Feature

By Pratichi Shah

Street-Smart Career Management

You have the degree (or more than one), the brains and the experience. So where is your career? Exactly where you want it to be? Or do you find yourself occasionally staring out the window, wondering what you are getting out of the gig you have landed? We, as South Asians, are typically encouraged to focus on the degree and the grades to achieve the most in our careers. Rightly so, as those grades – and the skills we learn to earn them – help us tremendously in many aspects of our lives. But what about the other smarts you need to build, manage and further your career? Let’s talk about what you need to get ahead, get out of your own way and get what you want.

Go find yourself. Let’s start with what is most important: you. You’ve taken the psychology tests (and the magazine quizzes, for that matter). You know the areas in which you excel and the ones that you learned for exams, but would prefer never to see again. But beyond all that, it’s time to ask yourself some tougher questions. First, what do you want? From your job? From your career? From your boss? From your organization? Do you know what you want to get out of what you are doing, in clear practical terms? Perhaps you’re there to learn the basics, get the name of the organization on your resume, get mentoring from a brilliant leader or simply to pay the bills. Knowing why you are where you are gives you clear direction as to what you must get out of a situation before moving on. It also helps you get clear on what you need to do while you are performing your work to further your career.

For instance, if you came to an organization to work with leaders you admire, make sure you are, in fact, getting the guidance you want from them. If you are there to learn a particular skill set, ask yourself if you are getting exposure to all aspects of that skill set and what else you need to learn.

Know what you are willing to give and give up—to your job, career, boss and company. While you’re at it, expand that question to include what you are willing to live with. This doesn’t mean you lower your expectations or compromise yourself, but you should clearly delineate in your mind what is okay and what is not. Is travel okay? Are long, crazy hours okay or do you have other obligations that mean you need something more predictable? Can you live with a long commute to get what you need out of a job? Are you okay with working for a brilliant boss if he or she is particularly hard to please or difficult to understand? Are you comfortable working with a population in which you are the only person (or one of the few) of your gender, ethnicity, background, education or political beliefs? On this one, keep in mind that being around people who are remarkably different may mean conversations or situations you don’t appreciate, but it can also mean learning new things. I look at the years I spent being the only woman on an executive team as some of the most educational I have ever had – in terms of understanding how men manage in the workplace. I knew I was there to learn different aspects of leadership and running an organization, so that particular situation was okay with me and had a big payoff. But first, you need to understand what environment you can live in and live with.

Speak up! So you have figured out what you want to get out of a situation and what you are willing to put into it. Great – now what? Now comes the time that you start managing with that information in mind. So let’s say you are at your current organization to work with a group of professionals for whom you have a lot of respect. If it’s mentoring from those leaders that you want and you have been putting in a lot of long hours to get it, then it’s time to speak up and speak out. South Asian women are often raised with the belief that cream rises to the top—the best work or the hardest worker get noticed for what they do and are rewarded, so we just need to sit down, do the work and wait to be noticed. The reality is that this happens sometimes, though not usually. Other times, it is up to you to ask (nicely) for what you need and want. And because it can’t be all about you—I know, we all wish it could be—you need to be able to articulate both sides of the equation: what you want and what you can give. So if it’s mentoring you want, you could request some direction from a leader in your organization by saying that the reason you joined the company was to have exposure and guidance from the people at the top and that you are willing to take on some extra work, work outside of your area or join a project team that isn’t directly related to your day-to-day work to get it.

If your issue is that you aren’t being put on glam projects and you know that’s the reason you are working with this organization, have a conversation with your manager asking how to get on those assignments. Discuss what you are doing or not doing that might be standing in your way. Point out what you have done that has gone well. And indicate (if true) that you are willing to work outside your current comfort zone if needed—you could tell them you are willing to travel or be in the office more or have client contact.

Sound easy? Often it’s not. But practice the conversations and know that the clearer you get about what you want and what you can give, the better you will be able to articulate it so you can get what you want and better manage your career.

Next time, let’s gaze up at that glass ceiling and talk about what you need do to crack it…

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