Career Services Video Transcripts

Video Title: Three Easy Steps Toward Career Change
4/13/2017
TRANSCRIPT

(Lisa):
Hi, I'm Lisa Cook, Senior Director of Career Services and I'm going to be talking on this Facebook live program today about three easy steps towards career change. Whether you're looking for a raise or promotion or a new job or a new career, these three easy steps will take you forward in propelling your career.  So what are those three steps?

Well, an easy way to remember it is like you move your car forward, using GPS you move your career forward. EPS stands for Experience, People, and Story. You've heard that saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again, and expecting different results. Well, by looking to gain new experiences, meeting new people, and telling a new story, you're going to move your career in new directions. So how can we do that?

Well,l let's take the example of Tyra. Tyra was a student who used Career Services. She was graduating from Walden with her PhD in Public Health and she didn't have any work experience in the field, so she was unemployed at the time.  So we suggested that she gain some practical experience in her field.  What did she do? She volunteered for her local Board of Health in her County and she was an exceptional volunteer.  She gained a volunteer of the month award, she worked on weekends, she made great connections, and guess what?  Six months into that volunteer position, she had done such great work for them that when they had an opening they offered her a job without even interviewing her! 

But think about it.  She was gaining new experience, she was meeting new people, and making new connections.  She was a working at a conference and working with public health professionals, and she was building her reputation and telling a new story as a public health professional.  So those three things: experience, people, story, really propelled her career forward in the direction she wanted to go.  So as you are going through your academic program with Walden, I want you to think about that. What new experiences can you gain? Can you take on a leadership role at work? Can you do a brown bag presentation on a subject of expertise?  Can you develop training materials?  How can you expand your current job role to gain new experiences? Or if you can't expand your current job role, how can you gain volunteer experience like Tyra did to really strengthen that resume of yours? 

Okay,then the next step is how can you meet new people?  Now, an easy way is to develop a profile online through LinkedIn.  But I also want to encourage you to take those connections offline as well.  You want to go ahead and meet people at professional associations and conferences, and just start networking with folks and telling your new career story.  So if I were to meet you at a party and I said, so what do you do for a living?  I wouldn't want you just to simply stop at your job title.  Because right now you're a Walden student.  So talking about just your job title is only really telling a very limited part of your career story.  I want you to talk about, I'm a DBA student and I'm looking to go into corporate social responsibility because I'm really interested in the topic of sustainability.  Make your story interesting and integrate your academic program into your career path and utilize that EPS formula, and you will be well on your road to career advancement.

 

[This text is being provided in a lightly edited draft format to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings]