Presentation Notes Ready to Launch, but Where To and How To?
Tips and Tools to get that Great Gig or Grad School Thanks for your interest, and to learn more: https://linktr.ee/drchrisstout Scott Adams’ Point This advice to become successful is not revolutionary. Except that there is value in Adams’ advice on how to be a successful generalist. He suggests that by combining 2 or 3 separate skills into one profession, you can become successful. It’s often a more realistic path than becoming the best at one thing. Psychology Psychology as a learned profession has always offered a wonderfully vast collection of career options—initially based in science, and then branching out to more applied and clinical applications. Psychology has continued to serve as a platform in these contemporary times to be foundational for continuing evolution, adaptation and augmentation in service of more areas and individuals. I’m going to explore some of these areas from my experiences in various work settings over the course of a 35-year time span, or my “Portfolio Career.” I hope that it will offer not only some modicum of inspiration, but also actionable tools, approaches, and resources that may be of assistance. Dear Graduates, Now Is the Time to Mess Up Time has passed since I was an undergrade there, but having the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and the School of Sceince’s Time Machine, I’m hoping that I have been able to pull off a Marty McFly as to some advice to my then fledgling-and-fearful-first-year-grad-student-self and some of you that may be in the same situation. Be disciplined (but not too much) I had the discipline down, but I now see that my anxiety-induced OCD could have been dialed back a bit and I think I still would have done fine (and gotten a bit more sleep and fewer ulcers). If you are shy, too bad, get out there anyway I was shy at 22. I am shy now. I was very much a wallflower then. A bit less now. But even though I may feel Old Mr. Anxiety making my intestines queasy at most every conference I attend or meetand-greet I go to where I know no one, I go anyway. The story is always the same. I learn new things, meet interesting people, and return home unscathed and happy that I went and made new friends. I really wish I would have told myself that sooner.
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You will have some shi**y times, but you will make it through them Repeat. Get a mentor If I went into farming, my dad would have been very helpful. If I wanted to hack being a single mom, no one did it better than mine. Depending on what you’re interested in, getting a mentor could be tricky. I started off by pretending that amazing people like Bucky Fuller or Richard Saul Wurman were mine. When faced with a dilemma of one kind or another I’d imagine what they would say to me or what they would do. As I got older, I took the “risk” (remember, anxiety was my Dark Passenger) and actually reached out to both Bucky and to Richard. And you know what? They responded with very helpful comments and their own augmenting ideas. Extra tip: first offer something of value to the possible mentor or to someone else in behalf of that person. I continue to have a roster of fantasy mentors, and it’s a pretty deep bench: Anthony Bourdain, Tim Ferris, Howard Tullman, Rob Dyrdek, and Richard Branson. Thank you all. Keep friends close, too Don’t get so wrapped up in your work, your studies, or yourself. Yes, mentors are necessary, but don’t forget your peers, too—they will provide support, reality checks, ideas… just like a mentor, but you will hear them differently. All are great to have. Be thankful. Have a direction, but it doesn't have to be the right one (or the only one) You have to have one; otherwise things just don’t work right. But feel free to take scenic routes, go off-road, follow detours, and if you find a better direction, then take that one. When I started grad school, I envisioned I’d be working with adult outpatients. Reality turned out to be the more rewarding inpatient work I did with children and their families. And today, I'm happily doing nothing remotely close to what I envisioned at 22, nevertheless I’m glad it came about the way it did. I feel much more enriched as a result. Rarely is there a learning experience (no matter the field) that would not be a help to who you are and what you do. Do some things for free Sure, the summer internship can lead to good opportunities, but you never know when that volunteer medical mission to Vietnam for 3 weeks will lead to starting your own global health nonprofit. Don't put things off Get started, even if things don’t go the way you thought they would. You’ll learn helpful stuff either way. Steven Covey recommended to “begin with the end in mind” and then deconstruct or work backwards from where you want to be to where you are today. Some things will take longer than others. You can’t cram for a marathon, well, you wouldn’t really want to. Same for your dissertation, or start-up, or first job, you name it. Best to get started. Now.
