What's Career Got To Do With It?

Duke Career Center

Welcome to the -What's Career Got to Do With It- podcast, where we hope to provide a space for honest conversation and information that encourages the listener to take the next steps in their career journey. Wherever you are in this process, we hope this episode will meet you with affirmation, guidance, and maybe some laughs along the way. Enjoy, Rudi, Ängela, Kai, Nicole and our guests. read less
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Episodes

Living the dream...with Meg Wilson
Mar 4 2024
Living the dream...with Meg Wilson
Transcript: - Hello, and welcome to the "What's Career Got To Do With It" podcast, where we hope to provide a space for honest conversation and information that encourages the listener to take the next steps in their career journey. So, wherever you're at in this process, we hope this episode will meet you with affirmation, guidance, and maybe some laughs along the way. - On today's episode, we are joined by Meg Wilson, the Duke Career Center's Associate Director for Communication and Outreach. As we discuss an answer, or many, to the question, "How do we merge our purpose and future with our identities, goals, and everything else that makes us who we are?" Meg, how do we do it? - Oh wee, that's a big question, isn't it? Good morning. - Hey, Meg. - Good morning, it's exciting to be here. A little nervous, not used to talking about myself and my thoughts. I love communicating what you all wanna tell people. - Well just think, we don't have microphones, we don't have headphones. - We're just hanging. - It's 3:00 snack time in the office. - Beautiful. - Yes. - Beautiful. - No, I'm happy to be here with you all and thinking about this is an amazing question. - And I gotta tell a story, I think, before we even get into this. When I first started at Duke, so about two years ago now, or actually over two years ago, right Angela? - A little over, yeah. - A little over two years ago. Stacey, at the time, was walking me around the office and telling me about our coworkers, and she just looks at me and she goes, "I just love Meg. I just love Meg, the presence that she has. I wish I had that patience, that demeanor." And ever since then, I witness it every day. I know we all do, of this way about living and going about work and life that I think we all respect. And so to kinda shout out Meg for a second, and say, thank you, Meg, for carrying that around the office. We love you for that. We appreciate you for that. - Thanks so much, that's sweet of you to say. Stacey too. - Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I think for real, when we started this particular conversation, we were thinking about this common refrain when people ask how somebody's doing, and this is for what I've come to learn, is predominantly a response that comes locally to the United States of a response that is a, oh, I always have to say, I'm doing well. I always have to say that something good is happening. I always have to say that like, "Oh, it's good, it's going well, I'm living the dream." And that's where this comes from. And you know, I think some days we embody it, some days we don't, and I would love your take on that. - Living the dream, that's a thing, isn't it? And I suspect for everyone, the dream changes every now and then. I know it has for me. What comes to mind for me is Beyonce, of course. In "Pretty Hurts." - Yeah, okay, okay. - What is your aspiration in life? To be happy. And at different times in my life, happiness comes in different ways. I would say primarily, relationships with people, connections with other people on Earth that have the same worries and things that I have. And that's probably the most important. This, very important to me, also in my aspiration, is to have work where I can contribute and be a part of something big happening, and offer something to that. And I take away a lot of joy from that as well. So the happy is not always smiling, but having the strength to get through and having a moment to think about what I want. Having the resources to make some choices. That's about it for me. - What about everybody else? - I like when you said, just like, having the opportunity to make some choices, I like that. I think living the dream is like, again, making a choice to live the dream, regardless of if it seems like what the dream should be. So I like that. - Yes. - And what do you think, Rudy? - He gave Kai a microphone, he just puts people on the spot. - Yeah. - And then he passes it away. - Well, the only reason why
Living the dream...
Feb 13 2024
Living the dream...
