10 Common Career Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

In today's episode we discuss the 10 common things individuals transitioning from the military to civilian careers often make.

00:00 Welcome to Beyond the Military Podcast
00:55 10 Common Career Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
02:03 Personal Journey and Overcoming Overwhelm
04:27 The Importance of Networking and Applying
09:18 Common Career Mistakes Detailed
28:18 The Solution: Planning and Taking Action
30:09 Final Encouragement and How to Connect
31:20 Closing Remarks and Community Invitation

Full Show notes: https://wendiwray.com/229

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Transcript

0:00

Hey sis, welcome to Beyond the Military Podcast, where faith led military women overcome burnout and create more balance. Just imagine having enough time to focus on your faith, family, and have more fun while still serving as a woman leader. In this podcast, you will walk away with the tools to help you navigate the busy life of a military woman, organize your mind, overcome overwhelm, create a prioritization playbook, and a balanced blueprint for integrating faith, family, and career. Yeses in that order. Hi, I'm Wendi Wray, woman of God, wife, mama of two, army veteran, and certified life coach. And I'm here to help you create a life of meaning outside of the military, a life of laughter, joy, and intentional free time. If you are ready to overcome burnout and create balance as a faith led military woman, sis, this podcast is for you. So loosen up your laces and grab your coffee because it's time to step into freedom and peace

Wendi: 0:55

so today I am going to share with you the 10 common career mistakes that you might be making and how to avoid them. So I hope that you're ready, that you are going to take some notes. Alright, so this is for you if you are someone that has no idea where to go from where you are with your military transition in your career for the military. So if you are someone that has been applying or has looked at some opportunities, but or are networking and haven't received any job offers, this is for you too. And this is also for you. If you're not excited about the career search, if you're not excited about the next chapter, because listen, the most important thing that I always encourage my clients. To to do is to feel excited to have fun with this because it's truly a journey. It's not something that you are going to do perfectly. I didn't do perfectly. And so I want to share with you my story and share with you how I've helped my clients, and this is what this is all about. So if this is you, I'm happy that you're here. Welcome. And the reason being, again, going back to. My journey and how it impacted me personally for most of you it's possible that you don't know what exactly that you want, like what exact position, job role, what company that you want. And that was me. I felt lost. And I also believed that I wasn't qualified. You may be believing the same thing or maybe thinking about it, right? Maybe it's sneaking up on you when you are ready to take some action, maybe apply for a specific role. They're like, okay, I don't think I have all the qualifications. So I'm just going to go ahead and look at something more more entry level type. And so that's you. Let me know, drop it in the comments. Feeling overwhelmed. That was me all the time. And again, one of the reasons why I am so passionate about sharing with you, either through a newsletter, through a live, through a post, through my podcast, which by the way, if you're not tuning in to be on the military podcast, I want to invite you to join me where you can listen every week and on a different topic or that will help you with your career transition. But for me, I felt overwhelmed. I felt so overwhelmed that I didn't want to take action. I was stuck. And that did not help me at all. And so my hopes for you is to not get stuck into the overwhelm because it's okay. It's going to happen, right? You're going to feel overwhelmed. There's no way out of it. There's no way out of feeling self doubt, out of feeling rejected because we're going to get rejected. But when we can embrace it and we can allow the overwhelm to be there and still take action, that's what's powerful. And so this is why I continue to show up. To encourage you to take on all the negative emotions and also encourage you to take action. And so like I was saying, when we are feeling in a or we're feeling discouraged or overwhelmed, we then don't take action. We don't decide on a career role. We wait till the last minute. To figure out what we want to do when we're like 90 days out. We don't network. Why? Because we don't have the confidence. We're like, okay, this is stressful. This is challenging. This is overwhelming. Why do I need to go out there and show up? Or even worse, we don't apply, which I think for the most part, if you're not networking, you need to be applying. Yes. You need to do your resume. Yes. You need to work on little things like looking up job descriptions and figuring out your skills and everything else. But most importantly. You need to be networking and applying. So for me, I had no idea one, what I was going to be doing. And then two, I wasn't active on LinkedIn. I wasn't actively networking. And of course I wasn't applying. I had no idea. So why would I be applying? So for me, it was more of a detrimental point where I had to wait till the last minute and do things that I never really considered, you know, wait till the last minute. I was finding anything and everything to distract myself to taking my post military career seriously. So my hope for you is that we don't do that. And one of the things that I've heard, and at least for