Cognaction | What Can Shaq Teach you about your Career Choices?
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13 Apr What Can Shaq Teach you about your Career Choices?

Posted at 20:36h in Job Searching by Mrim Boutla
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When exploring which sustainability job options to pursue next, many young graduates and experienced professionals struggle to articulate what opportunities is a better fit for them. Would a for-profit CSR job at a big company be a good fit? A traditional role in a sustainable business where every employee is a CSR manager (e.g. Seventh Generation, Patagonia)? A nonprofit consulting job help traditional businesses become less environmentally unsustainable (e.g. FSG Social Impact Advisors, Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps Fellowship)?

My conversations with emerging and established sustainability professionals often reminds me of Shaq Vs. In this show, Shaquille O’Neal, who is best known for his stellar NBA career, challenged other athletes in their own sports. For example, Shaq would swim against Michael Phelps, or throw a football against NFL Quarterback Roethlisberger. In an other episode, Shaq challenged Misty May and Kerri Welsh in beach bolleyball.

Now what’s interesting here is that similar skills and abilities are valuable in both basketball and volleyball. Players that are tall, have excellent ball anticipation abilities, and possess team leadership skills are very valuable in both sports. Furthermore, Shaq was paired up with Todd Rogers, who won the Beijing Olympics Gold Medalist in the men’s beach volleyball event. Given his partner and his transferable abilities, could Shaq be as good in beach volleyball as he was on a basketball court? Well, not really. Shaq got quite frankly humiliated on a volleyball court. It turned out that Shaq’s amazing size was an asset when he was at the right place at the right time both in basketball and in volleyball. Unfortunately, most of the time, his size was a liability when he attempted to move on sand. Despite benefiting from a great partner and many transferable skills, Shaq lost in two sets against Misty May and Kerri Welsh.

What does this tell us about your sustainability job choices? We are all great athletes, with strengths, skills, and the knowledge we have acquired through education, professional experiences, and our volunteer or service efforts. But the same job can be a basketball court for one professional, or a volleyball court for another professional. How do you discern whether a job you are considering would be a basketball or a volleyball court for you? You might be among the many professionals hungry to get business done better that are simply unable to articulate (and therefore recognize) what job and employer combination is a basketball or a volleyball court option based on your own unique skills, job priorities, and impact area.

The good news if you are a Shaq on a volleyball court is that we have a simple solution for you! We have developed career modules to help you leverage our Triple Fit Framework (download our handout) and clarify your own unique priorities and preferences:

    • What impact area is a better fit for your values and passions (Get Clear Module #2)?

 

    • What types of organizational culture and jobs would be a better fit for you in terms of how each job would fit your priorities in terms of material rewards, prestige, community, family, and self-development (Get Clear Module #4)?

 

    • What career assessments (e.g. CareerLeader, SkillScan) can tell you about the transferable skills you have that you can bring to your next job (Get Clear Module #3)?

 

 

Defining your triple fit will enable you to build your impact-driven networking pitch. This process will also enable you to conduct better employer research (Get Connected Module #1), and increase your chances to convert your applications into interviews (Get Hired Module #2), and your interviews into offers (Get Hired Module #4).

If you feel like Shaq on a volleyball court in your current job, know that you have more career choices to feel more like Shaq on a basketball court than you think! Of course Shaq has now retired from the NBA. He is trying different things, searching for his next basketball court. Will it be becoming a sports commentator? Will he become Professor O’Neal now that Shaq earned his doctorate in education? As we all are, Shaq is on a journey to earn good money by leveraging his talents, skills, knowledge, and passions. We hope that our triple fit model will help you get hired faster so that you can get well-paid to have a positive social and/or environmental impact on our world!

Note: An earlier version of this post was published on JustMeans in 2010.



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