Your Career and You: “Use Your ‘Wings’!”

I was driving home from an appointment this morning when a bird darted out into the road in front of me. Now this isn’t an uncommon thing, but this particular bird caught my attention.

First of all…he (I’ll assume it was a “guy” bird until told otherwise) didn’t strike me as being the brightest candle on the menorah.

And the look of sheer panic in his beady little eyes told me he really hadn’t thought this through very carefully.

So he hunkered down and picked up speed…running.

My Thoughts...

“It’s a road, for Pete’s sake!...And you’re a bird!!

Why in heaven’s name are you running across the road trying to beat the oncoming traffic?!?

Some Almighty Being gave you wings…not to use as decorations…to fly.”

Then, me being me, I started thinking about conversations I’ve had recently with students at Curry College, where I oversee the Communication Department’s undergraduate Public Relations Concentration and teach most PR courses, and at Regis College, where I teach part-time in the graduate Organizational and Professional Communication area.

While some of the folks with whom I’ve been chatting both in person and online seem to have their respective acts together and are diligently mining the career opportunities that they discover, others…not so much.

These latter “birds” only bubble up to the surface sporadically…usually when panic sets in because the month’s rent is due and they realize where they are in the jobsearch process.

So why “wings”?

“Wings” are my metaphor for “contacts”…people who can help you rise out of your current situation and soar over the others…your competition for that job.

Where do you find these wings?

In a number of ways:

• In-person networking (professional events like your local chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, American Marketing Association, Social Media Club and others)
• Online networking (professional groups on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other platforms)
• Existing relationships (former professors, advisors, classmates, mentors, your family members…this list can go on forever)

The point here is that you don’t have to “run” through your job search. You can take advantage of the uplifting support of new and existing friends, colleagues, classmates, teachers…anyone and everyone who can give you a boost.

Sometimes that boost is a referral or a suggested place to look.

Other times, it’s a comforting reassurance that you’re not in this alone…that there are others on the sidelines who believe in you and are cheering you on.

Whatever the case, they’re there for you, so take advantage of them.

Use your “wings” and, with luck, soar into a new opportunity or a fresh start!

“No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.”

-William Blake, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” (Proverbs of Hell, l. 15) [1790-1793]