Episode 73: The 5 Best Career Tips You'll Ever Hear, With The Career Contessa
Lauren McGoodwin is the founder and CEO of Career Contessa, an online career resource for women and a top career podcast. Over 10 years ago, she left her job recruiting for Hulu after realizing there was a major gap in resources, advice, and help for women to get ahead, advocate for themselves, interview better, network smarter, and achieve their dream careers. Lauren is also the author of Power Moves: How Women Can Pivot, Reboot, and Build a Career of Purpose. In today's episode, Lauren is sharing the five best pieces of career advice she has ever heard–after 10 years of helping women be successful, the tips do not disappoint. Josie and Lauren also chat about disadvantages (and superpowers) for women in business, finding the balance of avoiding burnout and working hard, and the #1 hack to become invaluable to your company.
SHOW NOTES:
In this week’s Ask The Everygirl segment, Josie and Emma address stress management. Josie shares how she learned to manage stress by strategically noticing when she felt feelings of panic and distress during her workday and the methods she used to combat those stressful feelings. She discusses the hormone hierarchy and all of the things we need to do in order to combat experiences of fight or flight in our daily lives. Emma shares her stress management method of self-forgiveness and letting one thing from her to-do list slide to the next day. The interview with Lauren McGoodwin of Career Contessa begins with Josie asking Lauren for her story, how she decided to found Career Contessa and the inspiration behind her book Power Moves. Lauren explains how she leveled up in her career after realizing that she wanted to become a recruiter—she also discusses what it was like to be an ambitious woman in the workforce back when she graduated college in 2009, versus the present day. Josie and Lauren have a conversation about the pros and cons of being a woman in business, plus the lessons we can learn from the work culture of female-founded companies. Then, Lauren dives into the top five career tips she’s learned as the host of the Career Contessa podcast. First, she explains that in every job you have, you should be either earning money or learning useful skills. Then, she explains how crucial it is to be able to advocate for yourself in your career, plus many of the misconceptions about what it really means to advocate for yourself, especially as a lower-level employee. Josie and Lauren discuss how to reframe your mindset when it comes to check-ins with your boss and your yearly review. Lauren then dives into her tips for “eating the frog” and getting the hardest thing on your to-do list done first, plus what “upward empathy” really means. She also breaks down the myth of the dream job, and why we all need to forget about creating our dream jobs and instead focus on creating our dream lives. The interview closes with some quick rapid-fire questions for Lauren.
Must-Listen Moments:
[5:35] Ask The Everygirl: I've been more stressed out than I have been in a long time. Work feels overwhelming and everything else is piling up. I feel like every single day is so busy. Is there anything I can do to feel less stressed?
[31:37] The benefits of being a woman in the workplace that we don’t talk about, plus how being a woman in the workplace has changed over the years
[40:42] Why earning and learning are crucial to a valuable job, especially at an early stage in your career
[42:49] How can you advocate for yourself in a job, and what do people get wrong about self-advocacy in most career discussions?
[56:25] The myth of the dream job, and why we all need to be looking for the “good enough job” instead of the dream job
More from The Everygirl:
Find and listen to more episodes at https://theeverygirl.com/