Hey, ba fam, It's Mandy here with another episode of the b a qa A the v a q A to say the v a qa with just Manday today because my girl Tiffany is oo and we support that. We hope she's having a fabulous vacation. But I am not alone. I am joined by If not a be a existing listener, I hope she will become one after this. At least she was brave enough to submit a question to our podcast, and I'm really excited to have her here. Welcome key Vanya, who is calling us from Atlanta, Georgia.
What's up, girl, Hey, I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having me on. I'm very excited to have this discussion.
So it's going to talk to a bunch of strangers about what's happening in your career and everything. This is normal, it's a normal Tuesday. Well, I love this type of question first of all, and we're gonna listen. We're going we'll take a listen to your question for just come right back, okay, because I am ready to defend my LinkedIn. Okay, LinkedIn is ba and I'm going to defend her at all costs. So let's listen to your question real fast.
Hello, my name is Keivanya.
First, thank you so much for taking the time out to answer my question. I wanted to give you a little context before asking the question. So I'm a contractor right now seeking out a full time role in the field that I'm currently working in. Before this, I was working in another field, so I did a little bit
of a career change. However, this role that I'm in right now isn't giving me the full experience that I'm seeking, and so I've done all the things of getting my resume redone, getting my resume looked over, having my LinkedIn optimize, you know, using LinkedIn to connect with people to network. However, it just seems to me that LinkedIn is not really
doing what I really needed to. I've been seeking being a full time role for a little over a year now, and by LinkedIn not doing what I needed to, I just mean that it's not been able to help me secure a full time role, and so I'm seeking knowledge on are there other opportunities outside of LinkedIn that I can do, like on a frequent basis, to be able to connect with people in the field that I'm working in, because it seems that LinkedIn is just not enough and
I need to be able to connect with people on a more personal level because the Internet is just is just not enough for me. So I would love for you to give me some advice on that.
Thank you so much, all right, Kevan, ye, why are you going to come for my girl? LinkedIn? Like side, she not enough for you, She's not giving what she needs to give.
Honestly, I thought of LinkedIn as like the holy Grail at but.
Now I don't know.
I don't know if I'm just using it wrong or I'm not using it enough. I'm on there every day, so I don't know. It's just not seeming to be something that's working for me specifically.
I understand that. I mean, the thing is like LinkedIn is one of the tools and your toolkit. You mentioned your resume, and I'm actually, I'm actually really I'm not really, but I'm I guess I'm happy to hear that you're tinkering more with LinkedIn than with your resume, because LinkedIn is just sort of what's more visible to recruiters and
people who can give you opportunities. And I feel like people spend a lot of time obsessing over like the piece of paper, you know, on their resume versus actually being active on LinkedIn. So you've ticked two big boxes and by the time someone has ticked the box up, I got my resume and I'm active. Excuse me, I'm active on LinkedIn and I've optimized my LinkedIn. Now it's time for the next step, which you've identified. It's not that LinkedIn is not giving what it needs to give entirely,
it's that it doesn't. It's not always enough to just focus on LinkedIn. The human element is essential. And what I like about your question is that you're ready and you're like, I think I need to like talk to people and get more involved with my network. Yes, but there's not like always such a straightforward, you know option
for like actually getting out there and networking. And I know that's even a scary word and an ichy word for people, but basically forming relationships and strengthening relationships with people you know in your industry. So with that being said, I want more specifics, like what kind of work do you actually do and what sort of opportunity are you looking for?
Okay, so I can give you a little bit of back and then the now and then what I'm seeing.
For the future.
So my past is I have a past of mental health profession and I was a therapist specifically, and so building relationships is one of my strong suits and also working with systems. However, during the pandemic, a couple of things happened. The pandemic obviously George Floyd and then Breonna Taylor wid Are also murdered.
As a mental health professional at that time.
It was very hard, very hard for people to receive services and very hard for people to give services as well, and so I became really burnt out before I even left school. I decided I didn't want to do therapy anymore, and so I love the system aspect. So I found project management and that's what I do now. So I'm a project manager for a marketing and branding firm right now. However, I am a contractor. I am the first project manager.
So a lot of the knowledge that I have is from my own research inside my work and also outside of it as well. So there's a little bit of a lack of boundaries there as well, because essentially I'm teaching myself as well as the team what.
Project management can look like.
However, we know that we need someone to almost like mentor us and guide us, give us some type of experience and all of the things that we do.
And so that's where I am.
I love my job, however, I just need more a little bit more guidance from someone else, so maybe working under someone rather than being the senior.
