Crush Your Career

Ace the Interview, Land the Job, and Launch Your Future

Dee Ann Turner

• Publisher: Baker Books
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780801094378
• eBook ISBN: 9781493428687
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

We all know someone who is dissatisfied with their career but feels trapped in their current trajectory. What's not always clear is how they got there or, more importantly, how we can avoid the same fate as we develop our own careers. In a competitive job market, we need concrete, field-tested advice to help us ace the interview, land the job, and launch a career we love.

Enter Dee Ann Turner. After more than three decades leading teams and coaching staff members at Chick-fil-A, she knows what it takes to build a fulfilling career. In this practical, hands-on book she reveals the secrets of 

- finding a job
- preparing for an interview
- conquering the first 90 days
- managing work relationships
- overcoming mistakes
- adding value to your team
- and so much more

Anyone entering the job market or hoping to make a transition in their career--along with the parents, teachers, college counselors, or career counselors who coach them--will find invaluable, hard-won advice on how to create a work life you love.

Part I: Get a Job

The memory is vivid to me. From the day I turned fifteen years old, I wanted to get a work permit and find a part-time job. A friend of mine was scooping ice cream at the local Baskin-Robbins ice cream store, and that appeared to me to be the ticket to earn some money and establish my independence. She was making $2.90 an hour, which certainly exceeded the $1 per hour I was making babysitting. I wasn’t thinking so much about learning life skills, bolstering my college application, or gaining job skills. Like many teenagers, I only thought about making money to buy the latest fashion, save for a car, and earn money for college. Being surrounded by thirty-one flavors of deliciousness for several hours each week sounded like a pretty good idea too! Ultimately, my parents preferred that I continue doing odd jobs to make spending money so that I would have the opportunity to be fully engaged in school, family, and church activities.

Taking on the responsibility of a first job is one of the most important steps in preparing for a career. My friend, the ice cream scooper, learned to show up on time, in the proper uniform, and with her name badge attached to her apron. Those are basic skills, but they lead to learning how to follow directions, communicate with coworkers and the boss, and respond appropriately to customers. These are the foundational skills that every boss expects when a new staff member joins the team to begin a career.

When we decide it’s time to get a job or that it’s time for our children to get a job, it’s not only to earn money. Far more importantly, it’s setting the stage for a successful future career. The choices we make at the beginning often impact what happens in the end.

1
Preparing Your Character

When I was about five years old, my mother taught me my first memorable lesson about character. We were at our local grocery store, and I spotted a candy treat that I wanted. This particular king-size version of the candy was little more than a block of sugar with artificial coloring and flavoring, and my mother wisely refused the purchase. I can still remember the little navy raincoat with the deep pockets that I was wearing. Out of view of my mother, I slipped that king-size childhood delicacy into one of my pockets.

Hours later when hanging up my coat, Mom discovered the candy I had forgotten about in its secret hiding place. She quizzed me as to how I obtained it. I don’t remember every detail about the various explanations I tried to offer. I only remember that I lied. At five years old, I was already a thief and a liar! Right then, my mother determined to ensure that these mistakes became teachable moments in my young life.

During our next weekly grocery trip, Mom took me to meet the manager and return the stolen candy. All the way to the store, I was certain I would go to jail. With a quivering lip and watery eyes, I handed the candy to the manager and apologized for my wrongdoing. There were no arrests or visits with police officers. But one thing I am sure of, I never again took something that did not belong to me.

Now, as a mother of three grown children, I realize something else about that memory. For most of my life, I have reflected on that story in terms of how it grew my character. Actually, however, it was a testimony of my mother’s character. As hard as it was for me to go back and face that grocery store manager, it was much more difficult for my mother. It would have been easier to take the candy from me, punish me at home, and not admit to anyone what her child had done. As parents, when our children make mistakes, especially when they are young, we often see those mistakes as a reflection of our own parenting.

