Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep201: Don't work hard if you don't have a plan.

Episode Date: January 11, 2024

✅ Watch FREE WORKSHOP, newsletter, work with me ⮕ 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, where we talk about how to grow your career confidence, build your skills and value, increase your salary, and the many lessons we learn in the corporate world. For more career support, click on over to www.mayping.com. This is Mayping, your corporate leader turned career coach. I hope you enjoy, like and subscribe. What happens if you work hard and you don't get recognized? I had a poor student who reached out to me and she told me that, oh, Mei Ping, I have been working at this job for five, six years already.

I'm very hardworking, but the problem is that I feel like I'm still not getting any opportunities to do new things or to get promoted as well. And I feel like I cannot really get along with my colleagues. When I ask her, hey, you know, how's your relationship with your boss? And she couldn't really answer that as well. Because I think if you're working really hard and you can't really explain what you're doing, that's a bit of a problem.

When she signed up to the program, what I told her was like, okay, you know, get started with the three-step framework, especially the clarity part on your job responsibilities and then we'll go from there she went through that and the next month right which is within 30 days of her in the program she actually was actually preparing for her year-end performance reviews previously what she told me was like hey this year-end performance review i don't really know what to do with it i just attend this session with my boss and then it just ends in five minutes because i don't know what to say she went through the lesson so i do have a section that's really focused on performance review in the programs. It kind of walks her through step-by-step how to prepare, how to identify her key performance

goals, her milestones, and then what to report, how to structure the conversation. And we also did a workshop a couple of months ago as well to really think about the next six months, right? So after having your mid-year review or year-end review, it's like, hey, you know, what's actually going to happen? She looked through all these resources, then she started she started preparing right it's like the first time ever she actually took out a piece of paper and let's start started writing down based on the matrices that are in the program and just walk through then she dropped me a message and she said she feels

clearer and it's actually her first time being able to identify what her key performance goals are because it's not really something that she was aware of like she kind of have an idea of like these are things that she needed to work on but not in a very structured way so that also gave her a lot more confidence to have conversation with her boss so you dropped me a message and told me that hey you know i have a feeling that i'm gonna crush it in that conversation with my boss because finally i feel very prepared right i feel i know what to say. That has actually gone really, really well. It's really, really important to work hard and to do work, to get recognized. But what happens if you work hard and then you don't get recognized? I want to share

this next story with you. And this is actually a client who joined my career program sometime in August. When he joined my career program, he told me that his company has recently gone through a round of promotions in the middle of the year and he didn't get the promotion. Basically, he was already a manager and a junior manager. And at that time, he was expecting to get a promotion because he has been working hard and he has gotten really good feedback. But the problem was he didn't get it. So he was really, really upset and he did raise it to the management and leadership team. But it seems like nothing can be done.

And he was actually really upset. Eventually, he decided to just quit his job and just to see what's next. Definitely, I think it was a bit of an emotional reaction for sure, but I also understand that it can be something really frustrating because you feel that you've been working hard, but you're not seeing it. It was at this point, at the end of August,

that he came to me and joined my career program, The Corporate Survivors. After telling me his story, and usually, you know, after you sign up, you fill up the intake form, and you share a bit about your story, then I will usually recommend which are some of the modules that you will get started with. So usually, you either, you will either get started with the three-step career growth framework, which is the get clear, get confident, get visible, or you will get started with the 30-day job search lessons, right, which is more focused around career

direction, resume writing, and then up to the interviews and so forth. Looking at his situation, I told him to actually get started both in parallel because I think it's important to, before you start like looking for another job, is to understand what went wrong in this current job. The fact that he worked really, really hard, but he didn't get recognized,

he didn't get promoted. So there must be something that is a little bit off with his approach and his strategies. I recommended for him to do that. Then after that, to move on to the job search lessons. Started doing that. And when you join my program, there's a plan in which you can actually choose. The mentoring plan means that, you know, you will come for monthly mentoring sessions with me, can submit a question, get my perspective and advice on what you can do next. He started on the program, looking through all of those. He started attending the mentoring calls as well. And I could actually see his progression

every single month. Within 15 days of joining the program, which is one, five, 15 days, he dropped me a message online and he told me that, oh, Mei Ping, I've already gone through like quite a bit of the lessons, particularly the personal branding

and the visibility lessons. And he realized that he made so many mistakes because he's been working hard, but that's the only thing that he focused on. He didn't focus on, you know, making sure that, you know, he gets known by more people, right? How do you get endorsement? And basically all these things that I taught in the program. So he realized that, oh, okay, my confidence is very low right now because obviously I'm not happy in my situation, but through the lessons and through the perspectives and the insights, he realized that, okay, I made some mistakes and this is actually what I should not be doing going forward when I land a new job.

He sent me a list of like things that he realized after going through the lessons and he said, hey, maybe these are things that I'm not going to make this mistake again when I start this new job. So I was like, okay, that's great, right? So just continue on. And after that, you know, we can focus on like, kind of like prepping your value positioning. And that's something that is taught, you know, step-by-step in the job search lessons. After he went through that, you know, we can focus on like kind of like prepping your value positioning. And that's something that is taught, you know, step by step in the job search lessons. After he went through that, right, he started writing his resume. He started fixing his LinkedIn profile. He also started practicing his interview skills.

