70: Choosing a Career goal for 2023

Hello and welcome to the UX Hustle podcast. I'm your host, Amanda Worthington. The goal of UX Hustle is to help UX designers design the career they love, maximizing the benefit of this multifaceted industry and strong community. We talk about what's really going on in UX and what it's like working in it, and interview people that are actively navigating their careers and UX.

We don't expect to have all the answers, but we do keep searching, keep listening, and learning. Because at the end of the day, you are the user of your career. All right, it's Q4 of 2022, so it's time to start thinking about goal setting for 2023. You might be starting to have that conversation with your manager, or maybe not.

Maybe you're just getting ready for what the holidays are going to bring, cramming any work that needs to happen or client work that you need to do or communication prior to the holidays starting. And you're not totally focused on next year yet. Maybe you're thinking that you're going to start doing that in January or February when those annual reviews start happening. But I want to encourage you to start thinking about it now because choosing a career goal takes time, first of all.

Second of all, there are likely some key conversations that you're going to want to have leading up to that annual review and to solidifying what your career goal is and determining what you need to do in order to make that goal happen. So now is really the perfect time. pre-Thanksgiving here in America, pre-holidays, whether that's whatever holidays that you're celebrating in the winter times. But being able to do that now really helps set you up and solidify and get your mind right for actually accomplishing those goals in 2023.

So this is really the groundwork for goal setting, I believe, for making sure that when Jan 1 hits in 2023, you can hit the ground running because you've already started to set yourself up for success and get yourself the stuff that you have control over, you, your mindset, your actions, your thoughts, and being able to get those all set up so that when you're talking to other people like your manager, like your team leads that are more confident in communicating what those goals are.

So today we're talking about choosing a goal. And I want to start with taking the pressure off because setting a goal can be super daunting. You know, that dreaded question of where do you want your career to be in five years? That sends a lot of us into cold sweats.

and maybe you're thinking you're just not sure where to start either you have goals that are really really big and they feel too big to break down or too big to voice to other people or you're looking at your goals and like these are kind of dinky like these are small like tangible things that aren't something that can span a whole year or even half a year or you might just be thinking I don't know. I don't even know where to start. All of that is okay. Because something I've heard Tony Robbins say is we underestimate what we can do in 10 years and overestimate what we can do in one.

So we naturally have this skewed perception and skewed perspective of what our accomplishments are and can be, especially in the context of time. So this is tricky for all of us. And another way that I like to take the pressure off a little bit is to remember that the point of a goal is to help you become the person that can achieve that goal. It's less about actually achieving the goal itself.

Now, I'm in the middle of reading a book called The Miracle Equation, by Hal Elrod. So if you ever read The Miracle Morning, it's by that same author. And I love how he talks about this, of you're really just trying to be the person that can accomplish that goal. Because by the time you do accomplish the goal, you will be that person.

And that you'll have the resources, the mindset, will have taken the actions that a person that accomplish that goal would take because you did it. And that makes it so much easier to accomplish that same goal again, or to reinforce to yourself that you have the resources to not only hit that goal, but to be capable of continuing to do that goal because you're the person now. I think of this with imposter syndrome. So say your goal is to get promoted and you do all the work to get promoted, you get promotion, magic wand wave.

You get the promotion. For some of us, if that happens too easily or too quickly, we start to feel this imposter syndrome of who am I to have this? Did I really work hard enough? Did I really do all the things that I need to do?

And now am I ready? Am I really capable? Am I really able to step into this new season with this new title and this new role and these new responsibilities and do it as well as I think? And by setting these goals, by being intentional with how we set these goals and aligning our actions to support those goals and our behaviors and our habits it allows us to when we do land that promotion or whatever that goal is we have the confidence to look back at our actions and at our resources and at how we stepped into becoming that version of ourselves that can accomplish this goal so that we're like, oh yeah, I'm ready.

I've been doing this. I've been doing and taking the steps that are required of me so that I can accomplish this goal. So choosing a goal can be challenging. The simple ones are, and I say simple in air quotes of, you know, you want to get a promotion.

You're at the point where you're like, yes, I want a promotion. This is what I want to do. This is how I want to go about it. You want to raise, you want to speak more, you want more opportunities.

You want to be put on a specific kind of project that you know will help accelerate your career. Maybe you want to change jobs or change roles. So for some of us, those kinds of goals are obvious to us, but sometimes it's less obvious. Sometimes we're at one of those like middle inflection points where it's like, I'm not quite ready to ask for that promotion, but I want to accelerate in my career.

I want to be moving forward. I don't want to stay stagnant and I don't really know where to focus. And I don't know how to communicate that in the form of a goal that I communicate to my manager and where it sounds and looks like something that makes my career look better. So to start, I want you to look at what you want more or less of in your career.