Thankfully, my mother cared more about my long-term character growth than she did about her temporary embarrassment. She exhibited her integrity and role modeled for me important qualities that would mold my character in the years to come.

That incident early in my childhood helped me secure a “good name” and instill in me the character I would need to be successful in every role in my life. Long before I started school and began to be influenced by others, the foundation of my character was formed. Leadership author, podcaster, and pastor Carey Nieuwhof writes, “Developing your character is never easy, which is why so many people abandon the pursuit. But it’s so worth it because you bring who you are to everything you do.”1

What qualities come to mind when you think of someone of outstanding character? Perhaps you think of a person with a strong sense of purpose and mission. Often, we think of people who have an established set of core values that are demonstrated consistently. The elements of a meaningful purpose, a compelling mission, and demonstrated core values are critical to character formation. A good reputation of admirable character is a great start to getting a job, keeping a job, and growing a career.

Determine Your Personal Purpose

The most important question we will ever ask is why: Why am I here? Why do I exist? Why was I created? Asking lots of why questions leads us to our life’s calling. Understanding our calling is critical to finding a career that gives our work life meaning. Without a calling, a job is just work. When we find a calling, it engages the core of our being and drives us to fulfill our goals and dreams.

It is from a calling that we find or formulate our personal purpose, discovering our reason for being placed on this planet. Why was I created? What is my unique contribution to this world? One of the most significant roles that leaders in our lives play is helping us find our purpose. Work is only one of the ways we live out our purpose. Generally, a purpose permeates every aspect of our lives and is demonstrated in every connection and role we play.

A personal purpose informs every single major decision we make in life, including career choice and where we choose to work. Ultimately, it is likely to impact other decisions too, such as who our mate will be if we marry, how we serve others, who we worship, how we parent, and what kind of friend we are to the people around us.

Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play major league baseball in the modern era, wrote in his autobiography, “A life is not important except for the impact it has on other lives.”2 It’s true. Every other pursuit in life, including fame, wealth, materialism, and popularity, fades the moment our life ends. A life whose purpose is rooted in positive influence and impact is far more likely to be remembered and celebrated.

Develop a Personal Mission

A second element in developing our character is determining our mission. If purpose answers the why question, then mission answers the what question. What do we want to accomplish during our lifetime? What meaningful goals do we want to set for ourselves and achieve?

Once we discover our personal mission, we are more likely to achieve it by writing it down, measuring our progress, celebrating milestones along the way, and recalibrating when we get off course. Mission statements help keep us focused on the goals we want to achieve in life. Without a clear mission, it is easy to get distracted and chase the means to an end instead of the result we truly desire.

When we understand and articulate our mission, we see that our work is simply one of the means to accomplishing the mission, not the mission itself. Two of my favorite examples of people with clear missions are Oprah Winfrey and Sir Richard Branson.

What do we think of when we think about Oprah Winfrey? A billionaire businesswoman? A talk-show host? A media mogul? A philanthropist? She is all these things, but none of them are listed in her personal mission. These are all means by which she accomplishes her mission: “I wanted to be a teacher. And to be known for inspiring my students to be more than they thought they could be.”3 Every other role she plays is to provide her the opportunity to teach and inspire others.

What about Sir Richard Branson? He has created a reputation as a brand development guru, serial entrepreneur, customer-experience giant, and daring innovator. None of these roles are listed in his mission statement, but they are the means for him to achieve it. His mission: “Have fun in your journey through life and learn from your mistakes.”4 All of those roles contribute to his mission to have fun in life.

Creating and verbalizing a personal mission is important because our mission provides a filter through which to make decisions, including decisions about your career. Starting with the end in mind greatly enhances the probability that you will eventually meet your career and life goals. Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at Dominican University in California, conducted a study with 270 participants. She learned from the study that you are 42 percent more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down.5

Start small with short-term goals and work to refine your goal-setting process to timelines that make sense for your stage in life and career. What works for me is to start the year with annual goals for each part of my life: spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, family, and career. I then take my annual goals and create a monthly plan with measurable interim goals. Finally, on Sunday nights I begin each week by evaluating the previous week against my goals and planning for the next week what I need to do to keep me on track to achieve my monthly goals. Writing them down, either using a digital application or on hard copy, has helped me to easily see where I am and make any needed adjustments to fulfill my goals.

