A Spark in the Dark: Illuminating Your Path to a Brilliant Career in a Reorg World

By Amy Davies

Welcome to the reorg world.The era of lifelong jobs is over. It’s no longer the norm—or even a possibility—to dedicate your entire career to a single employer. Now, the only thing that’s consistent is a state of flux. So how do you build a rewarding and meaningful career in an ever-changing landscape?In this illuminating guide to career-building for the 21st century, career expert Amy Davies explains how to navigate and thrive in today’s fickle corporate reorganization culture. Through practical insights and skill-developing exercises, you’ll gain the knowledge and tools necessary to thrive in this new reorg world, including:· how to map this new reorg world· what to do in the event you are laid off· the notion of a job vs. a career· the concept of imprinting and how you can make a good first impression· which soft skills matter most: your communication and presentation skills· the “ILLUMINATE” process, a method for uncovering your purpose, who you are and what you want to convey to the world· how to network with ease· common career barriers, and practical and effective strategies to overcome them· how to unlock your career potential, enabling your star to rise· how to set your intention on your North Star and navigate toward itManaging a career today can be overwhelming. This book is your spark, but what will fuel the flame is within you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amy Davies
• Release date: May 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781999085216

Amy Davies

Amy Davies is fascinated by people and their collective and individual behaviour. Captivated by the state of the corporate world and the people in it, Amy began wondering how professionals achieve fulfilling and successful careers amidst a backdrop of constant flux. Realizing it would take more than hard work, credentials and commitment to advance, she started exploring what it would take for businesses and individuals to thrive in this reorg world. She set out to answer the question: How do we manage a successful career when we’re constantly losing or changing jobs? Amy works with organizations through reorgs so employees feel empowered and the company remains profitable. Amy also works with select individuals through transition, enabling them to achieve their ultimate professional goals. Amy Davies lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.

Book preview

Introduction

The Dark

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As a young child, Sandra would ride the subway with her father to his office. Marveling at all the grown-ups in suits who surrounded her, she imagined one day being ensconced in a dark, chic jacket, carrying an important-­looking leather bag, absorbed in a newspaper. Just like her dad. She loved his office and the people in it. They would give her odd jobs, like organizing envelope labels into piles in alphabetical order and watering the plants. Her father’s colleagues were friendly, always had time to talk and helped her find what she needed to complete her tasks. She was showered with candy and compliments, and she left feeling exhilarated. By that time, Sandra’s father had worked at the same office for fifteen years. He was the boss and one day she imagined she, too, would be in an important job, not only a manager but a leader of people.

A committed student, Sandra did well in high school. She enjoyed the entrepreneurial skills class she took for one semester in grade 11 and wished she could take more practical classes like it. She didn’t love subjects like algebra and chemistry, but she applied herself and succeeded. She saw the academic courses as a means to an end: getting her into her chosen university, and then landing a good job.

When she would speak with her parents and guidance counselors about her future, they would explain that all the doors were open to her. Her parents and grandparents posted her tests on the fridge under pretty magnets, praised her exceptional work and made her feel special. She was going to get her university education and achieve great things. She was going to shine.

Sandra graduated university with honors. She’d taken a general arts degree because she thought it would be broadly applicable in the professional world. Unlike high school, university had been an end in itself. She made good friends, even among her professors. Then she set out to get her first job in the real world. She applied for a number of jobs online, but everyone seemed to want her to have experience—how could she have experience? The coveted degree hanging on her wall didn’t have the impact she’d hoped it would in terms of opening doors. She was competing against MBA graduates and candidates who had the practical experience she lacked.

Each day felt more discouraging than the last. She picked up a part-time waitressing job to make ends meet. Finally, she landed her first position. It was a contract role, but she didn’t care; it was a start! Although she was working full-time, she was making less at this role than she was waitressing three nights a week. She decided to keep the waitressing job, too, for the short term.

Rather than being the exciting stepping-stone she’d imagined, the work in Sandra’s new job was monotonous. Most days she felt more like an office manager than a project co-ord­inator. The office was small and the culture unfriendly. It was located outside of the city, so she felt isolated from her peers and like she was losing touch. After two years, she found another job in a similar role working for a larger organization downtown. She’d hoped to find a more senior role with a better salary, but she was content with a moderate wage increase and a permanent position with benefits. Working for a larger organization meant there would be more opportunities.

Things were wonderful for the first six months. The work was new, which presented Sandra with the challenges she craved, and her colleagues seemed friendly and hardworking. But, over time, the work became routine and less interesting, and there was little opportunity to take on new challenges. Then she started to notice there was significant red tape; it was hard to get anything done, and the business was laden with politics, leaving her feeling like she had to take sides. Her colleagues worked very long hours, and they were perpetually online in the evenings and on weekends. When she asked them how they were, the typical response was, "So busy!" A reply that made her feel as though she was not important enough to be that busy.

The business underwent several leadership changes and reorgs. Sandra went through a management change about every six months, and sometimes that meant shifting roles. Some of the leaders left the organization (some by choice, some not) or moved on to different roles within the company. She wanted a promotion and more responsibility, but she hadn’t stayed under one leader or in one role long enough to truly demonstrate her value. She tried starting a discussion with HR, but they seemed too busy managing the constant changes in the business to help Sandra achieve her professional goals. She turned to her parents for guidance, and they assisted her through some tough discussions, encouraging her in some cases to concede and in others to stand her ground. Their advice about how to handle some of the office politics helped, but, over time, Sandra started to become bitter. This frustration affected her relationship with some of her colleagues. She didn’t want to stay at her current company and fall through the cracks, and she didn’t want to leave and start somewhere new all over again.