So one exercise I do in UX Portfolio Power Play, I do this exercise. I have a workshop that I do called Unstuck Your Career, where we talk about this exercise. So when was a time that you felt really amazing at work in the last year? where you felt on, in flow, things came easily or effortlessly to you?

When was a time like that? And if you can't think of things from this past year, then go back to the previous year or previous role you had. When I do this with clients, we do this for every role that you've had and then use that to find themes that really align to your strengths and values. Another exercise is to look at your calendar for the last month.

What's going well and what's not? How would you change your calendar moving forward? You can either do this retroactively, like I'm saying now, of looking back at your calendar and evaluating the meetings, the ways that you're spending your time. Another way to do this is to do it in the moment.

So throughout your day, after a meeting, rating it. I do plus one, minus one, or zero. That was a good experience. That was a bad experience.

That was neutral. So that it gives me a clearer picture of where is my energy being drained? What are the things that are giving me energy? And what are the things that don't impact my energy at all?

So then you can look at how do you want your calendar to look moving forward? Do you want to fully eliminate those draining meetings or tasks that you're doing? Is that possible? Can you batch them all on one day and get them all over with?

How can you add more of the things that you really enjoy doing? and then I want you to think about the biggest wins and the biggest challenges from this last year what did you learn from those things and what does this tell you now because sometimes we look at our challenges and we say wow I never want to do that again and other times we look at those challenges and think wow I accomplished that that was really hard. And now I was able to use certain strengths that I don't normally get to use.

And that makes me feel really good to know that I can use those strengths whenever I need them. And actually I'm a lot more equipped than I was before in handling those kinds of challenges. So then we want to talk about making sure your goal is tangible. When you look at the times that you felt really amazing, when you looked at your calendar and when you looked at the biggest wins and challenges, and you think of the things that you want more of going forward, what are some ways that you can do more of the things you're wanting?

so that can be you know i want to get into management so i'd love to be able to mentor others and have like a true mentorship experience that i'm in charge of and that i facilitate and create or maybe we have an internal mentoring program and i want to be a part of that you want to take on more leadership roles on projects what would that look like Maybe you want to take a course on an area in UX that you're really passionate about, that you want to learn more about and be able to bring back to your team and apply and use.

Maybe you want to work with a career coach to figure out what your next steps are and where you want your career to go so that you have a clear, unique path for yourself. and him, I know a pretty good one that's specific on helping UXers if you need a referral. You know her name Amanda Worthington She pretty amazing Maybe you want to speak at conferences or do lunch and learns What would that look like What are some things that you would want to talk about? Because we're talking about all things career change today, I wanted to share one of my favorite resources.

During my career change into UX, affirmations were my favorite way to instill confidence and keep imposter syndrome at bay. During my coursework, job search, and even once starting my first UX role, affirmations were an important part of my daily practice. And so I went through all my past notebooks and compiled the 50 must-have affirmations to help you land your first UX role and supercharge your job search. You can get them by going to uxhustle.

org slash affirmations. Again, that's uxhustle.org slash affirmations for the 50 must-have affirmations to help you land your first UX role and supercharge your job search. Hope you enjoy the rest of this episode.

So then you want to ask yourself, how does this tie into the team's or company's goals overall? Because you want to make the connection for yourself to say, oh, right, our team's goal right now is X. And here's how by me speaking at these conferences or me being a part of this mentorship program will help us actually achieve those goals. By bringing up our UX maturity, by promoting our design team and getting our name out there and recognized.

And that allows you to see that connection for yourself, but also then to easily make that connection to your manager. to say, this is how this relates. This is why this is important. And this is my contribution, my piece to accomplishing that goal.

And here's how I'm going to be doing that. And if you don't know, let's say you don't know your team's goal for next year, or you don't know the company's goal for next year, ask. Because if you don't know, other people don't know. and by asking, it shows that you care.

It shows that you care what the goal is and that you wanna be a part of that goal. You wanna be a part of accomplishing that goal. So it's important that you know what that goal is. Next, we wanna make our goal smart.

Now, I thought making smart goals was dumb for a really long time until I started using it. until I started taking it more seriously. And honestly, until I started setting really big goals for myself, SMART goals really help so that you can track and measure your success towards that goal and make adjustments along the way. So SMART, if you don't know, stands for specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-based.

So having a specific goal that's on a specific topic that's unique and boxed, like it has borders, is really helpful so that you know what it is you're doing. What are the things that you need to do to achieve that goal? Become a lot clearer when you have a specific goal in mind. Measurable.

Again, being able to measure stuff helps a lot. It really helps you track your way towards your success and see what are the things that really made a big difference in me hitting my goal. Actionable. To me, that means it's in your control.