Transcript: Kai Kelley, Jr: Y'all, we're back. Hello and welcome to What's Career Got To Do With It? Podcast. Where we hope to provide a space for honest conversation and information that encourages the listener to take the next steps in their career journey. Wherever you're at in the process, we hope this episode will meet you with affirmation, guidance, and maybe some laughs along the way. Michael (Rudi) Rudisill: On today's episode, as we discuss an answer, or many, to the question, how do we merge our purpose and future with our identities, goals, and everything else that makes us who we are? We live the dream. Nicole Mitchell: Living the dream. Kai Kelley, Jr: I can't. Nicole Mitchell: It's been a while y'all. Ängela Bonner: I need another sip of coffee. Nicole Mitchell: I miss y'all in new setting. Kai Kelley, Jr: Ooh. Michael (Rudi) Rudisill: We're back and we found buttons. Ängela Bonner: Fun mag. Michael (Rudi) Rudisill: Okay, Kai. How do you live the dream? Kai Kelley, Jr: Oh my God, I sleep and dream of dreams undreamed and hope they come true. Nicole Mitchell: And dream of dreams undreamed. Kai Kelley, Jr: Ain't that a line? Nicole Mitchell: And hope they come true. Kai Kelley, Jr: I do. Because I believe in you and me. Michael (Rudi) Rudisill: Is that copywrited? Nicole Mitchell: All right, now. Michael (Rudi) Rudisill: Who's your ghost writer? No, I think this conversation started with Angela and I were planning, we were just sitting there and we had no idea what we wanted to do next. And we were trying to think through some ideas. We put some ideas out there. I don't know why, but I just thought of this phrase, living the dream, and how corny it is. How annoying it can be. There's always that one person you go up to and you're like, "Hey, how are you doing today? Living the dream." Nicole Mitchell: Living the dream. Michael (Rudi) Rudisill: Well, apparently Nicole says that. Yep. So living the dream. I know people ask me, I go, swell. Kai Kelley, Jr: Oh my God. Michael (Rudi) Rudisill: See? Kai Kelley, Jr: Swell. Michael (Rudi) Rudisill: Yeah. But I think it carries something with it and we don't often ask the question, what does that even mean? What are we doing when we say we are living the dream? Are we actually living the dream? Is there something behind it? Are we really, day in and day, out going out and carrying out what this means? Is it sarcasm? What does that phrase mean to you? I think there's so much nuance to this. I would just love to just put the question out there. What does it mean to live the dream? Nicole Mitchell: I think it all depends on the day, whether it's sarcastic or not. Be real honest with you. But if I have to answer seriously, I think living the dream is just trying to live to be the best me I can be in that space and time. What does it look like? Is it a good day? Am I going to get all my to-do list done, or am I doing good just to get one done and we'll figure it out the next day. But then on the sarcastic side of everything is just falling down, I will be the sarcastic behind and say, "Hey, living a dream, you can see it all crumbling". But I'm still good. Kai Kelley, Jr: Honestly, when I thought about the response of living a dream to how you're doing, I'm used to people saying, yes, I'm blessed and highly favored without not necessarily being religious, but saying that regardless of what day it is, whether it's a Monday or a Thursday, it's working out towards some sort of good at the end of it. So, I think that's what I think that and living the dream has in common. It's a continued, committed effort to making whatever you want to happen happen through strategic planning, goal setting and all that good stuff. Michael (Rudi) Rudisill: He just made me think of Abbott Elementary. Kai Kelley, Jr: You know it's coming back on. The new season is starting too. Nicole Mitchell: It's coming back. Why are y'all giving away a free advertisements. Kai Kelle
Forgotten Superpowers of the Workplace with Stacia Solomon 
Dec 13 2023
Forgotten Superpowers of the Workplace with Stacia Solomon
Join our hosts and special guest, Stacia Solomon, Director of Duke Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture, as they discuss how to identify and affirm the forgotten superpowers in the workplace.  When someone says superpower – what do you think of? What about when it comes to work? When you think of putting together a team, what are some of the superpowers you MUST have? What do we do when we don’t see any superpowers in others or even in ourselves? Transcript: - Hello and welcome to the What's Career Got to Do With It podcast, where we hope to provide a space for honest conversation and information that encourages a listener to take the next steps in their career journey. Wherever you're at in this process, we hope this episode will meet you with affirmation, guidance, and maybe some laughs along the way. - On today's episode, we are joined by special guest, Stacia Solomon, director of the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture. As we discuss an answer or many to the question, what are some forgotten superpowers in the workplace? - Hey Stacia. - Hey y'all. Good morning. - I appreciate y'all doing that cuz I just jump in. What's up? What are the superpowers? - Rudi. On ramp, ease into it. - I'm sorry, I'm bad at greeting people. In person too, I just wave. I'm just like, ert. - Yeah. - Just quickly. - Literally quiet that is your wave. - I'm working on it. Welcome Stacia. Thank you for joining us today. - Thank you for having me. - Of course, of course. We are excited to have our guests today and we are excited to continue to dive into this topic Further Superpowers. We've talked about it in many different capacities in many different ways, and superpowers of course means something different to everybody, but Stacia, superpowers. - Hmm. - What are they? - Superpowers. - Do you need more parameters here? - I might, because, you know, you can go a lot of different directions with superpowers. - So let's see, let's be good