me too, was that it was my resume that was a problem. And I don't know if that's for you, if it's the same for you, but that was for me. I considered my resume to be the main problem. And so yes, it has, you know, we can evaluate and we can refine it and we can do better with the resumes. But at the end of the day, It doesn't matter the amount of applications that we submit if we're not making it better, if we're not understanding and evaluating how we can make it better. And so today I want to offer you that yes, partial, it is your resume and it is the roles that you are considering, but most importantly, I want you to have an open mind. And my goal for you is to feel determined to spend a lot of your time, especially if you're within six months of your transition, 90 days of your transition is to spend your time either applying or networking. And I'm going to go over here why in a minute, but I want to encourage you to start doing this. And if you're not, it's completely okay. It's, oh, it's completely okay. Listen, I feel so much shame. I feel discouraged. I feel all of that. And today I want to invite you to not feel that way. And if you have, that's okay. Completely okay. We've all made mistakes. We've all had a different plan or different journey with our transition and will have a different journey with our transition. I also don't want you to feel stuck in the shame and disappointment of discouragement, because I mean, I've already made my mistakes and almost all of these mistakes that will be going over I made, and I want to empower you today. I want to encourage you to focus on applying and networking. If you get anything out of this webinar, out of this live, Is to really start honing in on applying and networking. And here's why. The one thing that will get you hired is obviously you applying. And also one thing that will get you hired quicker is your networking. But here's the thing, if you are applying and you're networking and you're not showing up with certainty and confidence, then that hiring manager is not going. That company, that team is not going to hire you. If you're not certain about you getting the job done based on your skills and experience. And so today, so today I want to invite you to go determined to go and apply and network. But with certainty and confidence, certainty and the value that you bring, and also what you can do with the skills and experience that you've developed throughout your time. So today, again, I want to remind you that it's okay. If you already made some of these mistakes, I've made them too. But I want to encourage you to not make or continue to make these mistakes because it's going to possibly affect you. Your career after the military and the last thing we want to do is to continue to be a statistic and not follow through or go through our 1st career or 1st role after the military and be miserable. But then that leads into so many other things and so today I encourage you to focus on these 10 common career mistakes. And focus on how you can now fix them and continue to feel determined, to feel encouraged, because listen, it's going to happen. It's going to suck. We're going to have those days where we're like, okay, what's happening here? Why am I not landing an opportunity? I have so much potential and I know that I can actually do the job, get the job done. All right. So the first thing is underestimating the proc the process, underestimating the process of your transition. I'll, I'm sorry. Why Would we do this or why do we do this because we're so focused on the current job. I'm guilty of it. I used to do this all the time with getting away with focusing on my transition and then I would wait and then say that I didn't have time. I didn't make time. And then I was just saying, well, you know what? I just need a job, really, at this point, I'll take anything. And so when we're thinking in this way and we're underestimating the process of the transition, the connections, the people around us, either on LinkedIn, here on LinkedIn, or our friends other veterans have transitioned out. They're like, okay, well, they're not ready for a new career. They're open to anything. I have no idea. I can't help them. There's too much, right? You're giving too many options. So people can't really help you if you are thinking about the transition in this way. How do you know that you're doing that? You only consider immediate job opportunities. Without a long term career plan. And so if this is you, listen, I get it. It's going to happen, but I want to invite you to just focus on how can you make small changes today? Mistake number two, lack of research. I am guilty of this too. I didn't have. Or make time really for anything that involved how and how exactly can I transition into this new location? How would I get this done? What's required of it? I didn't do any of that until the very end. I didn't start until I was like 90 days out. So again, your connections aren't clear of your interests. How do you know you're doing that? You're applying to roles without fully understanding the responsibilities or the expectations. And this leads you to a mismatch in your next opportunity. You're possibly just signing up to whatever opportunities out there. You're like, I'll take it. I have no idea what the company does. I have no idea what the role require, but I'll take it. Mistake number three, we avoid continuous learning. Why do we do this? Because we're, we're reluctant to new methodologies, possibly new technologies. And again, we're like, well, we have no idea what we're going to land on. So why focus my time? I don't have enough time is another reason. And then our connection then assumes, right. Or possibly thinks that we're not interested or as interested in the