Career Advice with a Financial Twist

Podcast Summary

Title: Career Advice with a Financial Twist

In this episode, the old jarhead dives into career advice with an insightful financial twist. Drawing from an email he received from a financial planner, he explores four crucial areas for career success.

Key Takeaways:

• Set Clear Career Goals:
• Define where you want to be in the next few years.
• Goals could range from advancing to a management position to achieving technical mastery.
• Example: Our host set a goal of becoming a project leader within two years and it kept him focused and motivated.

• Measure Progress:
• Break down your ultimate goal into intermediate steps.
• Regularly measure your progress and adjust your plans as needed.
• Example: For an advanced degree, outline what needs to be accomplished each year to achieve it within four years.

• Keep Emotions in Check:
• Maintain composure during professional setbacks or when others receive recognition you sought.
• Writing out thoughts can help process emotions and bring mental clarity.
• Seeking feedback calmly can reveal areas for improvement and turn perceived losses into growth opportunities.

• Seek Professional Help (Mentorship):
• Just as financial planners offer valuable advice, mentors can provide guidance on career decisions.
• Find someone who can offer honest, constructive feedback and has your best interests at heart.

Final Thought:

Transform financial advice into actionable career strategies by setting clear goals, measuring progress, managing emotions, and finding a mentor. This holistic approach will undoubtedly guide you to professional success.

Call to Action:

Stay tuned for next week's episode! Don't forget to share this podcast with friends who might benefit from these insights.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

All right, listen up, it's the old jarhead back again, to give you some great financial advice Advice that is guaranteed. What did I say? Financial Whoa? That's not correct. It's career advice, but today it has a financial twist. So I'm going to give you some good advice today, and it's based on an email I got from a financial planner on the four areas to focus in for financial success and I looked at it. I thought this is a reasonable approach. It was basically you set goals, you measure your progress, keep emotions in check and work with professionals Kind of a pitch to hire them right, but anyhow. So I thought maybe there's some good nuggets in here and how it could apply to your career. So let's get going on thinking about that. So let's take a look at those four areas, those four focus areas, and how they may apply to your career.

Speaker 1: 1:05

First is goals. Bottom line. You need to set them for your career. How can you have professional growth if you don't know what you want to grow to be? You got to have it right Now.

Speaker 1: 1:17

Growth can be in a lot of ways. One might be where you want to go from where you are to a management position. Another may be more technical, something like becoming a master plumber or getting your PhD in engineering. So what you need to do is to think about where you would like to be in a period of time such as maybe a couple to five years, and then that becomes your goal. I know, when I started with my last company, I was hired as a senior analyst, but I set a goal for myself to become a project leader within two years and a program manager within five. Those goals kept me focused on the sorts of projects and customers that I wanted to work with, and ultimately I progressed faster and I was a PM in about three years, but I knew where I wanted to go. So think about where you would like to be in the future and make that your goal.

Speaker 1: 2:12

So next measure progress right. Second step it's essential to keeping your goal. You need to set intermediate goals. In my case, my ultimate goal was to become a PM within five years, but the step I needed to take to get there was to become a project leader. So that was my way of measuring success toward my ultimate goal of being a PM. So do the same for yourself. If you want to get an advanced degree within, say, the next four years. Think about what you need to do over those four years that will lead to that degree and measure your progress.

Speaker 1: 2:47

Too many people fool themselves by setting a far off large goal, but do not set intermediate goals to measure their progress and when the time comes close that they said they wanted to achieve their goal, they're not even near where they should be. Don't be like them. Set intermediate goals and measure your progress and if you get off track, think about why you got off track and how you can adjust your plans or either make your goals different than you initially intended. You may have to push your goals further out, but don't beat yourself up over this. Just realize that sometimes other priorities, like family and health, take over and you need to adjust your final and intermediate goals. Do it then. Get back on track, okay.

Speaker 1: 3:30

Moving on the third one, keep emotions in check. So this was focused on market volatility and the need to stay the course during periods of market volatility to achieve long-term financial goals. Right, okay, roger. Same thing could be said about your professional life. Let's say, a coworker gets the advancement that you want or somebody gets more credit for a project that you should have gotten that recognition for. You can't let your emotions get the better of you. It will do you no good.

Speaker 1: 4:00

This is a good time to write out your thoughts on your own. Keep this writing to yourself. Write them out, maybe even more than once. Okay, I found that that helps too. Throw the first one out. Start all over again. It settles your mind and gives you the calmness that is essential should, for example, you want to talk to your boss about why you didn't get that promotion or project credit. Asking for this feedback in a calm, professional manner could do a couple things. One is make the boss aware of your feelings about the situation. Maybe she did not realize that you wanted a promotion, but the best reason for this is that you may learn of a weakness you have, but you did not know, and so now you can work to eliminate that weakness. Now you've turned what you thought was a loss into something positive. So keep your emotions in check.

Speaker 1: 4:52

Finally, the focus on getting professional help. What the financial advisor tried to get across was to hire them to manage your financial investments, but for us, I think this could mean get a mentor, even an informal one, somebody who can guide you and is willing to give you advice that you may not want to hear, but need to hear Someone who has your best interests at heart and is able and willing to give you the time. And it really helps if it's somebody you just enjoy being around. Okay, so there you have it. Financial advice turned into career advice by the old jarhead have a goal, measure progress, keep your emotions in check and get a mentor. I guarantee you this will help. Thanks for listening and tell your friends and look forward to next week's Bye, thank you, thank you.