Week Three: Resources Reflection
Readings:
Career adaptivity, adaptability, and adapting: A conceptual and empirical investigation (Hirschi, Herrmann & Keller)
Quote: “Within his career construction theory, Savickas (2002) conceptualized career adaptability as attitudes, behaviors, and competencies that individuals use in fitting themselves to work that suits them, consisting of the four dimensions of concern (planning, being planful), control (decision making, being decisive), curiosity (exploring, being inquisitive), and confidence (problem solving, being efficacious).”
Reflection: While such academic determination of career planning provides structure and understanding for our choices, I also believe that you can make healthy choices from simply wanting to do what you love. My own journey back to Penn has been this. Inspired by Professor Struck’s mythology class in Coursera, I found myself wanting to scratch the itch of the academic life, especially as the pandemic hit. But I had little idea how any of it worked, or the incredible journey ahead of me. I did it because I loved it, and it was absolutely the right choice. But only through a process of praxis, did I really uncover why I was doing it at all, which was to uncover a deeply curious passion for the study of antiquity.
New Developments in and Directions for Goal-Setting Research (Latham & Locke)
Quote: “The theory of goal setting states that there is a positive linear relationship between a specific high goal and task performance. Thus, the theory makes explicit that a specific high goal leads to even higher performance than urging people to do their best.”
Reflection: For me a lot of goal setting is about stretching yourself to believe you can actually do something. Too often at work I see others set themselves softball goals and then take a victory lap when they smash them. This comes from a place of insecurity. My own goal setting at Penn began with ‘can I even do this’. Here at the end the answer is ‘yes I can!’. I never knew I could write lengthy political science papers, solve complicated math problems, develop scientific experiments or really, reach the point of graduation. But I am so excited that I did. Only now is it starting to hit me what has actually happened here, and it’s a wonderful, wonderful feeling of achevement.
The Big Five Personality Dimensions (Barrick)
Quote: “The most significant finding in the study relates to the Conscientiousness dimension. It was found to be a consistently valid predictor for all occupational groups studied and for all criterion types. Thus, this aspect of personality appears to tap traits which are important to the accomplishment of work tasks in all jobs. That is, those individuals who exhibit traits associated with a strong sense of purpose, obligation, and persistence generally perform better than those who do not.”
Reflection: The dimensions of conscientiousness and persistence have had to show up a lot over the past four years at Penn. It’s been a lot of early mornings, and finding the time to get work done. But I believe that if things are important enough, you will always be able to find the time. Maybe it’s doomscrolling less (I removed all social media from my phone), delegating work to others (to create the space for school), or getting up an hour early to handle an assignment (over time this really positively compounds). A lot of what has happened has been clock management. The conscientiousness and proactivity of working ahead to create the space to sit in the more complicated assignments. And by doing this, it also allows for more impactful savoring of the experience.
Videos:
Why Values Matter (Stassen)
Quote / Concept: “Values are the social glue that help us connect with all our beautiful differences”
Reflection: I have long thought that our stories are what define us. So much so that I have recently started to write down the stories of my life for my daughter to read one day (https://www.anthologymatt.com/semi-truths-stories). The story of how I survived cancer, how I moved to America, or how I met her mother. I hope that one day she will be able to read them and say “that was my dad”. Last year I wrote down twenty things I’d learned in the twenty years of living in America (https://www.anthologymatt.com/article/twenty-things-in-twenty-years), and it’s a strong self-portrait of how I think about value. The one which lands the most powerfully for me? ‘Opportunity is everywhere’.
Why the Secret to Success Is Setting the Right Goals (Doerr)
Quote: “You must develop a clear and compelling sense of why."
Reflection: We use a quarterly OKR framework in my professional life. It’s helpful to align on what’s important, but often frustrates an ability to be able to react effectively to opportunity. To execute projects which may come in mid-quarter, which align with the goal but not what’s been determined in planning. Working for a news organization compounds this, as our editorial colleagues cannot structure their work like this. So while the framework is adapt at wrangling complexity and getting crisp about mission, I think what applies here is what Mike Tyson said. “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”.
