The art of chippin' away at a career that brings you meaning

Career advice. That vague topic.

I suppose you’ve likely heard it from either your caregiver, that one ‘career advisor’ at High School or maybe another influential stakeholder in your life. Either way, I’m sure we’ve all received a similar ramble.

In this brain dump, I hope to speak to what I’ve learned about the value of slowly chippin' away at a career that brings you meaning. I explore the ideas of following what sets your heart on fire, vulnerability and why I believe in the long-term game, over short-term wins. 

Enjoy!

👉 Disclaimer: This is not professional career advice. Rather, an anecdote of my early career progress so far and a few things I’ve learned along the way. I am conscious that navigating your early career can be a challenging and non-linear journey, and our perspectives may vary based on our individual experiences.

Go where you feel it 

Yeah okay Hannah, easier said than done. 

“Do what you love and you never work a day in your life.” Blah blah. Heard it all before. 

I’ve always loved this idea, but in reality, it can be super tough to figure out what that ‘thing’ is that we seemingly love. 

When I say go where you feel it, I’m referring to the notion of testing the waters of various environments, to determine what makes you feel in alignment with what brings you joy. Even when you’re not 100% ready – in fact, that’s when I want you to try this. 

I often think that the beginning of our professional careers is like setting sail for the first time in our lives. Sailing into scary, uncharted waters that will likely present a variety of resilience-building challenges along the way. You may reach some points in the sail that feel bumpy or more difficult to handle than others. The kind of environment where big waves of uncertainty, unfamiliar territory and uncomfortable situations feel like they’re getting the better of you. Or you just simply aren’t in alignment with the direction or crewman onboard the sail at that particular moment.

Practically speaking, this environment may appear when you are trying out a role that just doesn't suit you. The types of challenges you are confronted with feel completely out of your control and you don't have the right support around you to get you through.

Then, you may very well reach a calm section of the sail, that still presents challenges, but you feel like you’re in flow, sailing smoother than normal and are performing at your best. Your actions are characterised by motivation, joy and drive. It’s in these moments where we can discern the difference between what makes us feel in flow and what makes us feel tense or ‘not in alignment’ with our truest selves. This is where the magic happens — when we can experience things first-hand, try new navigation and move closer to understanding what makes us ‘tick’.

Tip: Another way I often like to understand what makes me ‘tick’ is to take myself back to a time growing up or in my early adulthood when I felt truly alive. Then, go deeper. For example, I liked to bake and paint on canvas. Why? Because it presented a space for me to be in the creative flow. 

Try out a range of environments, be vulnerable when you’re learning, and keep going. Eventually, some parts of the sail will start to feel calmer and in alignment, with less tension. This is when you know you’re heading in the right direction. Still challenging, but the right kind of challenging. A practical example of this is when you start to stop counting down the hours for work to finish, you procrastinate less, feel joy when you achieve a small task and get into a natural flow of work easily (creative flow). These feelings would be contrary to feeling stressed, unmotivated and constantly dealing with negative thoughts towards the role or team.

What are you bringing on board?

When I was a young girl, I’d always be yelling from the back seat of the Tarago. In the back right seat. I was the youngest of 5 kids and got the last dibs on seat priority. It was a big red van, that we all piled into when we’d go on a big trip up the north coast.

I was constantly yelling out to Dad from the back seat every road trip asking a billion questions about the world. “How was that bridge made Dad” “Yeah but like why was it done like that” etc. I was never content with a blunt answer and never stopped asking why. I’ve always been curious and have continued to stay curious my entire life. I know this is inherent to who I am. 

Okay now, my first job.

It was around the 14 mark. My family and I had a favourite cafe we’d go to in the south of Sydney on the weekends. It was designed like an old caravan from the 60s and they sold the most epic home-baked cakes on the front counter. 

One sunny Sunday morning, I felt the desire to let the cafe owner know how much I admired the cakes. As the conversation progressed, the cafe owner asked me if I baked cakes. I said, “Of course! It’s one of my favourite things to do – bake sponge cakes!". The owner then continued to ask me if I would fancy bringing up a cake for them to try, and If it was good enough, he’d get me to bake cakes every weekend. 

At this point, I was of course nervous and out of my comfort zone, but I dove in and took the opportunity. Fast forward 3 years, and I had a profitable baking business and had developed my interpersonal skills out of sight. I continued to work in various hospitality venues, until the age of around 17. 

During these years, I was granted the best opportunity I could ask for. I got to feel, what it was like to be in creative flow, independently operate and feel the joys that entrepreneurship presented (not all sunshine and rainbows FYI.) Alongside this time, I would often have a subconscious vision pop into my head, where I would visualise where I would want to be in say, 10 years.

The vision wasn’t a clear picture, of any kind. It was more like a little thought bubble that I continuously have felt driven to over the years. 

“I want to be like hmmm, a boss lady, in a cool building, with maybe cool lights and um I want to lead a team but I don’t want to just make a company more money for the sake of it, I want to make a positive impact.” 

Well yeah, something along those lines.

The building in my mind looked kind of like the Google office, but much more organic (lots of sparkly lights and a cool kitchen though). 

