Leveraging Your Assets to Catalyze Change | Kate Johnson

We all want that dream job, the one that fulfills our passions, eases our financial worries, and feels more like play than work. But with everyone vying for a similar dream, how do we ensure our name sticks out from the endless pile of applicants? With the ideal version of what our career path and life should look like in the back of our heads, how do we not just hope to one day get there, but instead, take tangible steps to create it?

Today’s guest, Kate Johnson, is a career specialist and recruiter with a passion for people. Her first-hand experience in high-level companies such as Duke University and Hyundai Motor Group has given her an inside perspective on the inner workings of the workplace and workplace diversification.

Through her work and book, Pull Yourself Together, she has made it her personal goal to help fellow dreamers and high achievers break through the workplace, personal, and organizational barriers between them and the life they want. In a world that is simultaneously evolving and stuck in the past, Kate helps us navigate the changing workplace atmosphere and catalyze change in our own lives.

The job search can be a long and arduous process. This is especially the case today as Covid-19 continues to affect individuals and businesses. As a result, many people have found themselves living paycheck to paycheck in stifling jobs. This often leaves them feeling powerless and stuck. But there is a way out. With candor and authenticity, Kate helps us move beyond our barriers and catalyze change in our own lives.

Keep an Open Mind

Having the goal of a certain dream job is great, but you can’t run toward that goal with blinders on. If you do, you might miss the opportunities you didn’t plan for. Those unexpected occurrences might be a better career path or feed your soul more than the original goal you started with. It’s healthy to set lofty goals and strive for them, but it is also ok for your goals to change or evolve as you pursue them.

There’s Only One You

People are drawn to authenticity. While there are certain qualifications and expectations for certain positions, employers are generally more interested in the elements you bring to the table than if you fit the mold perfectly. You are your own biggest asset, so stop screening your interests. Instead, learn how to leverage your differences and present them as strengths, not weaknesses.

A Proper Mindset

Mindset is important in any task, but especially when it comes to the job search. It takes a lot of hard work, time and dedication to apply and a lot of perseverance to keep going when you are rejected or don’t receive a reply. Though it can be difficult, it is important to trust the process. It is often out of your hands and not something you can force, but something that must come together naturally at the right moment. Your moment will come, it just might take longer or look different than you expected.

Connection is Key

More than most things in this world, people crave connection. As you pursue your dreams, apply for jobs, and interact with others, it’s important not to lose touch with the human element at the core of it all. You have to be brave in generating genuine connection with others that is both long and deep, rather than surface-level connection that views them as a means to an end instead of a human being.

Developing these tangible points of substance is key to not just landing your dream job or accomplishing your goals, but developing solid relationships that withstand the test of time.

In this engaging and honest talk, Kate talks about how to leverage our assets to catalyze change. Change is possible and often takes our willingness to create it to really shift the trajectory of our lives. As we begin to act as the catalyst in our life, we have started believing there are people out there who need what we have to give. All that’s left to do is find them.