am carrying all these positive 2022 changes and more into 2023. Continue reading →

Lessons from the road

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This is not a consultant’s or salesperson’s road warrior set of lessons. But rather observations and a few life lessons after a two-day drive home from Florida to Massachusetts. While my husband napped during one of my driving shifts, I had plenty of quiet time to think and observe. Here goes on my lessons from the road:

  • Without the big picture and context, it’s easy to make a mistake. That’s what happened when going around Washington DC day two. I lacked context for the different options. I took an exit based on how I interpreted the signage that caused us to get rerouted and sit in the rush hour traffic we were trying to avoid.
  • You need to ask yourself if shortcuts are worth it and at what cost if you are unsure of the outcome. Near DC, I took the express lane with high tolls when I wasn’t sure if I could exit in time for the next highway that I was supposed to take. My goal was to avoid DC rush hour traffic as much as possible, so it seemed worth it.
  • Estimated hours and schedules for anything is just that, an estimate. You never know what obstacles will get in the way to change it. Watching the ETA on your navigation system can give hope until you run into heavy traffic, accidents, or construction work and the ETA starts bouncing around. We ran into so much of all this on the way down to Florida that we had two 15 hour driving days instead of what was expected to be closer to two 10-hour days.
  • Alerts are great for awareness and/or taking action but you never know the true impact until you get in the middle of the situation. Our map/navigation app gives crash and hazard alerts, whether they have been cleared yet or not, and the number of minutes delay they will cause. In most cases, the delay was far longer than the initial alert said it would be.
  • The higher you go in an organization, the more uncertainty you face requiring a steady hand and focus on the goal. On the way home, we decided to take a route that avoided the big Northeast cities and all their traffic even if it meant more miles. At one point driving through Pennsylvania, we had about 45 minutes at 1600 feet altitude with very heavy fog and near zero visibility. My husband’s steady hand on the wheel was reassuring.
  • Everyone you talk to will have an opinion or advice, but you must decide what is right for you. People who make this trip regularly are willing to start off in the middle of the night to avoid rush hour in a big city. That so didn’t sound like something we would do so we left early morning each day.
  • Even two people make a team and teamwork is critical. Friends who have done this drive talk about doing 5 hour driving shifts before taking a break. Not us. My husband and I would drive as long as we each were comfortable and switched drivers often making our pit stops as efficient as we could. Fortunately, our two furry team members were perfect in the back seat – happily sleeping in between each stop.
  • Technology has changed the way we live and travel – duh! I’m old enough to remember when we used a paper trip tik book from AAA for family vacations as a kid. Probably many of you are old enough to remember when we used to have spiral bound paper map books for a state or city with the tiniest of print. Now we rely on smart car navigation systems and apps on our iPhones.

We spent two relaxing weeks visiting friends at their condo overlooking the ocean. The balcony was an awesome office with a view for keeping up on email each day and doing some time sensitive work calls. Daily morning beach walks and afternoon pickleball, lovely sunsets and moonrises, a few museums and some shopping, and seeing a midnight space launch from a 35 miles distance down the coast. Our two dogs behaved and got along well with their two dogs. Good news – we’re invited back next year. Now that we’ve done the long drive that many northerners do in the winter months to spend time in sunny Florida, we know what it takes and learned a few travel and life lessons along the way.