Dr. Ima Hirin answers your questions about interviews, careers, and how to succeed.
Q: Dear Doctor, what trait do I need to cultivate to stay effective on the job?
A: Kudos to you! Taking responsibility for your career is the first and most important step to success.
Although much of the job search process is out of your control, the choices that you make on a daily basis have a significant effect on your career destiny.
Every day is a clean slate of new opportunity for you to be exceptional and to show initiative, that ability to take action to achieve something without waiting for someone to tell you to do it, is key to your success. A survey of production managers and technical directors identified the single most important skill for success in the theatre was the ability to “always assume that something else needed to be done, and then responding.”
How can you cultivate Initiative? Here are 5 habits worth developing:
- Use “yes, and” language (a major rule in theatrical improvisation), rather than “no, but” language. Focus your attention on what you can do to make your ideas and future come to life, rather than identifying all the reasons things will not work out.
- Trust yourself and your instincts and act on them. There is something to be said that if an opportunity feels right, it must be right.
- If you are currently unhappy with what you see as your future, make a list of changes that you would seek to improve the situation. Then address these changes one at a time. Each day you should take at least one action to advance yourself towards your career goal.
- Volunteer someplace to keep your skills sharp, to develop further experience and to contribute while looking for that next, best opportunity.
- Listen and learn at every opportunity, remembering that you have two eyes and two ears and only one mouth, use these critical tools for learning in that ratio.
Employers are constantly on the lookout for individuals who show initiative and who can rapidly contribute to success.