new career. So we're not setting ourselves apart. They're like, well, this person has no idea how to do any project management or any program management. Why would we hire them? Why would we hire her specifically? And again, how do we know? How do you know if this is happening or you're doing this? Because you're not pursuing additional education, certifications. Anything that will not only build on to your skills, but also set you apart as an, as a professional. And listen, like I said before, this is something that we do sometimes unconsciously. We're like, we're fine. We got all the experience. I have my evaluations here, but unfortunately, we don't. We are not taking the time to continue with our learning, our education, certifications. This doesn't just mean a degree. It means training, additional mentorship. So if this is you, I want you to take a moment and just write down right now what continuous learning you could be possibly doing or being involved in. It could be a PHR, it could be a PMP, certification in cyber security, whatever it is for you, leadership, learning and development. Oh, and my favorite, mistake number four, imposter syndrome. If you haven't gotten, or haven't felt, I should say, a little bit of self doubt, a little bit of imposter syndrome, then maybe you are not looking at roles. That are at the level that you've actually had a position in the military. And this is what I mean. If you're like, okay, this is, this is easy. I can apply. I think I check all the blocks here, then you haven't looked at other, other more senior or more mid level opportunities. And so. If you are someone that you're like, okay, well, starting all over, I have lack of confidence and my new self concept, or you're underestimating your potential, then that means you're going through imposter syndrome. And here's the thing. It's okay if this comes up for you. The reason being is because it's something new, right? It's our brain is going to tell us, well, you can't do it, Wendy, because you have no idea. About a specific environment, a specific company. And so you want to be careful when this comes up, I want you to just embrace it and lean into it. It's okay if it comes up, but I also want you to be aware of it, right? We don't want to get sucked in. And this is what I mean. Don't get sucked in into the imposter syndrome, embrace it. It's going to happen. It's normal. Everything is okay. Nothing's gone wrong. If you feel this way, if you get sucked in and you're like, okay, I'm just not going to apply to the mid level or I'm just going to say entry level positions, then your connections again, are going to be unsure. And this could be a recruiter. This could be one of your veteran buddies that transitioned years ago and now they're in a hiring manager management position, or they know of hiring managers that could help you. But if they're unsure of what you are looking for, and you, they know that you are actually competent for a different position that they're not going to refer you. They're going to be hesitant to refer you. So again, how do you know if this is happening to you? You're letting the fear of making mistakes prevent you from taking action, applying, or even get you into a new opportunity. Mistake number five, underestimating your transferable skills. Ladies, this, I get a lot. I, they, they come to me and they're like, okay, well, this is the only thing that I have, or I don't have company time. I've never been a platoon sergeant and you know, I think I can only do X, Y, Z. You know, this is the only skills that I have. And they forget of the squad leader position or even a platoon leader. Or a staff leader and are unaware that they're underestimating it, right? And the reason we do this is because we have lack of knowledge and we forget about the soft skills such as leadership position, teamwork, problem solving, forget about that. It's easy to forget. And so if this is you and you're like, Oh, oops, I need to go fix that. I recommend that you do that. And the connections, again, the recruiters, hiring managers, they cannot identify. What is going to set you apart? Because you haven't identified it. So how are they supposed to now figure this out on your behalf if this is something that you failed to do to begin with? And again, how do you know you're failing to translate the military skills that you have into the civilian terms that are on your LinkedIn profile? I see this a lot too. Sometimes I don't see any skills on anyone's profile, either on the headline, on the about section. And now it's hard for potential connections, hiring managers, or even veterans that could potentially connect you to an opportunity to fully see everything that you bring to the table. Trust me, people are not going to do digging if they don't have to. It's a waste of their time. So help them out and annotate all the skills that are going to be transferable for a specific position that you were looking at either on your LinkedIn profile, on your resume, or during the interview. Mistake number six, ignore the importance of cultural fit. This is the big one you all. This is something that I had no idea. No one told me and said, Wendy, you need to make sure that the culture of this company that you're getting into It's something that you prioritize and you value. No one said that to me. So I hope that today, if you get anything out of this too, again, focus on the culture of that and that company, that employer. And the reason this happens is because we're unsure of our own values. We're like, what are we valuing here? Work life balance, you know, their mission. You know, what, what are we valuing? And so there's a lack of understanding of what that company value is. And we sometimes don't even consider it. We're