Good morning. It's Rohan with your latest Career Supplement, your personal mentorship email that takes a few minutes to read, but contains stuff that will speed up your career by years. |
In today's Mentor's Corner, we're tackling a crucial skill in your career toolkit: making smart decisions, especially when faced with a sea of choices. It's an odd truth: choices are meant to free us, but in excess, they can paralyze us and make us miserable. I'll break down why that is, as well as give you a few approaches I use to get 'unstuck'. |
Also, one more thing. We're nearing the end of 2023, so it's time for a little reflection. I'm curious: what's a win you've had this year? It could be something work-related, or not. Don't overthink it, just hit 'reply' and send me a 1-liner. |
Estimated read time: 4 minutes 5 seconds |
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📈 Mentor's Corner Insights put together by me or coaches who usually charge $750+/hour and mentor senior execs. One practical lesson a week that will make a measurable impact on your career, delivered right to you — for $0. |
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How to get 'unstuck' when making big decisions in your career: The paradox of choice |
Back in the day, choosing a career was pretty simple. |
You didn't. |
You did what your family did, or worked at the only job in the village, and that was that. People rarely switched careers, because there weren't 'careers' to go to. |
And as for 'career satisfaction'… |
Well, you did what you needed to feed your family, end of story. |
(Our ancestors stuck with careers for so long, they even got surnames attached to them: The Smiths, the Fishers, the Masons etc.) |
It sounds horrible, but the irony is… |
They were probably more 'satisfied' with their jobs than we are! |
Fast forward to the present, and take a look at the sheer number of jobs we can do nowadays: |
You can be a teacher, a content creator, an influencer, a business owner, a self-taught programmer specializing in one of 20 programming languages… |
Plus, the dizzying number of education options - from coding bootcamps, to career change schools, to part time MBAs and 'externships'… |
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The result of all this choice? |
We constantly second-guess ourselves, we can't relax & commit to one career, and we're left with a gnawing sense of FOMO: Did I make the right choice? |
It's a common theme I see in the questions I get in my inbox too, like this one from a few days ago (kinda paraphrased): |
"I'm stuck — I could stay at my current company and get promoted in 2 years. But I'm feeling a little 'bored'. I think it'd be cool to join a growing startup for something more exciting. That said, I could go back to school to formally learn programming and switch careers entirely. I could also just stick to my current role but move to another stable corporate job. Help?" |
Ultimately: |
More choices => more uncertainty. |
It's a real problem, so today I thought I'd offer up a few different perspectives that might help. |
Let's go. |
📈 Progress >> inaction |
When faced with a decision, we tend to freeze up, and agonize over picking the right fork in the road. |
A better solution? |
Start taking action down one path. Usually you can change your mind later anyway - choices aren't always as permanent as we think they are. |
After all, what's better: trying to figure out the best option for 6 months from the sidelines, or taking 3 months to try out each one? (The latter!) |
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🖐️ The "5/5/5" rule |
Smoked salmon vs. cream cheese? Java or Python? Should I marry Jane or Rachel? When faced with decisions big and small, I like the 5/5/5 rule: |
Will this matter in 5 days? 5 months? Or 5 years? |
This might help you understand the real weight of the decision and make it easier to choose. Often, many decisions we're 'stuck' on won't even matter in a few months, much less a few days. Recognizing that takes the pressure off. |
| | | | …by the way, if you use LinkedIn, go to my profile and hit the 'Follow' button. I share a mix of practical career strategy and mid-week motivation — stuff that makes it easy to keep your career on track.
