Get Off the Sofa and Chase Experiences
May 01, 2022
If you follow me on Facebook, you might know I'm a camper--like sort of a big-time camper. My wife and I have now driven to Montana twice in the past three years, camping in national parks, friends' driveways, and Walmart parking lots (who knew that was available and free?). We are planning an eight-week cross country adventure in the coming months. It all started in 2009 with The Festy Experience (a bluegrass music festival in the Blue Ridge mountains), a jeep and a tent and has evolved to an Ford F150 and a 19 foot trailer, and lots of music festivals and National Parks. We've seen sites we could have never imagined, experienced the outdoors via kayaks and bikes and hikes, and danced in the moonlight at music festivals all over. And we've only just begun.
But we would have never become such enthusiasts without getting that first experience. It wasn't actually all that great. We liked the music part, the outdoors, the togetherness, the remoteness. But the hard ground, the late night partiers, the rain--not so much. So we iterated (is that a word--to iterate?). We invested a little more--a little more money in a small teardrop camper, a little more commitment with a trailer spot at the next music festival, and little more time with a few more weekends in state parks. And we liked it more. And we got better at it. And we refined our skills at camping. And we realized we liked camping remotely as much or more than music festivals. So, we stepped it up again. Bigger truck, bigger camper, longer trips, more adventure. And we fell more deeply for the experiences. I don't think we could have ever gotten to an eight-week trip across country without first taking baby steps.
Ready for the road!
So it is with career pursuits. Many job seekers try to "google" their way to their next career. Career pursuit from the sofa, I like to call it. But when you job search from the sofa, you might not really understand your options. You might not really know what you want or what you are good at. And chances are, you probably won't have what the job requires. Here's an alternative: get off the sofa and chase experiences. Experiences might start with phone calls to people doing what you are considering, or maybe with visits to companies you might consider. Experiences might include working on projects using the skills you are considering using. Taking an online course to certify a skill or confirm an interest. Visiting cities you are considering living in. Maybe step it up to an internship in the field in which you are interested. Maybe committing and moving to that city you want to work in. In design thinking, we call these ideas prototypes--experiments to test out possibilities. In the process, you gain knowledge about what you like and what you are good at, and start developing skills and experiences that might attract the attention of a hiring manager.
If you'd like help getting off the sofa, designing your next steps, and chasing experiences, drop me a note. I'd love to help.