hosts this morning and let her know kind of what some people have talked about. So some folks have talked about superpowers, hidden superpowers in the workplace. - Mm-hmm. - Folks have talked about superpowers and differentiating them between home and the workplace. - Hmm. - Superpowers in, superpowers that may not be realized for people, but they're valued within the workplace. - Mm-hmm. - How's that for you? - That works. - Okay. - That helps, that helps. - You're welcome. $22 please. - Okay, invoice me. So some of the superpowers I think of are maybe just some of those things that folks don't realize are unique to them. Like it might be your ability to take in large amounts of information and still remember it. Hello, as I'm like approaching a very significant birthday and that is no longer a superpower for me. - Me too. - Gotta write it down. Or maybe it's like that knack for people just to be drawn to you, you know, like, hello Rudi, like you just kind of naturally that person. But I think those are some of the things that I think of with superpowers, that it could also be some of those hidden things that maybe we don't consider as assets. Like maybe it's the fact that you come from a big family and that means that you really know how to handle many different personalities all at once and still hold yourself together. I don't think that's something that's brought out as a trait or an asset in a lot of different settings, but that definitely is a superpower cuz that means that when you get into a workplace where all those different personalities, if you allow yourself to kind lean into it, then you can be like, oh, you know what that's like Aunt Mae Mae, she's a little cray cray, I can deal with you. - Okay, Aunt Mae Mae. - I do have an Aunt May. - I don't know her, I don't know her. Okay, listen- - She's very sweet, but also maybe I don't- No, she's great. She will not listen to this. - Oh goodness. Okay. So Stacia, I got a question for you. - Okay.
Forgotten Superpowers of the Workplace with Marcus Shaw
Nov 7 2023
Forgotten Superpowers of the Workplace with Marcus Shaw
When someone says superpower – what do you think of? What about when it comes to work? When you think of putting together a team, what are some of the superpowers you MUST have? Forgotten superpowers of the workplace are often unspoken, sometimes forgotten, but never undervalued components of any flourishing team. They come in many different forms - from nontraditional skills to an endless supply of charisma. These superpowers can be found in anyone at your place of work but are most often found in the people that seem to make the workplace tick. From leaders to those who prefer to stay behind the scenes, we want to highlight these essential skills that make any workplace, a better place. Transcript: - Hello and welcome to the "What's Career Got to Do With It" podcast, where we hope to provide a space for honest conversation and information that encourages a listener to take the next steps in their career journey. Wherever you're at in this process, we hope this episode will meet you with affirmation, guidance, and maybe some laughs along the way. - On today's episode, we are joined by special guest, Marcus Shaw, Administrative Assistant, Operations and Logistics Manager for the Duke Career Center, or as Kay says, "the man with a plan." - Man with a plan. - Woot woot! As we discuss an answer, or many, to the question, What are some forgotten superpowers of the workplace? Yeah, and Nicole , thank you for sounding so cheerful. - I just flip it on. - You're welcome message. - Joy to the world. - I mean, I got the Christmas cup, I had to, on October 19th. - I love it. - All right, so we're gonna hop right in. I'm gonna start with Kay. - I mean, can we do, "Hey, welcome, Marcus! "We're so happy that you're here." We are so happy that you're here, operations and logistics manager. - Oh, it's gonna be a ride, folks, this morning, enjoy, buckle up. - Yeah, Marcus, if you don't mind introducing yourself beyond just this title that we've got here. I think there's so much more to that and to people beyond just the title that carries, so if you don't mind sharing a little bit about who you are and, yeah. - Well, the operations and logistics manager for the Career Center. I'm coming here after 23 years in the Marine Corps. So I started back in Duke in 2015. Again, I did a brief stint at a warehouse prior to coming to Duke, but then prior to coming to Duke, again, 23 years in Marine Corps, retired, so that's makes me retired almost 10 years now, or a little over 10 years. There's not really too much to say about me. Nothing in particular, I guess, it's just the way I look at it. - I just want to tell y'all, Marcus is lying. There is so much more to Marcus Shaw within this office, but I'm gonna let him finish pretending like he's not more than he is and then we'll bust open that. - Exactly. - I mean, at least that's how I see it. I just come in. I'm just happy to help where I can. Provide little tidbits of wisdom where I can, I guess. Again, I really don't think too much about, it's not that deep, I guess, you know? I just come in and happy to serve, I guess, I don't know. - I love that, and there's so many different encounters and so he does say, "provide a bit of wisdom." There's so many different encounters with Marcus in our office though that will just catch you off guard, 'cause you'll be like, "Man, that was good, that was good stuff." The other day he walked up, and I have the pleasure of having my office right next to Greg, who Marcus regularly goes and converses with, so I always overhear a thing or two. And I don't know if you knew I was gonna bring this up, Marcus, but you were talking about your experience and some acronyms that you use in the military. I think this captures it perfectly, and I'm not gonna spell out the acronym, because I don't want the FCC to give us a violation, not that they listen to this or do they? But the acronym itself is FITFO, so figure it out. Yes. - They grown, they don't say it.
