Last week, we reshared some of our suggestions to support you in navigating your out-of-work world, in our post titled I’m Laid Off.

Since then, some of you mentioned that you’d like us to take a deeper dive into our suggestion of identifying your top core criteria (life priorities, skills, and working environment).
 
So today, we’re providing you some additional thoughts on all three of those core criteria areas.

YOUR LIFE PRIORITIES

Identifying the things that matter most to you in this life can be a wonderful foundation as you’re considering where you’ll go next.

Your priorities can ground you in what matters to you, support you as you start planning for your future, and guide your actions as you move forward in your personal and professional life.

If you’re interested in doing this exercise, you can download a PDF here: LIFE PRIORITIES.

Once you’ve completed it, we recommend making some notes about what you’ll need from your work, in order to live in alignment with your priorities.

YOUR SKILLS & STRENGTHS

Exploring the skills you use when you’re doing things you love, can be profoundly helpful in identifying the ways you want to offer yourself in your work and your life.

Consider answering some or all, of these questions, to help you identify your top skills and strengths:

  • What are some of the projects (personal and professional) you’ve worked on that have been the most satisfying for you? What skills were you using?
  • In your life, what’s the work that motivates you the most?
  • When you’re at your best, what skills have you been using, what was the work, and who were you working with?
  • What sort of company, causes, or roles are of interest to you?
  • What are some themes that have come up for you as you’ve gone through this list of questions?

In addition to answering the above, it can be powerfully helpful to reach out to colleagues, family (even young kids), and friends, and ask them, “What do I do well?”, and when it makes sense, consider requesting a recommendation on LinkedIn.

YOUR WORKING ENVIRONMENT

Our day-to-day working environment can make a significant difference in our satisfaction with our work.

Some conditions add to our sense of purpose and enjoyment, and can contribute to our productivity. Other conditions detract from how much we experience a sense of purpose and enjoy doing something, or even our effectiveness at it.

Think about the way you work, communicate, collaborate, and give/receive feedback, and the relationships you want to have as you look through these questions:

  • Do you enjoy a friendly coworker atmosphere or one that is strictly business?
  • Do you prefer to work on projects alone or with a team?
  • Are you quick to jump into action or do you like to think and plan first?
  • Do you prefer to be managed closely or to work independently?
  • What is your style for giving and receiving feedback?
  • How do you communicate when things are going well? How about when things get messy?
  • What else has come up for you as you’re reviewing this list?

Once you’ve identified your core criteria —your top life priorities, skills, and working environments—we encourage you to write them all down in one place. Then, spend a little time thinking about them and see what ideas come up for you.

<<First Name *>>, consider this an opportunity to get more of what you want out of your next job. Perhaps this experience will help to point you in the direction of where you’re supposed to go next.

We know that it can be difficult to pull up and think about some of this when you’re out of work. If you’re struggling with any of these exercises, we encourage you to chat with a close friend, colleague, or coach, and go through them together.

Whether you’re out of work because you needed to do so for your mental or physical health or you’ve been let go (for whatever reason) . . . it’s a difficult space to be in. AND, we know that hiring a career coach can be challenging on a tight budget.

To support you, we’ve put together various options, in hopes of fitting your needs.

Please contact us today if you’re interested in learning more about any of our free or paid options:

Treat yourself like you matter . . . because you do!

If you’d like support
with next steps in your career,
contact us today.