All right, So you have essentially like started to pivot into an entirely new field. And what I like about it is you made that happen for yourself and now you're realizing you like it. You want to stay in this project management situation.
Yeah for a while.
Rightly awesome. So how did you get the job that you have?
Now?
This is a contract position, you said, so like part time?
Yes, yes, essentially it is. I got the position because I know who I work for. Got So another barrier for me is actually because I moved here for school, my contacts are all mental health professional contexts. So a part of using LinkedIn is finding people and also introducing myself to essentially a whole pool of people that I just generally don't know. So I'm the sole person that I guess responsible without with with with minimal health.
I got you, let me get I'm gonna look at your LinkedIn profile. Can you send me a link? You can put it in the chat right here. So looking at your LinkedIn profile and I'm seeing some great stuff. You have branded yourself as a project manager. You have a great little headline under your picture. It's CSM. Is that related to mental health or to project management?
Certified scrum Master? Oh?
I knew that I need. Yeah, what a weird word scrum master. Anyway, you have your open to work signal on your picture is on point.
I get it.
You have done everything right. So what I don't want you to do. What I'm hearing is like, Okay, you came from a mental health background. In your contacts are in the mental health world. I don't know that that should hold you back as a hindrance. It's almost like, well, the companies they potentially work for, if they work for a practice, you know, or some sort of institution, they may have open project manager roles for you to join. So I mean, I wouldn't discount your existing network and
I would definitely like stay in touch. And I was going to ask you, have you told them that you're pivoting into project management and you may even need to explain to them what it is, because they may not like they may not know how to help you. But if you say, for example, like who would be the person at their company for them to reach out to to find out if there's any openings or opportunities, if you can direct them in that way, or if you even know you know, which.
Yeah, absolutely, I've had some professional professors reach out to me, as well as some colleagues who I actually do know some people who have pivoted from mental health to project management. I was introduced by some friends who who figured it out themselves and then they kind of explained it to me, and I was like, oh, that makes sense. So I have reached out to some people, it's just not enough.
So I guess it's like it's like yes, a and like those things do work, but then sometimes they just don't. So and I've been without work for so long, I feel like I'm at my wits end, and it's like.
I almost need to be introduced to someone like the exact hiring manager and.
Like the I need the process to be all of like one week because like even like going to networking things, those things, those events are few and far in between.
So if I'm going to an event like every three weeks.
That's a three week waiting period that I still don't have a job.
I understand well when you say that you've been without a job. The job that you have now, I mean you're you are getting paid, right? Is it full time or part time?
Like?
Is it just is it enough to keep you afloat? You know, financially?
No, it's not. Yeah, and that ends me.
Otherwise you have other work that you're doing.
Sometimes I do things like Uber east Door Dash Uber, and then my mom definitely helps me and is there for me.
But then another thing of like the whole, like I'm.
On a timeline, the quote unquote timeline that we build for ourselves. I feel I'm about to be twenty eight, and they are just responsibilities.
I should be.
The play for oh, don't should yourself to death. I was gonna joke and be like, you're right, you really are. You're almost past your due date, past your exportation date, but you're not don't should yourself to death. But I do feel that sense of urgency and like you have a right to feel impatient, because I mean, I can see from your LinkedIn that it's not like you are bright like bright eyed bushy tailed right out of college. You know, like you're not twenty one to twenty two.
You have some professional experience. The thing is like, you have been doing the work that you want to be doing for a year now, a year and three months. According to LinkedIn, that's sometimes the hard part that people want to skip over. But like getting the experience in the thing that you want to pivot into is almost a hard hard part. Like, I think you've done the hard part. You got a role doing the thing that you want to be doing. Now it's about the next
step and the next level up. Okay, So I want you to feel good about that because a lot of the coaching I do is often with people who are wanting to pivot, but they're just like, wait, how do I get an opportunity? You know, where do I find it? So you've worked your sources, you've gotten your foot in the door. Now the networking event thing, I get that as well. One thing that you could be doing is don't wait for those you know, networking events that come
every once into blue moon. Reach out to the event organizers and just say, hey, I'm interested in this event. However, I would love you know, if you can hop on like a ten minute phone call. I am. You know, I'm in a crunch time right now where I have been working as a contractor, and just be honest and say I can't wait three weeks. I want to talk to someone right now and connect with them in advance. You don't have to go by their timeline or by
their rules in that sense. Does that make sense right?
Yeah? It absolutely does make sense.