You have the power to make that happen. By taking action, it's fully in your control and in your power to accomplish this goal. Relevant means it matters. It's a goal that matters.

It matters to you. It matters to your career. It matters to the area that you're focusing on. And then time-based.

Time-based is kind of part of that measurable aspect where when will we know? When will we know that you achieved this goal or not? What is our deadline? So that you can focus on that deadline and be able to know where you stand.

There's practice involved in setting goals. So I want to encourage you to go through this process because the more you practice it, the better you get at stretching yourself and setting bigger goals in shorter amount of times and giving yourself the power to control, to do it, to actually do it. And you get to play with these variables to see what works for you. Because for some people, setting a year-long goal is exhausting.

It's exhausting to me because that's a long goal. It's hard for me to be patient and work continuously and consistently towards that goal over that long amount of time. But now that I've been setting three-month goals or even one-month goals, when I set one-month goals, it sets me up to then be able to think longer term, to be able to think up to three-month goals. to say, oh, right, I need to be a little bit more strategic in my planning and in where my efforts are going to make sure that my monthly goals roll up to my quarterly goals.

And then I'm now at the place where I can look at a longer picture, a longer timeline, and be able to break that up more accurately and with more intention and with less fear, with less fear of being distracted or not being able to hit that goal So I encourage you to practice this and even to break down your goal into smaller goals because that will help you stay focused on what you can control and to make adjustments over time. Because if we're becoming a person that is going from not accomplishing this goal right now to someone who can accomplish this goal, we're going to be learning a lot of stuff.

we're going to be learning a lot about ourselves, about the resources available to us. And we're going to want to reevaluate at different points based on the new resources, the new information, the new data points that we have so that we can make better decisions moving forward. Because I'm picturing like a linear line, a linear line. like a linear, yeah, a linear graph.

And if you stay on your path, you're going to keep going up, right? You're going to keep moving up. But if you were to reevaluate halfway through that line and recognize the different resources that you have, the new information, the new things that have changed and make adjustments, you might be able to turn that linear graph into an exponential graph because you're able to take in the learnings. You're able to make the changes and leverage the newly developed strengths you have to make even better decisions.

So I think there's a lot of advantage in breaking down your bigger goal into smaller goals so that you can stay focused. So as an example, say you want to get promoted to senior designer by July 15th? Well, let's backtrack. So by Q2 or in Q2, I want to be the sole designer on a project or mentor a junior designer on that project.

So then in Q1, I want to be able to lead a strategy or design requirements workshop with my product team so that I have the confidence of having led something specific that I feel really confident and good about. And then I want to expand that and lead a larger, longer-term situation so that I'm proving to myself, to my manager, and whatever the expectations are that I can and should be promoted to senior designer. Now, another thing when breaking these goals into smaller goals, if your goal is not solely dependent on you, So in this case, getting that promotion.

Getting that promotion isn't completely in your control, right? Your actions are in your control. Your abilities are in your control. The things that you're learning are in control.

The decision to promote you, that ball is not in your court. You can ask. You can have the conversations. You can do that.

the ultimate decision is typically up to your manager. And so because we know that and can acknowledge that, get the information from the source. Hey, what would make you feel 100% ready to promote me to a senior designer? What evidence do you need to show that I'm ready to be a senior designer?

What do I need to do between now and July 15 so that you can feel 100% certain that I am qualified and ready to be a senior designer. Because once you start having that conversation, it opens up the conversation to what's important to them. What are the things that they're evaluating you on that you might not be thinking of? So that then you can take that and incorporate that in your goals so that you can make sure that you're getting those experiences along the way so that when it comes time for promotion, you've already had the conversation.

You already know what's required and have been meeting those requirements. And you've let your manager know that you want that promotion and are ready. You've done everything in your court that you can and had those conversations and expectations up front so that it's easier for those decisions to be made. So that is all about choosing a career goal for 2023.

We talked about taking the pressure off of choosing your goal, looking at what you want more or less of going into 2023. We talked about making it a tangible goal that you can accomplish and using SMART goals, specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-based to really set yourself up for success and breaking those larger goals into smaller goals so that you have momentum and can make adjustments along the way. All right. So until next time.

thank you for listening to this episode of the ux hustle podcast if you'd like to stay connected and up to date with future episodes make sure to hit the follow button or the plus on our page if you loved this episode then leave us a review on itunes to let us know and I'd love to stay connected with you. Yes, you. So take a moment to add me, Amanda Worthington on LinkedIn and on Instagram at Amanda M Worthington and at the UX Hustle. Message me and say, hey, connecting from the UX Hustle podcast and let me know what you loved about this episode.

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