Our aim is to demystify career journeys and connect you with experts and professionals of different backgrounds who can offer support and guidance wherever you are in your journey or wherever your path leads you. As we launched Modern Career, we surveyed and spoke to over 100 people from across the world to dig into different career journeys and hurdles, asking: what are the top career-related questions you have? What topics are you most interested in learning more about? What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
This input confirmed our assumptions and inspired new ideas. Many of the top career questions centered around our Know, Grow, Flow career framework, highlighting overarching questions about work and career and the need for more practical advice for everyday experiences. Below, we’ll show the answers to some of the main survey questions and how the answers will influence the resources you’ll find on Modern Career.
What career areas would you like to know more about?
In our survey and discussions, we asked for your top questions and topics of most interest. The responses aligned well with our know, grow, flow framework. Examples include:
Know: resiliency, how to establish your career purpose and find your “why,” defining a dream job, knowing when it’s time for the next opportunity and developing a personal brand.
Grow: the evolving world of work, working remotely, positioning for a promotion or a raise, pivoting to a second ‘career act’ and preventing job plateauing by proactively new skilling yourself for a changing world.
Flow: how to find and work with recruiters and search firms, optimize your resume, refresh your digital footprint, be an expert at interviewing and bounce back when the job search gets you down.
The vast majority of survey takers also noted that they craved career stories that are accessible, transparent, and authentic. Many noted that they want more access to career experts as well as stories and advice from real people who have relatable experiences. These themes are the essence of Modern Career. Not only will we bring you insider knowledge and expertise on everything career- and work-related, but we aim to provide it in a way that you can easily understand and apply to your own experiences.
Where do you get career information and advice?
In addition to wanting to know the biggest career questions, we also wanted to know where our audience currently gets information about work and career and the people they trust most for this advice. The majority of people we surveyed said that they go to family members and colleagues the most for career advice – more so than the internet, books, or other sources. This told us that personal connection and authenticity can often be more important than high level or overgeneralized resources. That’s why we will bring you a wide variety of resources on different topics; there is not one single correct path to take or one way to solve a problem, and our varying guests and experts on our podcast and blog will exemplify that.
We also wanted to know the type of guests our audience would connect with best. Most respondents noted that they were most interested in hearing from CEOs, professional peers, and HR experts, especially since they would like greater access to these perspectives. With this in mind, we’re excited to bring you a variety of leaders, experts, and top HR professionals as well and people just like you to share their own stories and advice for how they got to where they are today and the lessons along the way.
What’s a piece of career advice that works for you?
Just like our experts and guests, we know that regardless of where you are in your career journey, sharing your story can help someone else in a similar position to where you once were. Not only did we ask our survey respondents what topics they might want to discuss with us, but we also asked them about their favorite piece of career/life/work advice. And we love the results! We’ve included some of our favorites below, and we’ll share more with you soon.
“Your career is a marathon not a sprint.”
“Your job can always be taken away, but your education and experience can never be taken away from you. Always continue to grow yourself and make hay while the sun is shining.”
-My grandfather
“Make yourself indispensable.”
-My dad
“Think of your career like a jungle gym, not a ladder. Sometimes you might need to go down the slide, or across on the monkey bars to get to the next point.”
“Don’t be afraid to ask for a role…they can only say no. You don’t have to check every box to be right for a job.”
“Relationships are what matter most. If you get in a fight with a skunk, you will smell like one.”
“Define what success looks like for you – don’t give that choice and power away to others.”
“Time is the most important resource. You can find ways to recover from lost money, energy, or relationships, but you can never get back lost time.”
“Always remember that bad times don’t last forever. This too will pass.”
–My first manager at the beginning of my career
“Success lies not in doing what others consider to be great, but in what you consider to be right.”
–My mother
“Those who you meet on the way up are those who you meet on the way down. So be nice, kind and respectful to everyone.”
“As you get older, approach your career like an experienced athlete. Pace yourself, trust your judgement, trust your experience.”
Your insights helped guide the content we will bring to you, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. As our survey showed, the questions, advice, and experts surrounding the work and career journey are endless.
Our intention through our podcast, blog, and resources is to help each person navigate their best career journey and live their full potential. If you have advice or a story to share, we’d love to hear from you as well at moderncareerpod@gmail.com or on our homepage.