All of these, he went through just the program itself as well as supported by the mentoring because we haven't actually spoken one-on-one yet, even though, you know, he still has his bonus one-on-one call with me. But so far, you know, these are things that he's doing it himself for now. Then a few weeks later, he dropped me a message and then he booked his one-on-one yet even though he still has his bonus one-on-one call with me. But so far, these are things that he's doing it himself for now. Then a few weeks later, he dropped me a message and then he booked his one-on-one call. He told me that, hey, maybe I want to practice my interview skills. So I was like, okay, great. Let's meet and let's talk about it. When he came for the one-on-one call with me, he mentioned that he told me that he has updated his resume. He sent it to quite a few companies already. And going through the lessons, he was able to identify what he wanted to do. So he sent quite a few already and. And going through the lessons, he was able to identify what he wanted to do.

So he sent quite a few already and he got many, many interviews. And previously, he tried sending one or two, he didn't get anything. So right now, he got quite a few interviews. I think he told me he sent,

I think was it seven or eight resumes. He got four or five interviews. That's quite high. That's quite high. I mean, the ratio is really, really high. So at the time that he booked the call with me, he already attended one interview. What we did together in our strategy call was to look at the way that he's explaining his experiences so one of the things i teach is the career summary section which is really really important to sell yourself in your resume interview

and networking something that we would use in every situation we did that refined a little bit more and also gave him some feedback specifically on how he has been dealing with his first interview he did well he did pass his first interview but there were also some areas that he wasn't really sure about and he wanted to seek out if i can share any perspective with him i gave him some feedback based on what i would want to hear as an ex-hiring manager i also shared with him why certain hiring managers are asking certain things that helped a lot then after the call he was like okay maybe you know i'm gonna go for into go for an interview with this huge bank and i'll give you an update he went for that so he took on everything that

we discussed and went through the lessons again and everything else just within a one and a half weeks after that he came he came back with an update and said that he managed to proceed to the final round of the interview and he's expecting a job offer soon super duper happy and he got results in less than three months and more importantly i think his confidence level is really really high because i think sometimes it's not just a matter of like finding the job i think like your your mental strength as well as your emotional strength to to you know to actually go through that career change process is even more important, right? That's why my approach has always been like, we need to focus on making sure that

you know what you're doing at work. And even if there are certain areas that you are not so good at, that's something that we want to try to fix and enhance and figure out what's off first, what's wrong first before we go for a career change. Because jumping from one job to the other is not going to help.

And I think particularly for this client i'm actually really really happy for him because he made the effort to figure out what went wrong in the way that he's been working so he knew that he was working hard but he was like maybe i don't know what am i doing wrong how come i'm not getting recognition so after he went through a lesson he was like okay these are things that i'm not supposed to be doing then Then once he had that realization, then he was like, okay, now I think I'm like more mentally ready to go and look for a job. So that's why, you know, when he went through the job search lessons and the time that he actually started applying to the point that he got the interviews and the job offer, it was actually really, really fast. That's because he has actually done some

reflection work and reset and re-strategizing within himself, right? Not even the application stage. I'm saying that like within himself, he's really done quite a lot of work, right? He's like having that willingness to look at some of his weaknesses and some of his blind spots and say, hey, I'm not going to do this again.

So that's why once he has clarity, once he has focus, right? Then the job search process actually is really fast. The moment he signed the offer, he gave me an update. He's like, Ming Ping, I'm going to prepare for this new role because I'm starting soon. So then he went back to the three-step framework, which is the step one, which is the clarity part, right?

Understanding his role and all those things. Those are covered like in more details in the program. But what I'm trying to say here is more like there can be times that you feel down. There can be times that you feel that things are not going well and you might feel that, okay, you know, job search or career change is the only answer. But I think as demonstrated by many of my clients and students, and these are just a few examples, I have so many more stories and I can probably go on hours and hours and hours just to tell stories and like progress and success for clients in my program. But I just wanted to share a couple of stories for you to get a sense of like,

it's not just about the job search. It's not just about doing really well at work. But I think it's like the kind of mindset you should have and like the kind of perspective that you should take and also the willingness to look at the things that are uncomfortable, right? That the fact that growth is uncomfortable and the faster you can see your blind spots,

the faster you can overcome them or the faster you can make sure that you don't repeat the mistakes, the faster you can actually refine for you and figure out what actually works for you and to feel more confident in the approach that you're taking. Because I think it's not just about motivation. And for all the clients in my career program, and these are some of the stories I'm sharing with you that happened in the second half of last year. And I have so many more stories at the beginning half of the year as well. A lot of them are in fairly similar situations in which at the beginning they feel lost or they feel that it's very unfair that their hard work is not recognized. It's very unfair. How come you know I need to work late? It's very unfair. How come I'm not getting the recognition? It's very unfair. How come someone

else gets paid better than me? It's very unfair. How come someone else gets paid better than me? It's very unfair why I'm not given this project. To me, these are all the outcome. This is the outcome. Actually, the thing that I find even more interesting is actually what led to the outcome, right? What has happened and what are the many things that has happened to actually lead to this feeling

of unfairness and the feeling of loss and confusion that you're feeling right now. And these are usually the same journey that many of my clients have gone through. That is a normal feeling. But I think it's also important to recognize that there are some things that you can do about it. Today is a new beginning. In fact, every day is a new beginning.

You don't necessarily have to wait until the first of every month or every year to make a change, to decide that, hey, every month or every year to make a change, to decide that, hey, this is what I'm going to focus on, to decide that, hey, I'm going to make it happen. You can decide that every single day. If you found this sharing helpful or interesting, make sure that you drop a comment or you can drop me a DM. And I'll see you soon.