Your career - it’s your story to tell
What is wonderful is that your career story is unique to you. The labyrinth of your career may feel at times a bit like a maze - there will have been some dead ends and you’ll have had to make some detours along the way but you’ll either be heading towards, or may have already got to the centre of your maze. I am fascinated about the twists and turns that each person has in the career and one of the things I enjoy the most is the way someone tells their story.
There is of course no right or wrong way to do this as it’s your story - you are the protagonist (main character). How your career plot has been shaped won’t have purely been driven by you alone. You’ll have been influenced and supported by other characters. Let’s think about some of them:-
Deuteragonist (otherwise known as a side-kick). Think about your career so far, there will have been people that have instrumental to your development, for example, colleagues, clients or peers. They have been actively involved in your career, shaping he way that you approached your work, providing support or coming to your aid to defend you.
Antagonist (villain). For some of us we will have had people that no matter how hard we tried we just couldn’t connect or click with them at work. The antagonist can have a critical role in our ability to do or job, whether we stay in an organisation or not and our general feelings of happiness. Antagonists don’t need to be a person or thing though it can be internal, too. Some of us will have an internal critic that will makes us WonderIf we are good enough.
Love interest. Our careers are inextricably linked to our lives and those we love. Whether that be our families, partners or friends, they all have a massive impact on our career choices and the decisions that we make. The expectations that our loved ones place on us may mean that we have opted for specific careers or felt guilty if we want to make a career change because we perceive that we’re letting them down.
The mentor - the people that guide the protagonist (you) through your career journey. There will be some fantastic people that you have met who have helped and supported you. Take a moment and think about your mentors and the positive influence that they have had.
Narrator - your are this person and how you tell your career story to others will leave a lasting impact. You can narrate your past career but you can create your future plot line.
Over to You
Using some of the characters above, start to sketch out how they have played a role in your career. You may have lost contact with some of them and re-ignite those professional relationships could help to trigger new career possibilities.
