Sometimes you just get lucky.
A couple of weeks before Christmas, on my last day at work, an all-staff email announced an Information Futures Commission would start work in the new year. The Commission would develop a 10-year strategic plan for the University’s ’scholarly information’ environment — libraries, information literacy, curation of data created as a result of research activities, archives, IT-enhanced classrooms and so on.
I sent a quick email to the director of the Commission, offering to take notes at meetings. A good way of learning about complicated topics and processes, I said, implying that it would be a low-cost professional development opportunity. Linda responded promptly: let’s catch up when we’re both back from holidays.
Last Tuesday, Linda called me to a meeting with herself and my boss, Donna. It lasted half an hour, and I left Linda’s office with a new job.
It’s a bit more complicated than just taking notes at meetings: instead, it’s a full-on project officer role.
Of course, there was more than luck involved.
First, there was Angela. She is Donna’s boss, and reports to Linda. Unbeknownst to me, Angela suggested to Linda that I might be a useful member of the project team. Angela is well-respected in this institution, and I’m very grateful that she used some of that whuffie for my benefit.
Second, there was history. From my previous work in the University web team, Angela and Donna both knew that I’m a strategic thinker, well-organised and good at documentation. It probably helped that Linda had also seen some first-hand evidence of these qualities.
That leads us neatly to factor number three: provable credibility. Linda didn’t know that I have several years’ experience in committee administration work. In my December email, I shamelessly dropped the name of a well-respected senior manager who recently observed me doing such work and had commented favorably on it. The name-dropping was done in a light-hearted way, as if it’s no big deal: “Manager X will tell you I’m a demon for committee admin…”
Fourth, I showed that I was more interested in the success of the project than in personal aggrandisement. Given my current job classification, I could have asked for a senior role on the project team. Linda could have felt that I was more interested in maintaining personal status than in helping the project team achieve their goals. Instead, by offering to take minutes, I set a low level of expectation on what kind of role I might expect to fill in the project team. This allowed Linda to decide for herself how best to use my various skills.
(And I really would have been happy just to take minutes and keep the steering committee admin in order, if that’s all Linda wanted from me. Rooly trooly.)
Fifth, although there was only an hour’s notice, I prepared for the meeting with Linda and Donna.I spent that hour writing a two-page CV.
On the first page was a summary of experience and skills that I thought might be useful for a project of this kind. On the second page was a list of the various jobs I’ve held, covering 23 years of full-time employment (I left uni at 18).
As I wrote, I practised ‘pitching’ various aspects of the CV: how would I describe my skills in communication planning? What are my particular strengths? In 20 words, can I describe my style of working in a team? What specific experience-based example would illustrate the set of skills I’m writing about in paragraph 3?
Finally, there was the Donna factor. She’s a supportive and generous boss, and does her best to see that staff have opportunities to learn, grow and do good work. Awesome :-)
Like all overnight successes, this one took a while to happen. I’m glad it did: it’s an exciting opportunity, and there’s a fun team to work with. We have lots of work to do in a very short period. Six months of mayhem coming up…
Tags: career development, goals, Information Futures Commission
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