better mistakes

Re-watching a few episodes of the AMC show Mad Men recently, I was struck by how many of its characters provide examples of young professionals trying to carve out their own little niche in the world.

One character ends up at the head of the fledgling Television Department.  In the early 1960s, television advertising was still considered the stepchild of the advertising world, and he is constantly struggling to find creative ways to adapt his media buying skills to a new medium.  Another character, Peggy Olson, takes advantage of a mentor relationship with the Creative Director and her own creative skills to move up the ladder.  Starting as a secretary, Olson eventually becomes a copywriter in a world where women typically did not hold much respect.  Finally, in one of my favorite lines of the show, a character explains how she made the transition from being a housewife to become the manager of her husband (a famous comedian):

“This is America.  Pick a job, then become the person who does it.”

Based on those characters, I decided to come up with three things that were integral in my struggle to carve out my own professional niche over the past few years:

Own your expertise.  Some people are lucky enough to have one glaringly obvious skill that sets them apart from their colleagues — their expertise is easy to see.  But for many others, it’s a matter of combining a few more common skills in an uncommon way.  In my case, this meant combining my interest in technology and social media, my experience advising students, and my communication skills.  None of those skills on their own are particularly novel here in our office (I have some very talented colleagues), but recognizing how useful they are combined was an important discovery. It has allowed me to take the lead in conversations among colleagues when we discuss how technology and social media will impact the job/internship search, and to present those ideas to students in engaging ways both online and off. 

Reflect on your own abilities.  What comes natural to you, and what are some skills or abilities that you’re consistently complimented on?  How can you tie those skills into your professional aspirations?  If you need some more help with this, be sure to try the ‘me at my best’ exercise.

Find mentors.  Navigating the professional world can be a daunting task for a recent graduate, and mentors can make that process exponentially easier and more productive.  A mentor can act as a sounding board for new ideas, can steer you toward opportunities and projects that will utilize your skill set, and help you understand the politics of your organization.  I’ve been fortunate enough in my time here to have a few fantastic mentors that have helped me along the way.  One has a very strong grasp of my interests and skills, and consistently pushes me to go outside my boundaries.  This has allowed me to not only utilize my expertise, but to continue growing in my role and beyond.  Another mentor is always there when I have a slightly ‘off the wall’ idea, and helps me think through both the opportunities and challenges it presents for our organization.  Even if you’re performing well in your role, a good mentor can mean the difference between staying exactly where you are (both literally and figuratively), and continuing to grow as a professional.  Penelope Trunk offers up some great tips for finding and keeping a mentor.

Prove it.  In the end, results are what really matter.  When you’re just beginning your professional life, you can sometimes get so bogged down in trying to complete the day-to-day tasks for your job that it seems impossible to stand out from the crowd in any meaningful way.  While it’s normal to go through a learning and adjustment period at the start of a new job, remember why you were hired; it’s not because you were the “most adequate” of all the people they interviewed!  You may not have the autonomy or authority to make big innovations at your organization right away, but you should always be thinking about how you can contribute above and beyond your job description.  Offering extra help to colleagues, showing enthusiasm by taking on ‘orphaned’ projects, and looking for more efficient ways to do your job are all great places to start.

Take me for example. I felt that a blog would be a great way for us to communicate our message to students in a more timely manner.  But before making a big push for an office blog, I needed to prove that I could write clear, engaging posts about career topics…so I decided to create one for myself.  Brazen Careerist featured a few of my posts on their website (which helped a great deal), but the important part was that I was able to provide my coworkers and supervisors a tangible example of what I planned to ask for, and what success in that area would look like.

Your path will obviously be different than mine — after all, it’s your niche!  But if you have the confidence to own your expertise, the humility and curiosity to understand that you have a lot left to learn, and the determination to follow through and make your mark, you’ll go pretty far.  What are some of your tips for carving out a niche as a young professional?

Not too long ago, I spent the afternoon at my grandparents’ house.  Over lunch we got to talking about my grandpa’s early curiosity with chemistry, and he ended up bringing out a gift he received from his mother on his 13th birthday:

It turns out he got a ton of use out of that book — my favorite story is the one where he made his own, more powerful version of Snappers, stuck a matchbox full of them into his jeans, then fell down during a game of handball.  Blew a hole right through his back pocket. 

I thought about it afterward, and it seems to me that kind of story would be a lot less common today.  I haven’t yet decided if that’s a good thing or bad one.

In any case, have a great 4th of July, and try to keep the fireworks out of your pockets.

Picked up a nifty little trick from the SI listserv today (hat tip to Steve Flynn) for making Twitter search a little more useful.

If you’ve ever tried to search for something even remotely popular on Twitter, you know that most of what comes back is just links to the same 1-2 stories posted and re-tweeted, ad nauseum.  One of the best uses for Twitter is to view discussion on popular topics in real time — but with all those links being posted, it’s tough to sift through and actually view any of the discussion that’s going on.

Next time, try using some basic search operators to filter out the links and re-tweets.  If you append “-RT” to your search, it will filter out any results that include RT (re-tweets).  If you also append “-http” to your search, you’ll filter out results with links as well.  Quite a few people have been talking about Google’s potential foray into social networks over the past couple days, so I tried this technique out when searching for Tweets about Google Me. 

When simply searching for “google me,” 5 of the most recent 8 results were links to the same story, and another was simply a re-tweet.  Not a great ratio. 

However, when I used the search operators, I ended up with more interesting and diverse tweets that weren’t in my first set of results, including:

cwood: Google Me could be smarter in how it grows virally than most other social networks since Google knows not only whom you email but how often.
EricSmith: Google Me is Google’s Facebook. It’ll take more than the Google name 2 pull ppl away from Facebook now. Remember google buzz? Neither do I!
shachart: @aloncarmel wait for Google Me, that should have better APIs.

Granted, we’re talking about the internet here, so 90% of what’s out there is still crap.  But this is at least a nice, quick way to sift through it a little better.

Most of my favorite examples of good design aren’t terribly flashy.  I like things that just work, and often that realization comes about in contrasting the well-designed product against the common, ‘industry standard.’  Lots of things become standard for a reason — but there’s also plenty of poorly-designed standards that persist simply because “it’s the way things have always been done.”  I hate those kind of standards.

Today I stumbled across the website for a chain of grocery stores called Bloom.  They tout themselves as “a different kind of grocery store.”  This intrigued me; take away the logo and signage, and I probably couldn’t tell a Meijer from a Kroger from a Piggly Wiggly.  There are a lot of things that traditional grocery stores get wrong, and here are just a few examples of how Bloom is designed differently (besides its logo): 

• 20-minute up front parking, for people making short trips
• Hand-held scanners that customers can use to scan/bag groceries while they shop.  The scanners can also notify you when your prescription is ready.
• Store maps mounted on cart handles

Bloom stores are located in the southeast portion of the country, so unfortunately I’ve never had the chance to visit one.  I really hope they start expanding into the Midwest, though. This sort of user-centered service design makes for much better experiences, particularly when you’re talking about activities that are often seen as chores, like grocery shopping or going to the dentist.  This approach needs to start trickling into other services as well — I’m looking at you, DMV.

Photo credit: iwantamonkey on Flickr