🤮 “Where do you want to be in 5 years?”
Spooky season is technically over, but beware of any variation of the question: “What’s next?”, "Where do you want to be in 5 years?”, or "Where do you want to be in 10 years?”. Yuck, right?
Luckily, we’ve designed a framework to make that question your bitch. It’s called The Three Moves Framework.
🎙️ Ask Your Work Wife is a new podcast for ambitious professionals in Corporate America. Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Put your calendar away! There’s no time constraint on these moves. Let’s instead encourage elasticity that can respond to unforeseen variables accordingly. Who knows what the world will be like next week, let alone in five years. “30 Under 30” is for the birds.
☝️ Move 1 | Foundation
This stage is all about exploration and figuring out what you really want. Everyone here (and in the other stages, frankly) are either in a new job, or looking for a new job. Watch out for those “oh shit” or "aha!" moments of realization, as dramatic and subtle as they may be, for inspiration for what you want to be moving towards.
Channel those epiphanies into vertical research, and reflect on if your career can fit within 25% of your life. For the office newbies, just focus on rocking your job for the first three months. Don’t get discouraged if your expectations don’t align with 9-to-5 reality! It takes about a year to get super duper comfortable, and then you can focus on strategic, relational, organization moves. All precursors to…
🐀 Move 2 | Iteration (a.k.a. the Rat Race)
Buckle up for a cluster fuck. Things are spinning, and it can be overwhelming especially if you don’t move through it with intentionality. Focus on these three spheres of control:
YOURSELF: maintain a separate identity outside of your job and find your groove. How do I get my job done? What tools do I need to study? People I need to enlist?
OTHERS: manage relationships up, down and around. How do I drive urgency in others? How do I not step on toes? How do I present yourself interpersonally?
CORPORATE AMERICA: dedicate time to learning the unspoken high-rise rules and faux pas, how to maximize benefits, and becoming fluent in the jargon. Talk the talk.
Everyone here wants to move up or out, making it a nuanced “ombre moment”. Take on aspects of the role you want to prove your capabilities, but not too well that you’re siloed as a 2-for-1 special. Keep your head down, until that tap on the shoulder for…
🎯 Move 3 | Arrival
Mastery…of sorts. You’re stretching but not breaking in a new promotion. Still fumbling around a bit, but you know you’re the shit and are being rewarded accordingly. Lean on everything you’ve learned both from books and on the streets to make calculated, confident risks. True leaders see potential in others, and that next shoulder tap might not be the “dream” job — but something even greater: a job that supports your dream life.
Meet the Three Moves Framework
🙋♀️ Visual learner? Check the framework on Instagram
🎧 On the go? Listen to Episode 67 | The Three Moves Framework
🤓 Dive deeper
In the Work Wives' first-ever course, Vanessa & Holland introduce an entirely new way to think about Corporate America and give you step-by-step instructions on how to focus your energy to get what you actually want.
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