Tip: If you have to look at the clock and see how much longer is in the day, chances are you’re out of alignment. In my opinion anyway. 😬

Next? Next was figuring out what the heck I would commit my short attention span brain to at University for the next 3 years after school had finished. But first, being the eager person that I was. I was keen to get started in the business world, of some description a little earlier than normal. So, at around 17, I jumped into an online digital marketing course, so I could volunteer and eventually do some contract work for small businesses in my local area. The goal was not a short-term gain, I just wanted to start to understand how a small business operated internally.

I didn’t know what I was getting into and certainly did not prospect the learnings I would endure over the next 2 years. It was exciting but more than anything tough. I was mostly in the pits of challenges.

Now back to University. As a result of that little vision I had from age 14 – I felt like the degree I pursued had to be somewhat in alignment with that. Hence I stumbled across a conference that was going down at UTS, called ‘The Future of Work’. I dragged Dad along with me to attend because it resonated with what I feel most excited about. Which was curiosity, creativity and entrepreneurship. 

From that conference, I was exposed to a degree called the “Bachelor of Technology and Innovation”. A new degree at UTS that encapsulates complex problem-solving, technological practice and critical systems thinking. 

Man, at the time I did not know what a single one of these phrases meant. But, oh boy, did it excite me. I leaned right in and gave it a good crack. 

I was sh*t scared to be completely honest. Mostly, for the coding part, knowing Mathematics wasn’t my strong suit at school. However, it only took the voice of one alumnus, to convince me I was capable and good enough to do the degree. In the end, I loved it. I had the most fulfilling experience. I continued to be a yes person and engaged in every opportunity that I could. Of course, many challenges came my way, but they only contributed to my resilience and enabled me to take another step towards my vision.

In Steve Jobs's commencement speech for Standford University, he says.

“ I dropped out of college after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I quit… The minute I dropped out, was the moment I could stop taking classes that didn’t interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that did". - Steve Jobs

I love this anecdote. I hear it as – despite conventional or linear approaches to learning and career progression, why not try to lean into the things that make you feel interested, and follow that? 

Being the biggest sponge in the room

One thing that has been a common thread throughout my early career so far is that it has never been about the short-term win or the job title. It’s always been about being the dumbest person in the room and building resilience and relationships. I think that matters. Well, in my experience anyway. 

Toward the end of my first year of Uni, I was still doing some freelance work and exploring what made me ‘tick’ or sparked my interest. I also did some work at an insurance company in Customer Service, and let’s just say, that didn’t make me ‘tick’.👀 I felt like I was onboard that mayhem part of the sail, surrounded by friction and whatever phrase opposes flow. 

I continued to explore those feelings that I knew, felt like my thing. Anything that was entrepreneurial and allowed me to work in the creative flow. I continued to explore different communities that exposed me to this environment and I was met with Fishburners – Australia’s largest community of early-stage startups. Still, I had pretty much no idea what that meant. But they hosted cool events, which I started to attend. The first one was a fireside chat with the CTO of Spotify, which at the time, was seriously epic. I was the youngest person in the room by a long mile and quietly added to the 10:1 ratio of males to females. But, I felt that feeling again, that continued to draw me closer to that vision. I called Dad straight after the first event I attended to let him know how it made me feel. "Dad this place is awesome! There are all of these entrepreneurial quotes on the wall, and even more cool there are shiny lights and ping pong tables!” 

Weirdly enough, this seriously felt so close to that little bubble I envisioned from a super young age, it was quite literally in front of me. 

Lacking experience, and University grade credibility, it was unlikely I could put myself forward to work somewhere like this at 19, so It meant I just sat and absorbed like a sponge from the distance for a while. 

I continued to attend events and associate myself with more communities alike. I knew I had to get a foot in the door, and It would be a bit of a challenge. 

Fast forward one year, I dedicated every Friday night to their startup events, pouring beer behind the bar so I could simply listen to every word of wisdom from that stage, and be the biggest, and I mean biggest sponge in the room. 

As my professional knowledge began to expand, I felt the courage to ask the team who ran the organisation if I could please join as an intern, which quickly progressed into a part-time role. 

Again, what made it worth it, was the relationships I built and never valuing the short-term win or role title. I could write a book about the people I met and the things I learned from highly influential people. In summary, it reaffirmed my strong interest in creativity, entrepreneurship and curiosity. In this role, I also came across certain tasks that didn’t make me ‘tick’ and how to best manage those. Again, challenging, but so incredibly important in catalysing the next steps in my career. 

If you’re still reading, well thank you for hanging in there. 🤞

Where am I now? I’m approaching my first year at Hatch. A startup that helps people find meaning in work. Probably the most aligned I’ve ever felt. Again, I landed this role as a result of following a feeling, that connected me to a brand. Similar to Fishburners, I saw a company that I knew was for me based on their values and continued ‘chippin’ away until I got there. When the moment felt right, and I was no longer intensely challenged in my old role, I took the leap to apply for a super entry-level role at Hatch. 

My time here has been about how I can continue to be in a room full of wiser people than me. The promotions, and career progression, will naturally come if you’re in the right environment. 

What are you bringing on board? 

Find your little superpower. We’ve all got it. For me, it’s creative flow (what you’re reading now) it’s communicating and solving problems. Well, for now anyway. I’m sure this will change. Lean into it, do more of it, and if you can - seek regular feedback from influential leaders. 

Cheers and happy holidays. 🥂

Hannah