Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep170: How to deal with a job change or new career. Group Mentoring Pt.1

Episode Date: March 17, 2023

✅ Get FREE GUIDE, newsletter, join career program 👉 http://www.meiphing.com ✅ Corporate Survivor™ is the ultimate career course for 9-to-5 working professionals, just like *you*, who want to enhance corporate world mindset, skillset and strategy so you can NAVIGATE + GROW your career with clarity, confidence & opportunities... 🚀 ⚡ 📌 ABOUT THIS PODCAST: Welcome to Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing — ex-Corporate Leader turned Career Coach & Founder of The Corporate Survivor™. On this podcast, Mei Phing shares her corporate world insights, experiences and wisdom so you can grow your 9-5 career with clarity, confidence and opportunities. ✅ WEBSITE ⮕ https://www.meiphing.com ✅ FREE GUIDE ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co/freeguide ✅ NEWSLETTER ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co/mondays ✅ CAREER COURSE ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co ⚡

Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, the best place for you to learn how to get confident and visible in your 9-5 career. This is Mei Ping, career coach, former corporate leader and creator of my signature career course, The Corporate Survivor. In this episode, we're going to be doing something a little bit different. I want to bring you behind the scenes of what actually happens during my monthly group mentoring sessions that I host as part of my career course, The Corporate Survivor. So the main goal of me hosting these group mentoring calls is to better help my students who are 9-5 professionals just like you to implement the three-step framework that I teach in my program, better help them navigate their workplace challenges as well as

looking for new career growth opportunities. So just a quick refresher on the three-step framework. What actually is it? It's the three-step framework to help you to become more confident, competent, and grow your career. So step one is getting clear on the corporate world. And once you're clear on exactly what you need to do, then we move on to step two, which is getting confident with corporate skills. Then that's all about feeling confident and learning the necessary essential core skill set that will help you navigate and be successful at any job. And once you have built a solid foundation, having clarity, confidence, and competence, we will then move on to step three, which is all about getting visible with personal branding, both at the workplace as well as utilizing LinkedIn as an online platform. So that is the three-step framework. So these are things that I covered in more detail by helping students to better apply the methods

taught as well as helping them along their career journey. So specific to today's episode, let's kickstart with step one, get clear on the corporate world, where it's all about understanding corporate structure, culture, and people, and really learning how to adapt in a new job. So whether it's your first ever job right out of university, or you have just started a new career, maybe in a new company or a new industry, or you are someone who's just in the process of adapting to your current company. Step one is all about really understanding what you are supposed to be doing so that you can set yourself up for success without the feelings of loss, confusion, or

overwhelm. So without further ado, let's dive in and bring you to behind the scenes of the things that we discussed in the group mentoring calls. And after watching all that, if you feel like you want to learn more about the program, you can always check out www.mayping.com. So without further ado, let's dive into step one. Okay, so now let's move on to the next section, which is the mentorship Q&A. So these are the Q&A forms that you guys have submitted your questions and it's also something that I send on the first of every single month. So let's start with the three-step framework first, then we'll go into the career journey and job search questions. So let's start with the phase one question which is get clear on the corporate world and this is a question around dealing with a change in job scope. So this is what the student has said.

So she negotiated a slightly higher salary and her job scope was changed to a more technical role. Felt concerned about this job as I don't have much technical skills. How do I set expectations with the manager so I won't be overly too concerned about my role and at the same time, not over promising the manager or making my manager things i'm a slow learner okay how many of you can resonate with this how many of you feel like oh every time the there's a change in job school you feel very lost but same time you also don't want people to feel that you're stupid so how many of you can resonate with that now one thing about this um this student's question is that i cannot really tell whether this is a completely new job or it's just an internal work. And then, you know, she actually asked for more money and therefore her boss is like, oh, okay, since you're going to ask for more money, then I'm just going to give you new work, right?

So now I'm going to give the answer in two directions, assuming that it's a new job. And then the second part of the question, I'll answer it if, let's say, it's an existing job, but you just happen to do more work because you ask for more money, right? Okay. Now, the first thing is, if it's a completely new job, right? And when you join the company,

and after two weeks, you realize that, hey, they are changing what they told you that you were hired to do, right? It means a completely new job. Then what you need to do is here. Now, what you need to do is you need to make sure that you complete this 3S matrix, which is, but you're going to complete this 3S matrix based on what you were actually hired to do. So you're going to fill out the matrix based on what exactly was in the job description when you applied for this job. Now, it may be different from what your manager has told you,

you know, after joining for two to three weeks, but that is the basis that you are going to start with. So fill up the TRES matrix, then you can schedule a meeting with your manager, and then you can ask and say that, oh, you know, I just wanted to get some clarity because when I, you know, when I decided to join the company, my understanding during the interview is that I'm going to do this one, two, three, four. But it sounds like, based on what you mentioned to me the other day,

my job scope has actually changed to something more technical and it's actually a bit different from what I understand. So just wanted to get some clarity around this. So you can start by asking the question this way, right, in your one-on-one session with your boss. Now, there could be, I guess, two directions that can happen.

Sometimes, maybe your role overall is more management, but there may be some technical skill, technical knowledge that you need. And that's maybe what your manager needs now. So therefore, you need to get started with the technical work first, maybe just that little bit, and eventually it will change into actually what you were actually hired to do in the first place. So if you can outline based on what you actually hired and then get that clarity and ask your manager the way I asked it.

