“What are you going to do after you graduate?”

The anxiety caused by those 9 words can be terrifying.  If you’re one of  The Lost Generation especially, there is no easy way out, there is no shortcut home.  You have to stand out to be noticed.

But how do you get that confidence? We leave university not knowing who we are, never mind what we are going to do with our lives.  The best way to find out if you enjoy something is to do.  Try.  Have a go.

Unfortunately we don’t often get the opportunity to try before we buy with a job, career or calling.  It’s very all or nothing, it’s a big commitment.  So how can you commit if you’re not even sure you want to do that job?

Competition Magic

My friend Lisa from Swamp mentioned the Sh Awards and immediately it made sense.  I like that they are engaging with The Lost Generation, stirring up competition & creating opportunity.   The message is simple: Why not enter a few competitions to see if creativity might be where you belong?

Pitch your work to influential creative directors, meet with top agencies, show off your work in an exhibition and, as if that’s not enough, win a 6-month paid placement.

There’s no brief, no fee and no catch,
simply enter your best creative work.

Your entry will be judged by award-winning creatives and professionals from the UK design industry.

Check out our judges page to find out who’s on this year’s panel.

This is a perfect example of business reaching out to you.  It’s a chance to have a go, and get feedback on how good your work is, where it fits & what you should do next.

How do you get noticed?

All you have to do is register at www.sh-awards.com & enter your best work. The prize is a 6 Month Paid placement & perhaps more importantly, valuable feedback & direct access to Senior industry figures who are looking for the next break out talent.

Do you know of any other similar events in Leeds? I’d be interested to hear about them.  What do you think of this way of getting experience?

Where do you fit in the world of work? How you can be useful? Will you ever find a career you enjoy?… Since The Lost Generation post, some tremendous work has been going on behind the scenes.  Read on.

We have a small team of very talented people pulling together research and ideas for content that could be the humble beginnings of a new kind of community blog. We’re focussing on telling your story and engaging people in the journey. We learn from each other’s experience, because nobody teaches this stuff in school.

We’re looking for people who need help.  So, do you need a hand?

Developing your career by thinking strategically

Turning up and getting paid is pretty demoralising unless it has meaning or purpose.  You want to go somewhere with your career. You can do this in a number of ways and there are a couple of demonstrations of how to do this below.  It’s important to understand that not every manager will appreciate someone going beyond their day-job.  As a rule however, it usually leads to success, and feeling better.  If you’re going to stand out in this economy, you’re going to have to do something different.

Adam is doing more than the day-job

Adam is converting his contract role into a permanent career opportunity.  After university he got a contract role as a Business Systems analyst.  A solid option in an uncertain market, with a good income.

“The problem with contracting is, it’s tough to really develop your career.  The problem with the role was all you do is firefight.  There is little scope to make a change, to make a difference.”

Adam became trusted by going that little bit further, and being helpful.  Being an Issues Analyst is a fairly isolated role, all you do is identify the problem.  Adam was able to find the wider business process problem and pitch his solution to Senior Management.  He now has an interview for a full time role.

Diego is transforming his career

Diego won an award in University for developing sustainable Architecture.  As such, he brought this passion to his day job, and looked forward to being able to contribute.  After 4 years in the industry his second company was handing him very basic CAD work, which he found boring demoralising and frustrating.

Diego felt constantly tired and ignored.  He like Adam, thought about the company’s bigger picture and presented solutions to Senior Management.  These were well received on their own merit, but ultimately fell on deaf ears “Nice idea, but we can’t do any of this”.

For Diego this was the final straw.  He’s now considering his options, and where these skills could be better used.  A very scary, and exciting time in our career.

What will you do?

It’s important to remember you won’t get all the answers from one blog post, but you can make a start.   Comment below and ask questions.  You’re not alone

From an excellent discussion on Scott Gould’s blog, @juliewalraven raised that one of the biggest barriers most of us have for engaging, is the ability to ask probing, useful questions.  Which got me thinking…

Why is it useful to get good at asking questions?

For me it has been the key to breaking out of the 9 to 5 lifestyle and if your goal is generating discussion, then knowing how to ask the right questions to engage people becomes essential.  We have a tendency to stumble around looking for an answer to our problems before we know what the question is.  The net result is a lot of frustration and wasted effort.

Asking the right question at the right time has the added benefit of catching the ear of some very bright, and engaged individuals.  By building connections and sharing your question with a group, the result is a far better answer than stumbling towards a solution alone.

A solution is never complete.  There is always a hole, always an improvement.  If you’re one of those that can always spot a better way, ask the question and make the challenge because you could really help someone develop their idea.

Contribute, good things happen as a result.  What good things? Well My Storyis one where I challenged Senior Management to consider working with the new reality of Social Media Platforms.  They listened, and it significantly benefited my career.

How did I learn to Ask Engaging Questions?

Then a wonderful thing happened.  I noticed that experience in business knows how to ask questions.  My own personal mentor John, has a knack of asking a juicy question to get the brain whirring.  ’How does this benefit our customer? How do we monetise it? Is it right for us? What do we have to do to turn it into a product?’

Apply those questions to your Product or Blog, or try applying it to someone else’s and see if you can contribute and engage with them.  People notice when you add value to their passion.  Chris Brogan is the master of asking engaging questions that FORCE you to react.  Observe

How can you Ask Engaging Questions

Be critical, be cynical, be everything in-between, but when you’re done… be constructive with it.  We react to everything around us on some level, but do you challenge the world around you?  I always loved the EA Games slogan “Challenge Everything”.  Challenge everything, and be willing to be wrong.

Now take your top 5 mentors (whether they are aware they have that position or not), and see how they use questions to make people think.  Most of all try, do, ask.

How it will benefit you

My own story is fairly intertwined with having to learn the ability to ask challenging questions.  Perhaps yours is be too?  Can you look at the big picture, challenge the “way things have always been done” and bring a diverse option to the table?  If done in a constructive way, this is a very useful skill.

Have a go at challenging the world around you, and let me know how you get on.

Email me sy@sytaylor.net contact me on twitter@sytaylor or via facebook