TLDR; Focus on what you can control, be intentional with your relationships, and allow timing to work in your favor.
Simple career advice today, and if you know me, you’ve probably heard it before.
On a scale of things you can control to things you can’t, there are three things that matter:
Results
Relationships
Timing
Results are almost entirely in your control. Maybe the bar you’re held to isn’t, but your inputs and your outcomes relative your peers are. No one wants to hire someone who isn’t already demonstrably better than others at their current role, so consider “results” to be table stakes.
Relationships are also almost entirely in your control. Who you reach out to, how you manage your time with them, what you do to follow-up—all up to you. More specifically though, it’s important to be building relationships in the context of what you want to do and make what you want to do known so that others can help.
Timing is essentially out of your control—when roles open up, where investments are being made, etc. However, when you’re demonstrably better than others at what you do, and your relationships are strong particularly within the context of what you aspire to do, “good timing” will feel serendipitous, even though in reality you manufactured it and were more in control of it than you thought all along.
See you Monday.