Beyond the 9-5 with Catherine Allen, Assistant Director
Nov 1 2023
Beyond the 9-5 with Catherine Allen, Assistant Director
Rudi, Ängela, Nicole and Kai discuss how to find balance in busy lives with Catherine Allen. They talk about: How do you separate what you do on day-today basis with who you are at home or in other capacities? What are some of the assumptions that you’ve encountered about the role of work in our daily lives? What are some helpful suggestions you have for people seeking to find balance in their work/life? Transcript: - Hello, and welcome, to the what's Career got to Do with IT podcast, where we hope to provide a space for honest conversation and information that encourages the listener to take the next steps in their career journey. Wherever you're at in this process, we hope this episode will meet you with affirmation, guidance, and maybe some laughs along the way. - On today's episode, we are joined by special guest, Catherine Allen, assistant director in the Duke Career Center. As we discuss an answer, or many, to the question, Who are we beyond the nine to five? Who are we beyond the nine to five? We've covered this in many different iterations, we've talked about this in a lot of different capacities. Kay's making fun of stuff right now. You hear, that was his breath into the mic. As we kind of dive a little bit deeper into this subject and we talk to different people and we think about different perspectives of who we are, when we take that work hat off, I'd really like to think of that hard hat, and just like, putting it down and going into a different mind or mental space. I think it was really interesting to hear from Mary Pat as she talked about like, there was like, a mixture of it, she has to, but then also, people have different types of boundaries that they enact in their life, and with our guest today, I would love to just start right off the bat with Catherine and be like, Catherine, what's it look like for you when that clock strikes five or whatever time you end up saying, "Hey, I'm done with work." What does that look like for you, that transition? - It's a nice, fun drive home. I usually to drive home to really, like, zen out, so either I'm listening to like, a podcast, or I'm calling somebody that I need to just like, catch up with, and just have a moment of like connection with someone that's not related to work. So yeah, that's what I do. That's my like, buffer, between work and home. - I don't know if we've discussed this as hosts either, like, what we do, how do we unwind? What do I do? - I'm really schedule-driven, so I think literally once I leave, like my mind's on the next like, to-do thing. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but like, as soon as I leave here, my mind's on like, "Okay, next I need to go to the store and shop for this stuff, or next, I need to call Mom and talk about this." Or next, I need to, like, my mind goes to the next thing until it's like, it's marked by time. So like, five, I leave, six, okay what am I gonna eat for dinner? Seven, going to the store, eight wash clothes, nine iron clothes, 10 be in the bed by that, like, that's where my mind goes to... - Wait. - And then repeats, repeats, repeats for five days until the weekend comes. - You iron immediately after washing your clothes? - Well, I mean you wash a set of clothes, and then you iron a set of clothes, so that you don't have laundry built up, so you have room. See, this is not what the conversation was about. - That's more efficient than I've ever been in my entire life. - Yeah, I'm really unfamiliar with that. I mean the the dryer, is the iron. - No, after you take it out the dryer, then you set aside what you're gonna wear, and then you iron that stuff out. Is that not a thing? - I mean, I plan it out, but I plan it such that I, lay my, I don't put it in most of my stuff in the dryer, I let it air dry. - Uh-huh? - But the dryer is the iron, unless it's a real bad wrinkle, like my jeans. - I gotta press... - I'm with you. - Everything. - Turns out Kay is not messy beyond, . Kay i
Beyond the 9-5 with Sh'Maughn Wright
Oct 19 2023
Beyond the 9-5 with Sh'Maughn Wright
Join our hosts and special guest, Sh’Maughn Wright, as we discuss how to find balance in our busy lives and be confident that we are more than our 9-5. How do you separate what you do on day-today basis with who you are at home or in other capacities? What are some of the assumptions that you’ve encountered about the role of work in our daily lives? What are some helpful suggestions you have for people seeking to find balance in their work/life? Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Associate Does not make you THE BEST EMPLOYEE EVER – it makes you a healthier Where do these worlds collide? Transcript: - Hello, and welcome to the What's Career Got To Do With It? Podcast where we hope to provide a space for honest conversation and information that encourages the listener to take the next steps in their career journey. Wherever you're at in this process, we hope this episode will meet you with affirmation, guidance and maybe some laughs along the way. - On today's episode, we are joined by special guest Sh'Maughn Wright, career specialist, as we discuss and answer or many to the question, who are we beyond the 9 to 5. - Sh'Maughn? - Hey, Sh'Maughn. - Hey. - Top of the morning. Hey. - Good morning. - Do you mind introducing yourself real quick? Tell us who you are, where you're from. - Well- - For your people? - Well, I am Sh'Maughn Wright. I am, well, for one, a licensed clinical mental- health counselor associate and also a career advisor here at Duke. I'm from Goldsboro, North Carolina originally, if anyone knows where that is. - I do. - Wayne County? - So, yep, Wayne County. So that's the little town that I'm from. Been in the Durham area probably about 10 years now, so. - We're throwing up signs in here , the cool city sign. - Alright. - K didn't do it, but K should have been the first one, I'm just saying. - Oh. - See, when you're from here, you ain't gotta throw it up, it speaks. - We hear K in the background. - It's gonna be a day, y'all. Hang on. - Yeah. - So we, we've been talking over the past couple episodes and past couple weeks about people leading double lives. No, I'm just kidding. Not double lives , but people, people living beyond their 9 to 5 because that does take place. I think we so much, we focus so much on that 9 to 5 job, but there's also, people have other passions, other things that they want to get into. And, at the beginning, you, you talked a little bit about your credentials. Do you mind sharing a little bit more about that? Because we know you as the career advisor, but do you mind telling us a little bit more about what goes on beyond that? - Yeah, so outside of the career, being a career advisor, I am a therapist and I, I, I see individuals as well as couples. So I've been doing that for about three years now. About three years. So finally about to be fully licensed in that area. - Woo hoo! - Hey. I graduated from Central back in 2021, - Eagle Pride. - So, yes, yes, amplified. - OK. - My Camels, Campbell is playing them this weekend, so. - Yeah, they're good. - Oh yeah, yeah, definitely. So we'll be watching that. But yeah, so I, I've, I've been doing that, as well. So I do that kind of like part time. So that's been actually a real big help when it comes to me balancing my 9 to 5 because during my program, I was able to teach myself like, you gotta engage in like selfcare. You gotta make sure your, your cup is full at all times. So that's been, like, a priority for me for a good minute now. - That's awesome. And, and if you don't mind, just diving into selfcare, too I'd be curious and everybody else kind of chime in on that, too. Selfcare, like what, what are you doing? - So selfcare for me looks different, almost like, so it evolves. So, like, I feel like as we evolve and change your selfcare plans and treatments will, will change, as well. So for me, I of course try to work out at least five times a week- - Oh, sorry. - Trying to do- - Sorry,
Beyond the 9-5 with Mary Pat McMahon
Oct 13 2023
Beyond the 9-5 with Mary Pat McMahon
Join our hosts and special guest, Mary Pat, as we discuss how to find balance in our busy lives and be confident that we are more than our 9-5. How do you separate what you do on day-today basis with who you are at home or in other capacities? What are some of the assumptions that you’ve encountered about the role of work in our daily lives? What are some helpful suggestions you have for people seeking to find balance in their work/life? Transcript: - Hello and welcome to the "What's Career Got To Do With It" podcast where we hope to provide a space for honest conversation and information that encourages the listener to take the next steps in their career journey. Wherever you are at in this process, we hope this episode will meet you with affirmation, guidance, and maybe some laughs along the way. On today's episode, we are joined by special guest, Mary Pat McMahon, Vice Provost and Vice President of Student Affairs, as we discuss an answer or many to the question, who are we beyond the nine to five? Woohoo! I don't know, who are we? What do we do? - We are the world. - What do we even do beyond the nine to five? Our guest has just hopped in here. - Let's start with good morning. Welcome. Welcome to the fun house. - Am I supposed to start answering that question? - Oh, sure, if you want to, yeah. - I mean, is this like the meta? Who are we really and does it matter? - Oh, it could be. - Is it? - We could dive deep in there, yes, absolutely. - Maybe a warmup conversation before the deep, deep? - Sure, yeah, like what do we do? - We, me? - Yeah. - Okay. So what do I do? So I always think that if I had a Twitter handle or an X handle, which I do not have, that I think of my little mom, you know, educator, and then I actually there is a media personality I really don't like, and I'd be like, person who really doesn't like this. As like my top three things. Yeah, so I'm sort of, I am, what do I do? So I run a household with young people, a cat, a dog, an older person, and a spouse. And so like Scent Comms at home, and then I try to be Scent Comms and a partner here on campus around everything related to the student experience. So it's a constant, for me, the integrator separator thing. Whereas, you know, are you at work right now? Are you at home right now? There is no way I could pull off the mostly effort to pull things off that I do if I didn't have a very integrator approach to it. I don't separate very much. - And I think that's almost, for me, I can't even think of doing that because my training is, I was an athlete, so it was always flip the switch. And so we had this