Deciding Your Direction

The nonprofit sector is often construed as being very different from the world of commercial, for-profit enterprises. While these entities are quite different in certain foundational ways, they look pretty similar on a functional level. Habitat For Humanity identifies six core ways that nonprofit organizations differ from profit-driven ones: purpose, funding, target, audience, management, organizational culture, and taxation. Most of these components affect the mission, values, and structure of the organization and not the actual operations– marketing departments still need to develop strategic plans, accounting teams still need to accurately track financials, HR still needs to process payroll and conduct performance management, and so on.  What does this mean for someone currently evaluating the viability of career options and job opportunities in both industries? For professional individuals working as part of the Technostructure (HR, accounting, marketing, etc.), job roles and ...

This week I'm featuring an interview with Trent & Grant Reiman, two digital marketing entrepreneurs who started their own business in 2018–The Big Picture is a social media management and digital marketing firm based in Morton, IL. Trent & Grant are identical twins, and have bachelors degrees in marketing from Eastern Illinois University. They've answered a few questions below: –––––––––– Q:  As digital marketing entrepreneurs, what does an average day look like for you? T & G: We wake up early (anywhere from 5-6:30am) and start creating content until we are finished–nothing but focused and concentrated work until about 11am or noon. Afterwards, we take client meetings and check in. Those meetings vary from getting pictures for fresh content, talking about upcoming promotional ideas, to just checking in. We believe that building a relationship with the client is very important. Q: What is your favorite part of your job? T & G: Definitely the relationship and ...

When and where you work is a really important consideration to make when evaluating a job opportunity or career path. Rightfully so, the issue of work-life balance has become a  massive topic in corporate dialogue. It's difficult to fully define where a job's boundaries begin and end–and, left unchecked, a job with a lot of responsibility can spill into your life and cause you to become overwhelmed. First, you must set your own boundaries. Consider your lifestyle. Consider your skills. Consider your field. Consider your other responsibilities. Consider any unique factors about your working situation. Before you can really conduct a "fit-test" for a job opportunity's work-life balance, you need to know what you are looking for. If necessary, set some rules for yourself such as "no emails after 5pm" or "no phone calls on my personal phone," and use them as a bar to eliminate positions that you feel will overstep those boundaries. This will, neces...

Who you are as a person is a big part of finding a compatible career. Your individual strengths, weaknesses, motivators, communication styles, learning methods, and ways you relate with others  all  have an impact on how you operate at work. There are so many different jobs that involve different types of work, so it naturally follows that your personality type plays a role in determining what jobs fit you best and will provide the most fulfilling career. Here are a few common personality dimensions that can provide insight into which careers might be a great fit for you: Myers Briggs The Myers Briggs framework is one of the most popular personality tests to-date. After taking a test, participants are assigned one of sixteen possible personality identifiers, made up of four different dimensions. Under Myers Briggs, everybody is ranked on a sliding scale of Extraversion to Introversion; Sensing to Intuition; Thinking to Feeling, and Judging to Perceiving. Business Insider publi...

This week, I'm sharing an interview with Joanna McReynolds. She's an elementary ESL teacher in Normal, IL, and she has a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education and TESOL from the University of Wisconsin La-Crosse. She is currently a graduate student pursuing a Master’s degree in Education from Illinois State University. She grew up in Ethiopia, attended high school in Kenya, and has lived in several countries. She is looking forward to moving to Colombia, South America to teach third grade at an international school for the upcoming school year.  __________ Question: As an ESL teacher & grad student, what does an average day look like for you? JM: I typically try to spend the time during my planning periods and before school working on lesson planning or anything that is related to teaching. After school, evenings and weekends are dedicated to my grad classes. Depending on the classes I am taking during a particular semester, some are heavier workloads than others, ...

Don't be afraid of what you don't know. While searching for a job or sorting through employment opportunities, it can be easy to get overwhelmed by long, complex job descriptions that list responsibilities and tasks that are completely new to you. Maybe you understand the theory of the job, but the duties seem completely foreign. Maybe you've only just been introduced to the software and systems you'll be expected to work with on a daily basis. Maybe you've only ever had classroom training in the subject. That's okay. According to an article from eLearning Industry, about 70% of learning takes place as a result of on-the-job activities. We are wired to learn through experience. Working directly on a task and having new, tangible objectives is a natural (necessary, even) part of the job experience. Structured learning through formal instruction can only take you so far, and is really just a stepping stone for experiential learning. Learning on the job allows yo...

Deciding Your Direction is back with another installment in the professional interview series! This week, Julia Ekstrom is featured. Julia is an expert in Corporate Communications and Human Resources Talent Development. She worked for 21 years as an HR executive at Caterpillar, and now serves as Manager of Communications at Samaritan Ministries in Peoria. Also, she's a Bradley University graduate! The transcript of our conversation is included below. __________ Question : As a Manager of Communications, what does an average day look like for you? JE : “My days consist almost entirely of meetings–at least six of them, if not more. Meetings include collaborating with various departments throughout the ministry, staff meetings, one-on-one meetings with my team, coaching & mentoring meetings with staff, conducting performance reviews, addressing social media emergencies, collaborating with other leaders in other areas of the Ministry to strategize message delivery to our members (...