Are You Driving Your Career, Or Is The Pandemic?

A few weeks ago, I published a post of LinkedIn: “If you are not in the driver’s seat of your career, someone else will be.”

A reader commented: “Immense unemployment offers unique challenges for the career. Picking up choices or be in the driver’s seat?”

He posed a question that many of us are facing during this pandemic; should I take up any job that comes my way, regardless of my experience, education, and skill-set? With my organization restructuring, should I take up the role offered to me even if it’s twice the responsibility and half the pay? Should I move my family halfway across the country to take up work in an industry that I’m barely familiar with? 

I was recently faced with a similar question. As I reflected on his comment, I found that these five things help us take charge of our careers and always be in the driver’s seat, pandemic or not! 

How can we be in the driver’s seat of our career?

1. Our attitude

There is only a small difference between picking up choices or being in the driver’s seat: our attitude. We can pick up choices as a submission to the situation we are in, or as a means to grow into diverse careers. It is our attitude that allows us to bring a positive spin on any challenge we face. If you don’t have the luxury to say no to the career option presented to you, think about whether you are accepting that option passively or actively. Active decision-making means you continuously strive to learn from your experience and see this experience as a piece in the large jigsaw puzzle that is your career. 

2. Having a BATNA

I love the idea of BATNA and talked about this concept in my post on salary negotiation “What I learned from my experience with salary negotiation.” BATNA stands for Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement, a term introduced by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton in their bestseller Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. Having a fallback option, that is, a BATNA is crucial if you want to always be in charge of your career.

Here’s how having a BATNA worked out for me:

I worked in the US on a visa, and unfortunately for me, my company did not file a green card. By the time I finally self-petitioned, the priority date had retrogressed by several years. Noting that several of my colleagues had to relocate their families due to visa considerations, as a backup, I applied for Canadian PR and got accepted. So, when I was asked by my company to transfer back to my home country, I was able to choose to reject the offer and keep my family in North America. 

I share this personal story to encourage you to think hard about what’s your BATNA. If you are working on a visa, what are you doing to end that dependency? If you know your job could be at risk, have you started applying for alternate jobs? Are you building strong relationships to leverage in case you are unexpectedly given news that is not in your favor?

Having a contingency plan allows you the freedom to make a choice. But, if you don’t yet have a BATNA, it’s ok. There’s never a better day to start planning for it than today!

3. Leveraging, not only building, relationships

Here’s another example from our personal lives that illustrates the power of leveraging, not only building relationships. A couple of years ago, my husband met Sunil Garg, the CEO of dataVedik, during an alumni meet. They instantly connected and explored the possibility of working together in the future. Over many months, they met occasionally and exchanged meaningful ideas. When my husband got laid off, he was able to easily approach Sunil for a job opportunity. 

I was impressed by how seamlessly the process worked from him. To be honest, while I do a decent job of building relationships, I often hesitate to leverage them. Sally Helgesen, the premier expert on women’s leadership and the author of the book How Women Rise, talks about how this is a huge problem, especially with women leaders. I often fall into the trap of what the other person will think, that they would think I am taking advantage of them. Whereas in fact, every time I have taken the courage to approach my network, they have gone out of their way to help me get to my next role.

Now, more than ever, it’s necessary to capitalize on the relationships we have worked so hard to build. Leverage professional connections, friends, and family to find your next role. This is one of the best strategies to keep driving your career forward, despite the obstacles presented by the pandemic. 

4. Speaking out for our wants and needs

Have these questions crossed your mind?

• No one is hiring right now, so what’s the point of networking?
• How can I ask for a new assignment when my company has no opportunities?
• Isn’t it wrong to ask for a promotion if my company is laying off thousands of people?

Though my LinkedIn feed is full of posts from those who have recently lost their jobs, it has an equal number of updates from those who have recently been promoted or changed jobs. 

The problem with the above questions is that they assume opportunities don’t exist. It might be true that within your company opportunities truly don’t exist at this challenging time, but more often than not, it is all in our head. 

Don’t assume that there are no options. Don’t let the pandemic become an excuse for not having the difficult conversation about a pay raise or promotion. If you bring value, make the ask. Obviously, be sensitive and timely about how you make the ask, but that’s a topic for another blog post. 

5. Being in sync with our priorities

A big part of being always in-charge of your career is being in sync with your priorities. These are the areas of your life that are meaningful and important to you. 

For the longest time, I struggled with defining my priorities. I am a multi-passionate person, that is, I want to do everything, usually all at the same time. But a couple of years ago, as I went through a quarter-life crisis (yes, it’s a real thing), I really thought hard about my priorities in life. It came down to three things: 

1. Making an impact on the world through my work
2. Living a balanced lifestyle
3. Helping my kids learn how to make good life choices

Being in-sync with your priorities helps to reduce decision fatigue. It makes it a lot easier to determine the opportunity cost of a career choice presented to you. 

Remember that priorities change with time. It is entirely possible that right now, your priority is to put food on the table. Making a conscious career decision that aligns with your current priority still puts you in charge of your career. 

As I pack up my family and move to the great white north to start a new job in a completely new industry, I want to leave you with this parting thought:

You and only you must be in the driver’s seat of your career. You do it by having a winner’s attitude, confidence, and plan. Internalizing this idea makes it easy to make hard choices for your career. It is the key to ensuring long-term career success. 

So, my friend, are you picking up choices or being in the driver’s seat?