Creating a Meaningful Career

Tricks & Principles

By Tristan Senycia

A long time ago in a country far far away…..

• Worked in Perth x2, Sydney x2 & London/Lviv

• Leaving Jobs to pursue start-ups, relationships etc etc•Lots of chopping and changing

• Cycled through 5 different types of work

• In 2 completely different industries

• Periods of Unemployment

• The highs and lows

• Learned how to pitch myself to employers in a downturn

What I’ve noticed everywhere else

• From Outside of Ukraine

• Different Mentality/ Mindset

• Different Work Ethic

• Labour Market Maturity

• Design Thinking*

• From a Post-Knowledge Economy*

• Lot of interaction with recruitment organisations and the recruitment process, human resources management

• Worked for Startups, Small Business & Large Corporations

• Worked as a specialist, generalist/management

• Work for a HR Tech Web Platform

My Experience in Ukraine

•Have lived in Ukraine twice and have a general understanding of how younger people think

• Not a very corporate culture, even in Kyiv

• Underselling of abilities, particularly soft skills

• Is personal or professional development a focus?

• Few interest groups and networking opportunitiesexist

• Few people are active users of LinkedIn

• Mentorship is rare

• Do people undertake career visioning?

Why it could be happening• Looking for Financial Stability

• Looking for Security

• Disorganised schools and universities

•Grandparents / Parents from Soviet Era

•A generation unprepared for a modern economy

•Not encouraged to think creatively

•Work is a state of mind

•Social Conventions?

• Not a lot of information available about career strategy, apprentice style

•Risk adversity, i.e. non start-up mentality?

What can be done to change

• Creating a roadmap for your career

• Concept of Career Capital, dig the well first beforeyou're thirsty

• Becoming interested adjacent areas

• Are there chartered professional programmes?

• How will you differentiate yourself in a competitive market?

• What will be your Unique Value Proposition?

• Do you need to completely reskill?

Career Visioning

•No linear career paths exist anymore•Need to apply design

thinking•Robustness / adaptability from meaningful experience

Self-Reflection & Taking Inventory

• Getting out of jobs that inhibit your growth

•But stay in companies if you’re progressing•Personal Development = Psychological Maturity*

• IQ is a threshold competency

• Increasing your Emotional / Social Intelligence

• Improving your soft skills• Which are often more transferable

•Be Present, have mental space for growth?

•Keep track of your ideas?

•Reframing Failure as Experimentation

Investing in Yourself

• The diminishing returns of staying put

• Working on complementary skills

Focusing on Development

• IQ = information processing speed

• Balance Education & Experience

• Re-apply IQ on the correct materials to develop EQ through experience

Example

• If you’re doing Science/Engineering switchto Customer Service/Account Management for a year or two

•OR Vice Versa

Focusing on DevelopmentCommunication Skills, Charisma &

Emotional Intelligence

Skill Set

[Personal] Unique Value Proposition

Skills Gap

Your Employer or Client

Career Steroids• Bringing in external information to enrich career

strategy

• High leverage activities to accelerate professional development

• Leverage not-for-profit, extracurricular opportunity for experience, more skill-sets & responsibility

• Position yourself for short term wins and victory in the long term•Marathon Runner rather than sprinter

• Get super detailed with your short term goals

• But only plan 2 or 3 moves in advance

• Focus on impact

Career Roadmap

Your roadmap will depend on:

•Maturity of the Labour Market

•Stage of your career, manage your pacing

•Mentoring - show initiative before receiving

•Strategic branching into adjacent areas

•Rate of Career Capital Creation (enduring relationships)

•Psychological need to change after 5 years

•Cultural Fit with certain types of organisations

Career Roadmap

Your roadmap will depend on:

• Your future Unique Value Proposition

• The creation an unfair advantage for yourself

• 10000 hours to get to mastery - Talent vs Mastery

• Transportability of your skills / experiences

• Your Personal/Psychological Development

I’m in a Stable Job, what can I do?1. Master your current role

2. Then consider Intrepreneurship

• Solve important problems

• Process Improvements

• Save Money / Generate new revenue stream

3. Use company resources to fuel professional development

4. Aim to become indispensable - relationship building, business development, attract talent, develop talent OR unique expertise/experience

5. Get ‘equity’ with your boss & your boss’ boss6.Build Career Capital by networking

Career Hacking• Follow up with people

• Spending time outside your discipline

• Spending time with successful people

• Adopt an abundance mentality• Give & Ask for help • Be open source - transfer knowledge / ideas • Don’t see the job market as a zero sum game, colleagues aren’t competitors•Aim for Win-Win outcomes

• Find a board of mentors

• Hustle – Use new skills to match those demanded by the market

• Observe and learn market dynamics

Resources to REALLY IMPROVE your approach to Career Planning

Biggest Takeaways!

1. Developing career inventory and capital

2. Differentiation and offering a Unique value

3. Applying Design Thinking to various opportunities and life (Experiment)

4. Continuous self-development (Diverse Experience) - developing inner competencies first

5. Collaboration / Open Source Mindset

6. Constantly redefining your Career Vision & iterating Career Roadmap

7. Gauging your industry and overall marketplace

Questions and Answers.

FEEL FREE TO ADD ME ‘TRISTAN SENYCIA’ ON LINKEDIN / FACEBOOK

https://www.facebook.com/tristan.senycia

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tristan-senycia-3a044174

Getting a new job•Cover Letter

•Must explain how you match job description•Must contain your Unique Value Proposition

• CV - must correspond to job description, might need to reframe your experience

• Letters of Reference – can be super powerful

• 3 most important attributes = Good Attitude, Good Team Player, Good Cooperation skills

• Specific Technical Skills can be learnt on the job (or just before hand ;) )

• Use Job Description to focus:• Professional Development / Career Roadmap• Unique Value Proposition