Topics coming up there: tips for new managers, how to self-promote (without the cringe), and strategies to make you more memorable. See you there — say hi! | alright, let's get back to the essay… |
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🥲 Counteract FOMO with JOMO |
Instead of the Fear Of Missing Out, embrace the Joy Of Missing Out: |
The liberating feeling that by choosing one path, you're freeing yourself from the negatives of the other paths. |
Put a tad more… visually: the grass isn't always greener on the other side – sometimes it's dry, unkempt, and covered in dog poop. |
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🎲 Lower the stakes |
Where we often get in trouble is making huge, rash, life-altering decisions without having the full picture. |
IMO, a better approach is designing small, low-stakes experiments to test the waters. This way, you can gather information to make a more informed choice without needing to fully commit. |
Let's say you're trying to choose a career. |
Arranging a conversation with someone who's been in the industry for a while will help you figure out if you like it on an average Tuesday far more than watching a trendy Netflix series or a Youtube ad. |
Another example: |
You're thinking about switching careers to become a UX designer: you want to design web and mobile user interfaces for companies. But you're not sure you're going to love it. |
A low-stakes experiment you could run is to do a freelance design project. Sign up as a freelancer on platforms like Fiverr or Upwork, and do a small 10-hour project at a low entry-level rate. You'll deal with real clients, real deadlines, real problems and get a much clearer picture than you would otherwise. |
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🧊 You don't make the right decision… |
When I was agonizing over making a decision between two good options, a mentor told me: |
"You don't make the right decision, you make the decision right." |
It sounds weird, but it's freeing. If there's no "perfect decision", then you're free to pick either and make the best you can of it. |
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That's a wrap. If that struck a chord, please do either one of the following: |
Forward this email to people who might need it, and tell them about my emails. It takes me ~20 hours researching and writing each of these coaching emails. Sharing it takes just 10 seconds and helps me get my thoughts out there. Leave a review on my emails, or shoot me a reply so I know what resonated and how I could make the next one better.
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🔎 Speed Up Your Job Search One actionable piece of advice to help you hack your job search. |
How to write an executive or senior-level resume |
Read the full article here. |
If you're a senior job seeker — or an executive — you'll find this especially useful. Even if you aren't, skim through it anyway since a couple of these learnings apply to resumes at all stages. |
Hiring managers expect different things from senior-level candidates than they do from mid- or junior-level applicants. Here are three examples: |
🗣️ Highlight leadership and management experience. Tell hiring managers about the teams you led or how many direct reports you have. "Directed team of 5 to ..." can be a good phrase to use. |
🧐 Leave off your graduation dates if they're 12+ years old to avoid age discrimination. Plus, leave off outdated software or skills (e.g. Windows XP). |
📈 Emphasize promotions, particularly in your job titles. Bold titles that show obvious progression, like Vice President -> Director -> Managing Director. |
🎯 You should also use a tool like Score My Resume to find out if your resume is effective enough — at any career level — including senior, mid and entry-level. It'll tell you if you've overlooked any mistakes that hiring managers look out for. Try it now. |
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If you're new here, let's get the intros out of the way. |
I'm Rohan. Six years ago, I found myself frustrated with the sea of misleading career advice online, so I started Resume Worded. The goal was simple: provide guidance that actually works. |
But resumes were only the tip of the iceberg. There was a lot of clichéd, generic career advice out there. So, I started this email series. Each week, I talk about real career strategy, informed not only by my experiences but by my conversations with industry leaders, senior coaches who train CEOs, and people with way more experience than I have. |
Every email you receive is written by me, not a ghostwriter. I'm here, on the other end, reading your replies. |
Until next time, |
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Rohan @ Resume Worded |
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What'd you think of today's edition? |
👍 I loved it. |
🤔 Pretty average, step it up. |
🤢 You didn't bring enough value. |
Here's a recent review — thanks for making my morning, Rachel! |
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P. S. To make sure your career never goes off the rails, don't miss my future emails. A simple way to make sure you get each email is: |
If you're using Gmail, hit the 3 dots at the top-right corner, and choose Move to -> Primary. Or drag this email to Primary if you're on your computer. If you're using Apple Mail, tap on our email address at the top of this email (next to "From:" on mobile) and click "Add to VIPs.".
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