So take note of like my intonations when I was asking and you can watch it in the replay if you want. So sometimes asking that question, getting that clarity, you may learn that, oh, okay, so it's actually something you just need to do for two weeks and it's not really your job already. So that's great. But if your manager says that, oh, actually there is a change,

then here's what's next. So if there's really a change, whether it's a new job or maybe after you have, you know, taken a, got an increment in January and then your February, your boss is now saying that, hey, you know, I need to do more work.

So what you can do is you can actually create the goal setting document, and then you can set quarterly targets. So this is actually the best way to manage expectations because sometimes it is not 100% clear whether you need to immediately

become super technical or it's just that you're taking on a more technical task but you are given time to learn so first thing is to not think about everything urgently it's not like now now now now now let me tell you right in corporate right it's never now now now now like no one's gonna die right if you don't fill out a piece of document like that's really the reality but what it's gonna do to you if you think about it that way it's gonna create a lot of panic and frustration, right? And I don't want you guys to panic. So what you're going to do is, now, after you have understood, right, what you're supposed to be doing, you're going to actually fill up the goal setting document. So that's in module 4.1. But what I want you to do

in the goal setting document is that you're going to actually create four columns, and it's going to be quarter one, quarter two, quarter three, and quarter four. So what you're you to do in the goal setting document is that you're going to actually create four columns and it's going to be quarter one, quarter two, quarter three, and quarter four. So what you're going to tell your boss is that, okay, you can say, okay, I understand that the role is actually changing to a more technical direction. And my background actually is not as technical,

but I'm keen to learn, right? I mean, I will learn. I do have plans to pick up. So what you're going to do is you're going to set by quarter, what are you going to improve on? So meaning not like, you know, we didn't, you know,

by tomorrow, magically, you're going to be a very technical person. That's not going to happen to anyone. But what you can do is to break down maybe the technical tasks, right? Maybe you have that one, two, three technical tasks. Then you can break it by quarter. You say, okay, quarter one,

I plan to, you know, read up on this regulation. I plan to learn this programming language, right? And then quarter two, I plan to create this reporting using my, I don't know, Python language or whatever. So you can break down the goals by quarter and then offer progress. So what you're going to do is that you're going to sit down and just say that, okay, you know, I'm keen, I'm committed to, you know, I know this is important for the role and while I don't have this background, you know, I'm keen,

you know, I will be putting in effort to learn and this is my, you know, my target quarterly performance plan and this is how I'm going to progress towards that technical skill, right? To be able to do a job well done. Then you can say, quarter one, I'm going to do this, quarter two, I'm going to do this, blah, blah, blah. And then

ask your boss whether you can schedule like bi-weekly catch-ups to make sure that you're on track. So directly ask for the permission. Just say, oh, would it be possible if maybe we can have a catch-up every two weeks to make sure that I'm on track? Because this is a slightly more technical role, I just want to make sure that I'm meeting your expectations and I would also like to get your feedback, right? So now, one thing, just take note, not to be too afraid of this particular sentence here

saying that I don't want to make my manager think I'm a slow learner. But the reality is that if you really don't have the skill, you're going to be somewhat of a slow learner, no? That's reality, right? So don't let ego stop you

from the learning process. So because you see, right? If you put up your hand and you really don't know how to do it, but you put up your hand, you can say that, okay, boss, you know, I can do it. Now then you're going to set

an overly optimistic expectation and when it comes crashing down, it will look even worse. So my suggestion is that we are actually going to be honest about it. And it's better to say that, okay, right, I don't have this background, right? I have limited background, but this is kind of like what I have in mind by quarter, right? Can I get some feedback on that?

Like, you know, would it be okay with you? Or, right, I also plan to give you more updates on what I'm up to, right? I'll be, you know, sharing, you know, regular progress updates with you and I would also like to have a bi-weekly catch-up. So, these are the ways where you can kind of like manage the situation a little bit better so that it doesn't come and bite you later on when you realize three months down the road, your boss is very angry at you, okay? So, this is kind of what I suggest. It may feel a little bit more painful and I think it maybe feels a bit more comfortable to hide it, right? And then just promise

and just say, okay, okay, okay, okay, which is a very Asian problem. So it's better to actually be upfront and say that, okay, right, this is kind of like my development plan and I would also like to get some support from you. So in a way,

you're kind of like making sure that your boss is also responsible for your development and you're not kind of like taking the whole thing on your own. Okay. Okay. Now let's move on to the next question.

Okay. So we have some time for live Q&A. So probably like 10 minutes or so. So if you have any questions or you want to share any, like your top number one takeaway from today's session, you can definitely put it in the chat box. I want to hear from you. So today we talked about the three students

with different situations, right? Good work performance, salary increment, as well as career change. So three students, then we also talked about phase by phase on what do we actually do to practically overcome workplace challenges, but how you can also reroute back

and re-look at some of the lessons taught in The Corporate Survivor to help you navigate that. Because actually, when I designed The Corporate Survivor, I wanted to teach you guys the framework and the methods versus telling you that, hey, these are the 10 things, just do it exactly as I see. The reason is because that one is not so good because I think it may be better to develop

like critical thinking and independence of thought because that's something that's actually really really powerful so I hope that you're also maximizing these group mentoring calls to really think about when you look at some of these students challenges if it was you what would you do if this thing actually happened to you like how would do you think you will react so I think kind of like gives you a bit of that mental preparation so that eventually, you know, if something similar actually happens to you, you know that, oh, okay, actually I've seen this,

this is a challenge that, you know, some other students in the corporate survival has faced before. Maybe has given some thoughts around that. And maybe you feel a little bit more ready to approach the challenge and maybe look at it more objectively versus emotionally. Okay?