metaphorical switch that we would go onto the field with, and we'd be a completely different person. How do you go about integrating life in that way? - So this morning, I needed my 83 year old mother to wake up, come over, and wait for the plumber. And this threw an extra degree of difficulty. All mornings are challenging. There's a seventh grader, there's a ninth grader, there are animals. And then when you add in go and get my mom who lives around the corner and getting her ready to go to sort of meet the plumber at 8:30, then we're really talking a different kind of, sort of stay focused on the goal and keep everybody moving, right? And so, for me, it's about anticipating and planning well week to week, having a moment on the weekend particularly of sort of here's the week, here's the night events, here's who's got school teacher conferences, here's the groomer appointment for the dog. And then not getting too committed to that schedule being perfect, right? And it's a real art. I mean, I'm looking and everybody's nodding 'cause everybody knows this. It is such an art to sort of plan well, prepare for the unexpected. I was a college athlete. It has always helped my entire life that I had the experience of the bus doesn't go until we're all there. The bus leaves at 5:45 in the morning, and you better be there at 5:35 so that there's no
Stories of Success
Mar 6 2023
Stories of Success
Transcript: - Hello and welcome to the "What's Career Got To Do With It" podcast, where we hope to provide a space for honest conversation and information that encourages a listener to take the next steps in their career journey. Wherever you're at in this process, we hope that this episode will meet you with affirmation, guidance, and maybe some laughs along the way. - On today's episode, we are joined by special guests, Jules Odendahl-James, Director of Academic Engagement for Arts and Humanities. As we discuss and answer, however many to the question, what even is career success? So, hey, we're gonna start off with that one. What even is career success? And I'm gonna turn right to our guests! - Oh hi! - Welcome! - Thank you! Career success. I think the nice part about it is it can be self-defined. You have to find out what you're happy with and think about that. But most people are gonna look to external forces. How do I know I'm moving up in my job? How do I know that I have skills to change when I'm asked to change at my job? How do I ask for help and not feel like that immediately puts me under a microscope that I'm not doing my job? And then the notion of really thinking about the parameters of jobs. 'Cause I think post-pandemic, we're all thinking about where do we take our enjoyment? Where do we take our satisfaction? What do we wanna feel like, figure out for ourselves for future plan? And that doesn't always have to include working all the time. It can include stepping back, figuring out what you enjoy, being with people, and then coming back to a career space and bringing that new rejuvenation to that space, which is great. - Absolutely. Everyone else, what we got? - I think that's the end of the episode. - And we're done. Cut. All right, I would say career success is just that fulfillment. And are you at that point where you're aligned with your values and your passion and that purpose, which we know, we've talked about previously, purpose can change, but in that space, like are the stars align for this moment with those things? - I think when I hear career success, I don't know why I'm losing my voice on a Thursday. I think I took it more so internally with self, like am I fulfilled right now? Am I making a difference or feel like I'm making a difference somehow? Am I being true to being the servant leader that I say that I am? And within this career is all of this allowing me to do that? So I think that's where my brain power went when I thought about career success. - Kai's just looking at me right now with the first glimpse. - I think, yeah, everything has been said and we don't wanna overdo it. And I think there's a special part of thinking about, there is tangible results that we can like look to or point to and say, "yes, I did this." But there also, there's this inner search within ourselves of like, "have I been successful? Like what am I doing? Is this right?" And I think there's that moment where we feel like we finally step into that. I wanna talk about that tension though that exists between the two of those. I think there there is a great deal of tension that exists from like the outer tangible results to what we find in ourselves. And so what is that for you? What have you found in your journey that you're like, all right, I see this as successful, but something else is telling you this might not be successful. - When you said that, the first thing I thought about was often people put a timeline to success and how fast it should happen. So especially for, again, our audience, thinking of going into graduating from Duke, most students think, "okay, I need to get some sort of like project lead role immediately as an undergrad." Whereas the real structure of it is you want to have a solid starting point where you give yourself time to grow and gain that skillset to grow into those opportunities that give you the sort of success you see, the folks you aspire to be like, you know, having and
How do we manage expectations?
