It’s the end of March, and the completion of month seven in the fellowship and at my host company. Now is the time where the question starts to circulate:
“What are you doing after the fellowship?”
Both from my friends, my fellow fellows, and my host company, are all curious to hear my plan for my next step. For many fellows this can be a big decision, Will I stay at my host company? Has my host company even offered me a position post-fellowship? Do I stay in Detroit? Am I going to grad school? It can seem so stressful. But these are healthy questions, not just for positions like mine in a year-long fellowship commitment, but for anyone ready to take that next step in their adult life.
I’ve found it overwhelming to tackle all the questions at once, so lately so I’ve tried to focus on the features that I know I want for my future employment position, and my ideal future employer. Here are a few that I’ve come up with:
- I need to feel valued. Sometimes, hearing that affirmation that your hard work is paying off can make a difference in the overall experience at a job.
- I want to share the beliefs and the mission of my employer. I find that it can be hard to put 100% into something that you don’t quite believe in. I want to find something that I can get excited about, day after day, and that I can feel comfortable sharing my personal opinions and passions with the company.
- I want to stay in Detroit. What does my commute look like? Proximity matters to me when finding an ideal job. You’d be amazed what an extra 20-30 minutes in the morning and afternoon put on your day… sitting in a car.
- I need to feel comfortable in my workspace. My working environment makes a big difference in the level of productivity I can crank out in a day. This can range from the people that I work with, to the physical walls that surround the office (or the coffee shop I work remotely out of).
- I need to be motivated. This encompasses a little bit of everything listed above. If I’m not motivated for the task or the work that I am doing directly, then waking up every morning can get pretty difficult – day in and day out.
At the beginning of March, I traveled with my host company to Las Vegas, Nevada for the annual Channel Partners Conference and Expo at Mandalay Bay. During the three-day conference, my company hosted an open-house-style meeting, which comprised of an outdoor cabana party out by the pool (I’m not complaining!). As Marketing Coordinator, it was primarily my responsibility to ensure that everything went smoothly – while at the same time finding time to network with other marketing contacts from other companies to help strategize our marketing relationship together for the upcoming year. This “cabana party” ran from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. At times, I felt like a chicken with my head cut off. Luckily everything went smoothly, and we received very positive feedback from the attendees.
However, there was a turning point in that nine-hour stretch, I guess you could call it my “wall” for all of you runners out there. I felt exhausted and almost at my breaking point, being pulled in all directions, and all it took were the words of one person to turn my attitude around: “You’re doing a good job.” That’s it. He recognized I was very overwhelmed and simply did the courtesy of sharing with me that affirmation that my hard work was recognized and it was paying off. This is when I realized the power of being valued. If you can be valued, and supported at your place of work, and know that your hard work is paying off and it is something you feel passionate about… I say you’ve found a great place to develop your career. I’ve found that, for myself at least, those five simple words of encouragement make the biggest difference, and it helped me discover where my values lie in finding a good fit for me in my future.