Crappy Career Moments.

Don’t bury them. Savor those awful, stinky moments.

In my latest book, “Unexpected Mentors. Weird & Creative Ideas To Boost Your Career.”, I wrote a full chapter on “crappy career moments”.

Sidebar: Yes, this image appears in my book. I was a few weeks into writing my book, when the crappy career moments chapter popped into my head. I’d found my talented illustrator, Bro on Fiverr. He nailed my hair almost right out of the gate. He was my guy. I emailed Bro and said, “Bro, draw me as you have been — suit, heels, necklace, hair — but draw me holding a plate of “poo”.” My email dinged almost immediately. It was Bro. His email read, “Come again Ma’am?” I chuckled when I typed the note back to him that simply said, “it’s exactly what you think.” And, the next day, Bro delivered the above fun image. Back to the story.

We’ve all had crappy career moments. I think we all deal with them the same way. We want to get home after work as fast as humanly possible and do whatever it takes to forget about that moment. Because it was crappy.

I think that’s a mistake.

There are incredible lessons to be learned in those awful career moments.

I shared this light hearted story in “Unexpected Mentors”.

“Throughout grade school and high school, I was an OK student — B student at best. It’s fun to look back and think how the heck did I ever make it out OK??

I was part of band — which is another way of saying I wasn’t part of the hip crowd. GRIN.

I was like the Simpson’s character, Lisa Simpson and I played the saxaphone.

Who knew Lisa and I share a love of saxophones AND crazy sticky-up hair?

Our band was doing extra rehearsals in preparation for a big concert. Once very early morning practice, my band teacher leaned down and said to me,

Sheila, you actually have zero rhythm.

I did actually laugh as he was right. Even though he was an ass for saying so!

In that moment, he became a career mentor in showing me I wasn’t going to be a professional musician!

And, while my little kid feelings might have been hurt a little, I knew he was right.”

Here’s one of my biggest crappy career moments.

I had a brief stint at a telecom company early in my career. I thought it was going to be my long-term career company. The head office was local, they were on a huge growth trajectory. I thought my career would be too!

I joined a brand new division. Gorgeous office. Beautiful furniture. Not an expense was spared. Imported stone tiles. Top of the line everything. Cutting edge technology too.

I was excited for my new career. It was in a third party call center. My role was to design key metrics and deliverables for each client and communicate results, action plans and such.

I felt pretty comfortable in my role within a few months.

I was in a weekly meeting with a key client. Conversation was good. Results of his campaign were solid. Everything was on-track.

Until…

My Operations Vice President barged into the meeting.

He inappropriately said,

“What the f*ck is going on? Why are you meeting with him?”

Without another word, he abruptly turned and walked out of the room, with a big Cheshire cat grin on his face. He was seemingly pleased with his outburst for whatever bizarre reason.

I was beyond embarrassed with his extremely unprofessional outburst.

So was my client!

My VP’s comments were unprofessional and random.

My job after all was to meet with my clients to ensure they were happy with their campaigns.

His outburst made ZERO sense.

I apologized to my client and quickly wrapped up our meeting.

I walked into my VP’s office and said,

“You are a Vice President. That was not the behavior of a Vice President. Do not ever swear at me or speak to me in that tone again.”

I was shaking. Mad. Embarrassed. Humiliated.

I wanted to run out of that office and never return.

It was a CRAPPY career moment.

The news of his outburst spread as fast as my bold rebuttal.

The Sales VP asked the president of the company if I could move to his department. Delightfully moved to his team.

The crazy Operations VP? Well, let’s just say his career took a dive and he wasn’t in a VP role for much longer.

There were many lessons in this crappy career moment, with the obvious being how to never speak to an employee or client. I’m sure the Operations VP knew his actions were inappropriate, but he did it anyway. As much as I had career aspirations of achieving a VP title, I knew I’d NEVER act like he did that day.”

(Copyright 2019 Sheila Musgrove. “Unexpected Mentors. Weird & Creative Ideas To Boost Your Career.”)

As our careers go on, we all have crappy career moments. Those moments most often show us how we will never act in a professional, business setting.

It wasn’t until I was writing “Unexpected Mentors” and the crappy career moments chapter that I realized burying those moments had been a big mistake.

In amongst those piles of poo were some gems in shaping my career.

All these years later, I’m grateful for my crappy career moments. Kind of weird, but true!

Your turn!

Dig deep. Think about some of your moments that didn’t go so well.

Yes, at the time they were crappy, just as mine were.

What did the crappy moment teach you about what you wanted in your career?

How has that crappy moment shaped your career?

I know you’ve got some career gems hidden amongst all of that poo.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed, here’s a few other articles:

I write about recruitment, interviewing, resume writing, job searching… all with a dose of humour. (Yes, I’m Canadian… we leave the U’s in our words). I’ve authored two books, best-seller, “Hired! How To Get The Zippy Gig. Insider Secrets From A Top Recruiter.” & “Unexpected Mentors. Weird & Creative Ideas To Boost Your Career.” Both can be found on Amazon. www.sheilamusgrove.com