Lisa is a young worker, regular at Headstart and on a fine day, you’ll probably find her on a hike or walk framing a fantastic shot of the surrounding beauty. Down-to-earth, Lisa captured the final week of Headstart - Untapped #4: Making the most of career checkpoints. Check out her summary below.
Making the most of…my Career Checkpoints
In the hot seat this week is our resident Headstart speaker Mark Leong and we got the chance to grill him in some Q&A to hear what he’s learnt as he’s passed through a few checkpoints in his career. With our Headstarter, Julie as interviewer and Slido helping us nominate the most pressing question, we were underway!
But first things first, what exactly is a career checkpoint?
Mark described it as rites of passage that all workers will go through sometime in their career – things like performance reviews, passing probation, changing jobs, taking on more responsibilities, managing a team etc. There are many - for me, the one about changing jobs struck me and reminder me of an HBR article -which predicted that the 21st century worker will on average have 14 jobs, 4 career changes before they’re 50!
In Mark’s working life, he started work as a graduate, checkpoint 1. He started out in tax consulting at the Big 4, then a career break became a career change, checkpoint 2. The change saw him work in the not-for-profit sector - more specifically in full-time paid Christian ministry at City Bible Forum - where he has been working for almost 6 years now and currently manages the Sydney team and ministry as a City Director, checkpoint 3.
Here are some of the top questions we had from the evening
1. Did you feel the need to earn more money when you started a family?
Hooray for Slido as this wasn’t a question Mark had predicted but was the most highly voted question. Mark’s answer was silly, serious and surprising.
The silly: Mark did feel the need to earn more money and the way he handled that pressure was to pass the buck and ask his wife to work! All jokes aside, one realisation Mark and his wife, Grace had to grapple with was the truth that working for the not-for-profit sector means he doesn’t get paid well. So they jointly decided she would need to work if he was to continue in full time paid ministry.
The serious: Mark shared the story of the first time he held his daughter Annabelle and the rush of emotions - love, joy, wonder - that God loved this little life in his hands. Singing these words from In Christ Alone brought him to tears - from life’s first cry, til final breath, Jesus commands her destiny. God knew Annabelle as a helpless 2 day old baby and what a responsibility it was to be her dad and part of that responsibility is to provide for a growing family. It’s not something given by God lightly.
The surprise: What struck me was when Mark said words to this effect. “If one day I found out one of my kids were seriously sick, I’d quit my job in full-time ministry in a split second and go back to secular work. Just as an investment banker ought not to be defined by his job, this job of full time paid ministry ought not define me. The litmus test would be, if that happened, would I feel that I have taken a backward step going back into secular work - if so, then full time paid ministry has become my idol.” This was one of the benefits of our term's theme, Untapped at Headstart - we got the honest answers in Q&A.
2. How did you make decisions at the checkpoints?
A few tips were given as Mark share when he said yes to becoming the City Director at City Bible Forum. 2 tips that stuck were:
- Do your due diligence: question your motives – Is it about me, or is it about serving others?
- Check your blind spots (or rather, have others check your blind spots for you): By definition, you can see your own blindspots. Seek wisdom and ask for advice from people you know well, or people you don’t know that well for objectivity – they’ll give you advice on things you can’t see.
3. What were you most nervous about when making the career change?
Mark shared how on day 1 back as a full time worker at City Bible Forum was nerve racking. He realised he was back to being a grad again – with all the insecurities, about whether I will fit in, and what will my colleagues think of me. He put on a brave face but his heart was pounding.
He shared one story of receiving feedback early on. It was his first talk at City Bible Forum and he was given cutting feedback. He felt so small. However, he has realised that the best way to respond was not to be defensive or bear grudges. God gave us people (yes, even difficult people) in our lives to make us more like Jesus. If he responded defensively, he wouldn’t have heard and would have just dismissed the critique. Instead, he decided to separate the timing and delivery (which he felt was too early in his time at City Bible Forum) from the content and view this positively - it was said clumsily out of love and he could improve.
4. Managing people more experienced than you
They key takeaway in managing people is that when you’re responsible for other people, it’s definitely no longer about you. This can express itself in subtle ways - for example, part of managing well is about managing yourself (your doubts and insecurities) so you don’t project them onto others. Instead your goal in managing is to make others flourish, bring the best out of them.
Wrapping it all up
Mark finished the evening with a short talk from the Bible. He shared 2 stories which helped us see what God can do with career checkpoints and how to make sure the alarms aren’t raised.
Have you ever wondered why there was a white colouring pencil in a colour pencil set? Let's face it, it's the most unused, neglected and seemingly useless pencil (I mean, the paper is already white anyway!!). We may pass through career checkpoints in the same way – neglect it, it looks seemingly trivial and just go through the motions. But in a professional artist’s hands, a white pencil brings life and three-dimensionality to a 2D picture. God is the master artist, using career checkpoints to make our life richer, bringing it into 3D. And as his creation, we reflect God’s glory, we bring glory to God the artist, we are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory (2 Cor 3:16-18).
Everyone must pass through checkpoints (the ‘what’), but the ‘how’ varies. Take airport security gates for example – you must go through them to board a plane. If you rush through too quickly, the machine beeps and you need to retrace your steps and go through the checkpoint again. So too with career checkpoints - if you rush through too quickly and make foolish decisions without examining your motives, then you’ll need to go through again, in a process of trial and error. But, if you can learn wisdom ahead of time, you’ll be able to pass those checkpoints the right way.
So… with that God in mind, how can you make the most of your Career Checkpoints?