Feb 22 2023
How do we manage expectations?
Transcript: Ängela: Hello, and welcome to the What's Career Got to Do with It Podcast, where we hope to provide a space for honest conversation and information that encourages the listener to take the next steps in their career journey. Wherever you are in this process, we hope this episode will meet you with affirmation, guidance, and maybe some laughs along the way. Rudi: On today's episode, we discuss an answer, or many, to the question, "How do we manage expectations?" Ängela: Dun-dun-dun. Nicole: One day at a time. Ängela: That's a whole TV show. Nicole: Is it? Because in my head, I made it a teen Disney movie, and... Ängela: It could work. Nicole: I saw Demi Lovato singing it. I did a whole production in my head, guys. Ängela: I'm following you. Okay. Nicole: Expectations. Ängela: Cool, cool. Rudi: Yes. Kai: They had the remake, what, on Netflix? Oh, my mic ain't even in my mouth. Ängela: Good morning, Duke! Kai: Good morning, Baltimore! Rudi: We'll have to turn K down. Kai: All right. Ängela: Okay, y'all. Kai: Keep that bit. Keep it. Rudi: Thank you, Meg, for putting up with all of our shenanigans. Meg is our great communications person that helps to edit our episodes. So now here we go. Contact. All right, so how do we manage expectations? How do we manage expectations for this podcast? Yeah, what comes to mind when we think about managing expectations, whether... Just broad, nebulous question, just throwing it out there, what happens? Nicole: Expectations are evil. I think sometimes we very much set ourself up for failure and disappointment when we have a lot of expectations, versus going in with the idea of you know what you know, work around that, and then set a goal, maybe, rather than expectation. I don't know why. Just expectation to me sometimes can have a negative connotation. And when I say, "Okay, well maybe I'll set a little goal, right?" It's like a treat. It softens it up a little bit, but I think a lot of times we do set expectations for ourselves, some unrealistic, and sometimes I think that can deter us from really kind of blossoming, growing, and even being our authentic selves. Ängela: I'd say that expectations and goals, to me... As you were talking about that, Nicole, I was just thinking like sitting in reality of whatever is going on. And even with a goal, you can have an unrealistic goal as well. Nicole: Yeah. Ängela: So I think just trying to stay grounded and stay realistic of what can actually happen in this particular time and space, that you set to work on whatever that expectation is, can kind of help keep your mind from racing as much. Because I think at some point it's just going to as you process. Kai: Yeah, I think especially thinking about the audience we want this podcast to speak to, the first thought that came to my mind was whose expectations are we managing or thinking about or putting as the thing we have to reach? Is it expectations from our peers, parents, faculty, or just from the world in general? Rudi: Yeah, I immediately just think of the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, and it reminds me of the feeling I had when we were assigned this in school to read, of, "This book's way too long. I don't want to do this." And then the only takeaway I have from that, now as I'm going through the Wikipedia page, is that it was too long and I only remember the title. And I think that's an issue. I think we're given these expectations to read books, to read these long things, and the expectations don't always match up with what exactly we want to do. And the expectation was that we take something, and we glean this greater message behind it, and I don't know if I was developed enough in my brain to be able to think through that. And that's my concern with expectations, is that we give people these expectations to take away something without being explicit, or to look into something and not really share exactly what we are looking for. And then we even have our own ambi