like, okay, that's the last thing on my list, but I highly encourage you and recommend that you begin here when you're looking at companies, right? I always think about this when dating, you know, you don't necessarily immediately sign up to marry someone without really digging deep into their values. What do they value? What's important to them? This is a relationship. And in order for you to understand. What the company values are, you first have to understand what your values are and really be a hundred percent in regardless of what that company's values are, because then you're able to make a decision. Okay. This company is not for me. I need to move on to the next one. And then when you do do that, you're able to then an actual candid, genuine conversation with the hiring manager or an interview panel and really asking questions. Regarding the company culture and what is it exactly, right? Cause we need to ask real questions. You all, I'm tired of the general questions. Don't do it. Don't recommend it. All right. So your connection, hiring managers, people that come to your profile, people that you're talking to are going to perceive you as not being prepared. Like this person may not be here for over a year. This person may not be a good fit for a company. And so how do you know, again, in interviews, It could lead into you not having an actual opportunity because one, you haven't researched a company. Two, you have no idea what to ask because Again, it's something that you haven't explored, haven't even considered. Mistake number seven, we overlook the salary. Another one of my favorite ones. I had no idea what salary I was aiming for, looking for, didn't even do any research. So if you're like, okay, why am I overlooking the salary? Because there's lack of research on that specific area. And then we believe that we're unqualified or maybe don't check all the blocks, but we're not fully qualified and we don't even factor in the cost of living. Hello. We're not getting basic housing allowance anymore. So we need to be able to factor that in. And be honest with ourselves. Are we going to be able to take on this salary based on what I've been looking at at this location based on what my needs are? And if the answer is yes, then we need to do some negotiation or we need to move on to a different role. We'll meet those needs. And so again, your connection is not going to obviously see this unless you put it on your recruiter on your LinkedIn profile. It asks you specifically if there's a salary range, and I encourage you to start there. Let's focus on not wasting anyone's time. Let's not waste a recruiter's time. Let's not waste a hiring manager's time. Let's not waste your time. If you're looking at an opportunity that's 120, 000 a year, put it on there. Don't apply for opportunities that will only be able to pay you 100, 000 if you are not willing to take that 20, 000 cut. And another thing to also consider the bonuses, the performance bonuses that are provided. Let's not overlook this. And how do you know you won't negotiate or you have an unrealistic expectation of your salary? And so again, I want to encourage you focus on this as much as possible as well, because I did. And it was a terrible idea on my part. Mistake number eight, poor self marketing. Another one of my favorites. And honestly, all of these are my favorites, but poor self marketing. Why do we do this? We're not on social media. We're not on LinkedIn. We're not developing a brand that's going to highlight our unique skills and experiences. Why are we doing this? Because we haven't done the other work. We haven't really asked ourselves, what role am I really serious about? What position, what career path am I really looking for? And so we're not as certain, right? When we're not certain, we're not confident. When we're not confident, we're not taking action. And so if this is you, I want you to take a deep breath and it's okay. And I want you to start today. And so your connection, anyone here on LinkedIn, one may not find you because you're not on LinkedIn, may not connect with you or may not connect you with hiring managers because you're not on there or you're not networking to begin with because You have no idea what you want to do. You feel lost. You feel exhausted. You're overwhelmed. You have self doubt going in, creeping in. So now you wait to the last minute and you're figuring out why you can't get a job. And then two, this will be noticed during an interview. You will share with your interview panel or your hiring manager that's interviewing you that you have no idea who you really are and what you can bring to the table at times. And I'm not saying that you're doing this, but it's a possibility that they can smell it and they will notice it. How do you know you're doing this? Because you're creating resumes and LinkedIn profiles that do not, do not showcase your achievements, do not showcase anything about what you offer, not only on LinkedIn, on social media, but also in person events and interviews. And so I encourage you to really take a moment to think And ask yourself today, am I marketing myself as I should on LinkedIn, the platform, very powerful platform or in person, because it does show. Mistake number nine, inadequate networking, going back to the self marketing part, right? We have limited connections. If we're not on LinkedIn, if we're not connecting, if we're not networking on LinkedIn, if we're not reaching out, we're not confident in our self concept. What is a self concept? Your values and your skills, the experience that you bring to the table. So you're not going to network. And again, your connections or the people that you know, can't trust To refer you to someone because you have no idea what you