This was not the world she’d imagined as a child, observing morning commutes on the train with her father. The people she worked with were nothing like the people at her father’s office. She didn’t have the benefit of the mentorship she’d imagined her father’s employees having under his leadership. What made things worse was seeing her friends and former classmates excelling professionally (or at least seeming to) on LinkedIn and Facebook. She felt behind, lost and discour-aged. It seemed her star had faded before it ever had the chance to shine.

When she spoke with her father, his advice was to commit to her job and work hard. Things would change, he said. She had come to depend on her father’s business acumen and advice, but for the first time, when it came to considering her career options, Sandra thought he might be wrong. She wasn’t sure someone who’d been in the same business for almost a lifetime could understand how to manage a career amidst constant change. For the first time, she doubted his ability to act as her guide.

So Many of Us Feel like Sandra

These feelings of being lost or apprehensive apply to most people at some point or another, even those who are highly successful. Each of us has periods along our career journey when we feel limited in our potential to succeed. Over the course of my career, I’ve often wondered if my choices have helped or hindered my progress or kept me moving in the right direction. Like Sandra, I’ve felt misplaced in an uncertain world I’d imagined would make so much sense and fulfill my aspirations. Worse, I didn’t know who to turn to for help.

It’s difficult to rely on our manager or leaders for honest, objective advice about our career journey. There is a risk that if we speak to them about opportunities outside our current organization, we’ll appear uncommitted. Our peer group may lack the experience and wisdom we are so desperately seeking. Business and life coaches abound—while some are truly amazing, others have little practical experience in the professional world and have been exclusively teaching it rather than living it. We can feel as though we’ve been dropped into the middle of a maze, presented with the vague task to succeed and then left in the darkness to amble our way... somewhere.

In high school and university, we are offered swaths of information, advice and encouragement. Yet as we get out into the world, we find so much of it has little practical value. We are left feeling disempowered and lost, constantly trying to achieve greatness in something, somewhere. We are set up to feel special, with a world full of open doors, and we soon realize life has realities and limitations. For one thing, we face barriers in getting our first real job out of school, and we may not land a job in our chosen field or for one of our preferred employers. Like our parents did, we take what we can get to start, hoping we can work our way up. But that model of a ladder to career success no longer exists for our generation.

Today, mobile devices put us under enormous pressure to be always on, and we face a barrage of more successful peers on social media. Add to that the constant flux and reorganizations and what may feel like the perpetual threat of losing our jobs, and it’s no wonder a feeling of disorientation takes hold. Without knowing how to respond to our reorg world, we risk being sucked into a vortex of uncertainty and spending our professional lives in uncontained swirl.

It’s confusing, because we were told again and again that getting a good education, having a strong work ethic and showing a high degree of commitment would reap great rewards. Our parents and educators were right in that this approach worked for their generation. But we’re facing new challenges, and we need suitably different approaches. In the 20th and even the very early 21st century, there was not the same pressure imposed by social media. While there was some change in the workforce, there was more stability. Previous generations lacked easy access to cheaper labor overseas and to the technological advances that now replace or limit the need for headcount on a mass scale. People and companies, having recovered from two World Wars and the Great Depression, seemed more content. In the 21st century, we want it all: greater innovation, bigger and cheaper everything, more money and better titles. In previous generations, the base model did sell, and well. Our generation of employers and employees wants all the bells and whistles.

It Won’t Always Be Smooth Sailing

Much like Sandra, I had periods when I was full of doubt and working in difficult circumstances. I came out of university only to find an abundance of unskilled jobs. These were easy to get, but staying in these roles would be career-limiting. Few jobs presented the challenges and growth potential I desired. Eventually I found a meaningful route in and was able build a career I’m proud of, but it was a roller coaster.

I’ve had the benefit of working for truly great mentors and coaches, and I’ve suffered the wrath of unsupportive and unskilled leaders. I’ve worked for four top-tier organizations in the UK and North America, three of them multinationals. Each went through multiple reorgs within a few short years, including significant layoffs. In one instance, my entire team was let go... except for me. I was moved to another department, a crash course in survivor’s guilt. In other instances, I had to let valued team members go, which is awful, and in two reorgs I lost my job.

Gradually, despite all the changes around me and some challenging managers, my career began to progress. I was delighted when I was asked to speak at my first conference and even happier when these invitations continued to arrive and then to multiply. Headhunters and people in my network would routinely reach out about increasingly senior roles. Although I was initially unsure of myself and in constant fear of losing my job or being affected by a reorg, as my star grew both in and outside of the organizations where I worked, I was less afraid of being let go and instead increasingly found myself navigating my employer’s concern that I would leave for a better opportunity. As time passed, I felt I had taken control of my outcome. I ventured forward with less apprehension, much happier and more confident.

For almost two decades, I have worked in market research and insights. The purpose of the job is to provide people with the information they need to help them do their job better. I also study people in order to make sense of and predict behavior, spotting patterns where I can. My purpose is to be an enabler of success, more specifically, an enabler of professional success. My North Star—the guiding purpose of my professional life—is helping businesses and individuals navigate this reorg world.

When I worked with teams and leaders, I saw notable changes, and nothing made me happier than seeing the people around me succeed. I began researching trends across North America and Europe, as well as following and guiding the careers of friends and colleagues in various markets and across industries.

The Human