Career Expert: Gayle Petrillo
As women, we wear many hats. We may be a wife, mother, grandma, caretaker, babysitter, business owner, and/or employee. Many of us have more than one of these roles.
In my coaching practice, I work with many women who struggle with how to transition life skills into the work world.
Here’s a tip: our toolboxes are the same, it’s how we use those tools that are different.
Manage Your Business:
When you manage a household, you can easily compare your responsibilities to working outside the home. You are an entrepreneur. You can transition life skills, you use at home, into the work world. For instance, you likely manage the household budget. That may include balancing your checkbook and being aware of monies coming in and expenses going out.
It also includes juggling the highs and lows during the varying weeks in a month, and month by month over a calendar year, particularly if an income varies, such as when your career is in real estate, sales, or another industry where commissions or other variables change.
“Some of my clients transitioning from one career into another also grapple with the same concerns.”
Manage Your Strategies:
Managing your household also entails smaller jobs, like washing dishes, whether by hand or using a dishwasher. How does this relate to the business world? You are managing inventory. In order to have clean plates, glasses, utensils and cookware, you have to ensure you have enough items on hand and in the cupboard.
Likewise, we all have to eat. So every time you plan meals, you are again managing inventory and strategically planning what you need in groceries in order to meet and not exceed your budget and have the necessary ingredients on hand to build your meal(s).
While these examples may seem trivial, they truly demonstrate abilities easily transferable from a home environment into the work world.
Some of my clients transitioning from one career into another also grapple with the same concerns.
Examples Of How To Transition Life Skills Into The Work World.:
As a nurse, for instance, you have highly trained skills and a great nurse also has good common sense. A few of my nursing clients have moved into sales roles, in pharmaceuticals for instance. With a nursing background, these individuals have an understanding of medical vocabulary, drugs and drug interactions, and doctors’ egos. All of these skills are necessities to know how and when to approach a medical practice, staff, and providers.
Another example is teachers. Teachers know how to command an audience. Their audience is rather specific — students —- who, regardless of age, may suffer with attention issues. If you are able to hold THEIR interests, imagine how successful you will be transferring that ability to work with supervisors and subordinate staff.
A skill both of these professionals have in common is attention to detail. What employer doesn’t want that in their employee?
So, in my opinion, it’s about understanding and acknowledging your strengths and applying them to your passion to reach whatever your goal in the work environment is. You CAN accomplish your ‘it’, maybe with a little bit of insight from an outsider.
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About the Author:
Gayle Petrillo is President of First Impressions, Image Consulting. Gayle is an image consultant working with both businesses and individuals. Her services include: customer service training; team-building skills; secret shopper services; gossip avoidance techniques; closet analysis; wardrobe transformations, personal shopping; employment coaching; and presentation skills.
