How to take control of your career

If you’ve followed my socials (Youtube, TikTok or LinkedIn), I often stress the importance of acting like th a free agent, or the CEO of your career. Many people wonder what this means in real terms. In this article, I want to break down how free agents operate vs “worker bees” (someone with an employee-mindset).

Businesses treat employees like “human resources” – there’s even an entire department dedicated to it. (note, I always hated that name. People are not meant to be resources, and I think the title says it all. )

You’re hired for a specific reason, and when you’re no longer useful a company lays you off. It’s not personal, it’s strictly a business decision.

But the reality is that most people do take it personally. Because they’re human. Yet most career dissatisfaction originates from failing to treat their career like a business too.

If you want to take control of your destiny, you need to act less like an employee and more like an owner.

In other words, how to take control of your career.​

The employee mindset is typically an “us vs them” mentality. It’s a form of victimhood that the employer did them wrong or is out to screw them. And when something bad happens in one’s career, it’s the employer’s fault.

In other words, the employee is reactive.​

But when you’re reactive, you fail to take action. And usually play the blame game.

👉 Underpaid? My employer is too cheap.

👉 Didn’t get promoted? My boss is out to get me.

👉 Keep getting rejected? It’s the recruiter’s fault.

👉 Didn’t get the job? They don’t know how to spot talent.

👉 Got laid off? I’m a victim.

It’s easy to play the victim, but it’s hard to take ownership of your career because you can’t make excuses or lay blame elsewhere anymore.

​​I‘m often asked what “acting like a free agent” means.

The idea of free agency in your career can seem a bit foreign to many people. I actually prefer the term “acting like the CEO of your career”, but let’s use free agency as the model for this example.

Lets break it down the difference between how someone with an “employee mindset” operates vs someone with a “CEO mindset”.
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 A worker bee complains when they are passed for a deserved promotion
 A free agent leaves if they are passed for a deserved promotion
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 A worker bee wants to know the employer’s defined wage range
 A free agent defines their wage range to the employer
​
 A worker bee gets rejected and tries again and again
 A free agent gets rejected, makes adjustments, and tries differently
​
 A worker bee gossips to others about the high earner
 A free agent learns from the high earner so they can do it themselves
​
 A worker bee says that training/education is too expensive
 A free agent pays for the shortcuts to get ahead quicker
​
 A worker bee gets laid off and can’t pay their bills
 A free agent gets laid off and still has multiple ways to pay their bills
​
 A worker bee keeps getting laid off and starts over again.

 A free agent improves their skills to become rarer and in-demand or becomes their own boss.
​
 A worker bee always finds excuses
 A free agent always finds solutions
​
 A worker bee lurks but never engages
 A free agent creates an active, highly targeted network
​
 A worker bee says, “You’re just lucky”
 A free agent creates their own luck

For most of my career, I had the worker bee-mindset too.

When I started my career, I had no clue what I wanted to achieve, nor did I have a roadmap of what to do. Yet I quickly landed a decent job.

Blissfully unaware, I spent the first half of my career aimlessly working. I assumed that I would do good work, and opportunities would just come in time.

READ: Signs you’re in a dead end career

10 wasted years

At about 5 years into my career, I took a job with a smaller company (around 1000 employees) as a HR Manager. The plan was for me to succeed my boss in 18 months, when he was slated to retire.

I dug in and focused on my work, trying to absorb everything. Before I knew it, 18 months had passed. However, it became obvious my boss had no intention of retirement.

In fact, he spent the next 7 years in the same role – he was making too much money, without any significant stress for him to retire.

And when he didn’t retire in the promised timeframe, I got angry…but did nothing about it.

I blamed him for the bait & switch. For costing me years I couldn’t get back in my career. Yet I stayed in my same role for years, because I had become comfortable and complacent with a steady paycheck.

After a few years of frustration, I eventually moved out of the department entirely, giving up my dream of a Sr. Leadership role.
​
And guess what? It still took him a few more years to retire. So what was supposed to be 18 months turned into 9 years.
​
​My mistake was that I became apathetic.
​
I believed that all I had to do was bide my time and I’d land the big promotion. And as a result, the market passed me by.

My peers had long since moved into more senior roles, but I stuck it out believing my time would come.

Which is why I want to share this with you.

Treat your career like a business.

If I could go back in time, I would have pulled that version of me aside and advise that being complacent will cost me dearly in the future.
​
I failed to treat my career like a business – one that I’m in charge of. Would the owner of a business wait around for years for someone to make a sale?
​
No, they would find other people to sell to. The right people.

Start acting like the CEO of your career. 

When you start acting like THE owner, you’ll

• Find promotional opportunities on your terms.

• Earn the money you deserve, sooner.

• Stop making excuses that hold you back

• Reach your potential, instead of being stuck.
​
Because you’ll be making decisions that are in YOUR best interest, first and foremost. And when a situation no longer meets your needs, you’ll simply make the changes necessary.

Just as the CEO of a company would. ​
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If you are able to switch your mentality from employee to owner, your world will suddenly look a lot different than it does today.

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When you’re ready to make this mindset change, here’s how I can help.

1. If you’re still looking for traction in your career, I’d recommend starting with an affordable course:

→ Resume Rocketfuel: Transform your ordinary resume into an interview-generation machine, including templates and proven strategies to get the attention of recruiters. This comprehensive course will teach you the exact system I developed to help over 1000 people land great jobs, myself included.

→ The Ultimate Jobseeker Bootcamp: The most robust job search training available on the market. This A-to-Z guide takes you from job search all the way to offer negotiation, provided detailed, recruiter-proven strategies.

→ Unlocking LinkedIn: Want to learn how to get recruiters to start noticing and approaching you instead? Unlocking LinkedIn walks you step-by-step on how to set up a profile for maximum discoverability, techniques for accessing the hidden job market and how to cut in front of the long application lines!

2. Gain extra personalized clarity with private 1×1 coaching ​

Have a specific question or strategy that requires more tailored help? I offer limited private coaching sessions. Too many “ah ha!” moments to count.