Without an intentional plan to keep you on track to get you where you want to go, it is less likely you will achieve what you intend to accomplish. Such a plan helps us make quick pivots when faced with a crisis or unexpected opportunities too.

Choose Your Personal Core Values

The final characteristic needed to help develop our character is a set of personal core values. These values define the beliefs we hold most dear and articulate them in a way that can be demonstrated by our behavior. For instance, if we believe in the importance of serving others, then service might become a personal core value. We demonstrate this value by the behavior of serving others in our lives and by extending a spirit of service to people we don’t even know. Our character becomes known by the behaviors that reflect our deepest beliefs that we articulate as our core values.

Some of our values are engrained in us early in life because we see them communicated and exhibited by the influential people in our lives. Parents, other family members, teachers, coaches, and pastors help us form our values long before we can articulate them. They are formed through stories, lessons, and demonstrated behaviors.

I love a story I read on social media about a mom who used a special moment to teach her child about the core value of generosity. As the story goes, her little one was beginning to ask questions about the existence of Santa Claus. She gently led her son through the discovery that it was now time for him to become a Santa Claus. She explained the very special responsibility of identifying the needs of others, selecting a gift to meet the need, and then giving the gift anonymously.

When it was time for him to identify a person who needed something, he chose a lady who lived on his street. She wasn’t particularly kind, and when his ball accidentally landed in her yard, she would not allow him to come inside the fence to retrieve it. Often, she yelled at the children in the neighborhood. On his way to school each day, he watched as she walked outside and down the driveway to retrieve the morning newspaper. He noticed she was barefoot and decided the gift he needed to get her was a new pair of slippers.

To buy slippers, he needed to know what size, so he hid in the bushes one Saturday and discerned that she had a medium-sized foot. The young boy gathered his allowance money, went to the store, and purchased a pair of soft, warm, medium-sized slippers. He carefully wrapped them and added a beautiful Christmas bow and waited for the opportunity to sneak them under her fence without being seen. Finally, one evening right before Christmas, when all the lights in her house were off, he walked down the street and pushed the package under the gate.

A few days later, looking out the window, he saw the woman walking down her driveway, and much to his excitement she was wearing the slippers. From that Christmas on, he was a “Santa Claus.” When his brother began to wonder about Santa Claus, he helped with his indoctrination into the secret society.6

For many of us, that is exactly how our core values were developed. An influential adult in our life taught us a lesson through a story or experience, and that lesson became part of our belief system. As adults, we have the opportunity to implement them, add to them, or choose our own set of core values.

These values are very important because they represent the core of our being and are a window into our soul. They are crucial elements of our own character and are worthy of careful selection, nurturing, and demonstration. These values represent our moral compass and can be a guide that points to “true north” whenever we become disoriented.

Without a compass to guide us, it is easy to lose our way. Core values are the guideposts on the journey to living out our purpose and achieving our mission. They help form boundaries to keep us from wandering off the trail, and they clearly describe the behaviors that we desire to exhibit.

Character is a result of nature and nurture. We were created with certain personality traits, strengths, and preferences designed within us. During childhood, our character is nurtured by the influences in our lives: parents, other family members, friends, teachers, coaches, employers, community and church leaders, and others who influence us. Even if we have not been positively influenced and nurtured, we can always choose to develop our own character. If you did not grow up with pos...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I: Get a Job
• Part II: Keep a Job
• Part III: Grow a Career
• Part IV: Leave a Job
• It Is All Going to Be OK
• Recommended Resources
• Notes
• About the Author
• Back Ads
• Cover Flaps
• Back Cover