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Claim ownership rights Do some things for you and take responsibility (and pride) in whatever they are. Big or small, doesn't matter. Perfection likely will not be the place you start from. Practice. Refine. Enjoy. Be a craftsman. Page | 3 Every so often, just lose yourself I’m not talking about getting high on anything other than looking at art, or your lover’s eyes, your child’s smile, or the glint of sunlight off the Bilbao; or writing the perfect haiku, or that day when you felt like you could run forever…. And, yes, you will have these experiences—but some may take a few years. (By the way, this is the antidote to both anxiety and OCD.)
Now is the time to mess up There will be no better time. But don't go looking for trouble. One last test If you doubt how good your work is, then you are doing it right. Caveats and Reminders My experiences initially came from an era that is different in many ways than of those individuals currently in training or in their early career, so generalizability of those aspects may be a bit less so than in the more recent times of my endeavors. Allied, privileged, straight white male; so there may be limitations in what I have experienced to that of others. For example, women’s career development differs from men’s and lesbian women and other minority status groups, differ still. Importance in establishing competence in areas in which we work. Maintain a continual assessment of the adequacy of our professional knowledge and skills over the life span. Likewise, as psychologists of any ilk, we are always philosophically guided by, and our actions informed from, psychology’s Ethical Principles.
Tools Appendix Related LinkedIn Influencer Articles Building a “Portfolio Career” How to Afford Your Private Practice Living a Life in Full: Revolution over Resolutions 2.0 A Career (and Life) in a Box It’s like a TED talk for Mentoring Epic Ideas for 2020: Revolution over Resolutions What You Need to Know to have an Optimized Healthspan: Bio-hacking for Beginners If I Were 22: To the Class of 2016 (and '17 and my daughter) What Inspires Me: Blueprinting A Life in Full What Happens When Pursuing Your Goals Goes Wrong (And What To Do About It) Dear Graduates, Now Is the Time to Mess Up Why I'd Rather Lose My Phone Than My To-Do List Productivity Hacks: Have Impossible To-Do Lists Ask Yourself: 'How Long Have I Got?' But you signed a contract Related Podcast Episodes Inside the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative with Dr. Tim Erickson Putting the Humanity (and Humility) in Humanitarian Work with Dr. Glenn Geelhoed Emergency Medicine and Global Health Perspectives from Academic Rockstar, Janet Lin, MD, MPH Building Peace from Chaos—Around the World with Dr. Mari Fitzduff Alonzo’s World of Risks and Rewards in Diplomatic and Humanitarian Work Global Innovators Series - Dr. Tiffany Masson and Global HOPE Living a Life in Full Podcast website My Nonprofit Center for Global Initiatives Top ranked healthcare nonprofit Platinum Ranked by GuideStar Related Books Why Global Health Matters The Psychology of Resolving Global Conflicts The New Humanitarians All books Related Tools LinkedIn Newsletter, Tools for Change 52 Ways to Change the World RISE Scholarship
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Summits For Others Consortium for Humanitarian Intervention Special Edition: Open-Sourcing Humanitarian Intervention Fellowship and certificate programs https://issuu.com/dr.chrisstout/stacks Interviews, Guest Appearances, Lectures, and Keynote Addresses Related Articles My Best Mistake: Becoming an Accidental Humanitarian When It Only Takes a Few Pennies to Save a Life, Here's What I Start Asking Myself State of Philanthropy: Finding Hope Among the 'Disaster' of Humanitarian Aid Opportunities to Create Change like Never Before This Lecture and Others on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG9kpcGSmUvUPr2ICsgaRn4sesYYwFQwX More Tools
http://www.alifeinfull.org/tools-and-great-stuff.html
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https://issuu.com/dr.chrisstout/stacks References https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/building-portfolio-career-dr-chris-stout https://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/career-advice.html https://www.wsj.com/articles/for-college-students-linkedin-fomo-is-realthese-tips-will-help11647045049?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1