want to do. So they're not going to do it. They're not wasting their time. And then how do you know you fail to build a professional network? Trust me, I did this. I wish I could go back in time and not do this. I didn't seek out mentors. I wish I did. That would help me, guide me, support me, provide valuable insights on what they did, what helped them. This is what I mean about inadequate networking, connecting with other humans on LinkedIn, posting, posting on LinkedIn, asking questions, asking questions, powerful questions are going to lead you to great connections, building a great, powerful network. So if you're not doing this, I want to encourage you to do this. All right. And number 10, I will say by far the most important. By far, especially if you're a mom, if you are someone that is in a relationship or in a long term relationship, or even in a leadership position right now, I want you to begin to focus on taking care of yourself. And this doesn't just mean going to the spa or getting your nails done. But what I do mean is taking the time to just be okay with where you are and allowing your emotions, allowing yourself to be you, even when we get rejected. Now, why do we do this? Because we possibly started late. Maybe we've been rejected a couple of times. Maybe we haven't had a resume that's gone through the application tracking system. Maybe we feel discouraged and we're like, you know what? We're just going to do this until we're like on terminal leave or whenever you need to get to work. And so your connections are going to notice. They're going to know that you are not taking care of yourself. Either you're, again, you're not, you're not interacting. You're not reaching out for help. And that is also noticeable when we can't say, Hey, I need a little bit of help. Or, Hey, I'm struggling. I need someone's help to connect me with others. And again, you're not prioritizing your own self care, possibly sleep. That's big for me. If I'm not sleeping, I'm not doing well. I feel burnt out, tired, exhausted. And my hopes for you is that you don't go through that and that you focus on how you can take care of yourself as best as possible. So you're prepared, prepared when you get that call, when you get a recruiter's email saying, Hey, we noticed your LinkedIn profile. We noticed that you're interested in these roles. Let's get on a 10 minute, 15 minute call. Do it. And we don't want you showing up tired, exhausted, low energy. Which I know it's tough and in the environment that you're already in, but I promise you the more you take care of yourself, the more you're able to be ready and prepared, the easier it will get. And so, okay Wendy, we know the 10 mistakes. What's my solution here? How can I fix all of this? And it's simple. I just want you to plan. You know how to plan. You've been doing this for the amount of years that you've been in the military and even longer. And I want you to take action today. Here is the blueprint of a place for you to begin, if anything, a place for you to start, plan the process, do your research, register for learning programs, deal with the self doubt, embrace the skills that you have attained, align your values with the company that you're aspiring to work for, and please negotiate your salary. If there is a salary that a range that says 100 to 150, I need you to go for the most as possible, especially if you are confident that you can get the job done and more, that's what we do. And then I also want you to market yourself here on LinkedIn in person, go to events, attended networking events, even if they are online like this one, and please take care of yourself, place your well being in at the very top of the list. Should have done that here, but you get where I'm going with this. All of this is going to help you to show up with certainty and confidence. So if there's anything that you get from this live, even if you're here live or on replay, I encourage you to show up with certainty and confidence, just like you did in the military, just like you do in uniform. You can show up in this way. Unfortunately, you won't be able to do all of this This is 30 minute call that we have here today. But I do want to encourage you to begin. And if you're like me and you need some accountability, and you need someone to help you along the way, I want to invite you to send me a direct message and all you have to do is send a direct message with the word career DME personally with the word career, and I'll reach out to you and I'll be happy to help you. We'll schedule a call, see where you are. What gaps you need to fill and help you to get to the next level of your transition. I hope you feel excited because listen, it's not going to be easy. I get it. But I also want to encourage you to start now, regardless of where you are. If you're a year out, if you're six months out, I want to encourage you To start today. All right, well, this is all that I have, and if you are here with me live, I would like you to post on the comments and let me know that you are here. And if you're in a replay, send me a direct message that you've listened to the very end with the word LinkedIn profile. All right, have a beautiful rest of your day. Talk to you all soon Hey lady, if this podcast helped you, challenged you or inspired you in some way, please leave me a written review for the show on Apple Podcasts and share it with another military sister. Helping you integrate balance, prioritization and growth in your relationship with God is my ultimate calling. I'm so blessed that you are here and please join us in the faith led military women community on Facebook at bit. ly forward slash beyond the military GRP. Again, it is. Bitly beyond the military GRP. All right. Talk to you soon. Bye