And that's the type of advice I was looking for, because sometimes we do kind of run out of options and it's like I've been having my own thoughts and then I'm not even gonna lie. LinkedIn can be very depressing sometimes, I know it because it's on the one hand, you have the people who are getting laid off and looking for work, and then on the other hand you have the person who is getting a new job and they are getting promoted.
And then I'm somewhere in between that where I'm like where do I go? Where do I fall?
I know, you're on your own path. That's why it feels lonely there. You're just we're all on our own roads. And I mean, I think that the mindset is so important when it comes to like this is a crossroads in your career. It's kind of it's meant to be fraud and a little stressful. It's not going to be a forever state though, like I can talk to you and just be like, you have so much going for you. This will be the beginning of a new chapter, you know.
It's just that anticipation of like, when is it my turn? All right, ba fam you are listening to the ba qa A. We are going to take a quick break and be right back with more of your questions and our answers. Okay va faan, we are back answering more of your questions for the baqa Let's go. I would actually I would prescribe you a little LinkedIn diet, a little LinkedIn break. Maybe you're on there too much and instead like start reaching out if you haven't and making
like some real plans to connect with humans. So we talked about the networking events that you have been thinking about going to, finding the organizers. I did this myself recently, Like last week, I spoke at a conference. I live in New York, and there's this big working women's like entrepreneurship conference that I saw in advertisement for and I was like, Oh, that's in March. It was in March and thinks it was like early February at the time,
and I was like, I'd love to speak there. And typically I think the advice would be go to the conference so you know, see what it's like, and then pitch yourself as a speaker for next year. And I was like, I don't really got time to wait. I want to do this live. I want to do this workshop that I've been working on live. So I just went and found the organizers and blew up. I didn't
blow up their DMS, but I just tracked them down. Okay, it's easy enough to find people's I found them on LinkedIn, I found their ig page, sent them a little DMS and a little follow up, found their email address, sent a little email there. Polite, polite, polite, and I didn't end up having to wait another year. They got me on the speaker's list based on my pitch, you know, in February. They put me on the roster, and I'm like, sweet.
So sometimes that you want to you just need to like put yourself at the front of the line and feel confident in doing that.
Okay, yeah, that makes a lot of sense, especially like what you're saying a lot of encouragement because the job seeking journey can be very disheartening. It can take blows at your self esteem a lot. So a lot of it is reminding myself that I am worthy of these positions, even yeah, even against the injections that I gave.
Oh yeah, And I mean you made a good point about like the weird dichotomy of like there is there are excuse me, in some sectors there are layoffs happening. I mean, Meta just announced another ten thousand people are getting laid off. They already laid off ten thousand, so that's just massive and it can feel like but that also can affect the mood of hiring across the board. So it's not a situation where it's like what else can I be doing? I think you're doing everything right.
It's just about kind of riding this little dip. You know, there is a situation where maybe hiring managers are going to be more like a little more cautious, like a little less quick to hire, which is bad. Is not what you want to hear when you're just at this point where you're ready for your next opportunity. But I mean, at least you have to understand that there are some things out of your control that could be also contributing
to why nothing has really stuck yet. Okay, so how else can you put you in a space where you can meet people who need a PM, need project management? What type of project management for those who may don't even know much about the space or just heard about scrum master and all that, what type of like and what type of like day to day tasks are you really good at? You know, at the place where you are now, so.
I'm definitely good.
So overall, if you don't know what a project manager is, not you the audience. It's basically the accountability partner for the team. So along with having CRM tools, lanners, calendars, those type of things, there's a person who's basically like, hey, you're supposed to be doing this.
Hey, we have a project that the do date is coming.
So you have little small goes, little small tests that you have to do to be meet big milestones, and some of those things can slip through the cracks because there's so many people involved in the in the process of accomplishing one thing. And so I'm the I'm the person who's basically the string that holds everyone together and reminding everyone, hey, you don't do this that impacts this other person a job, and reminding everyone to be team
players and just holding people accountable. So I think my strong suit, like I said earlier, is definitely relationship building because along with reminding people, reminding can be a thin line of reminding. And what is the word I'm looking for when you're micromanaging oh.
Your team as yeah, yeah, you're right, yeah, how do you keep ale motivated to get stuff done and and like brank in on them without making them feel micromanaged or watched right?
And then so definitely the relationship building conflict management because everyone doesn't always work well together, especially when you're working with people who are normally a part of different teams so they're not your everyday person.
Well, I'm going to stop you there because I want to ask you as I'm listening to you, and what I love about this conversation is like the light starts to come on when I start to hear you talk about your strengths. Change management seems like a really excellent opportunity for you. So beyond just like project management, I'm wondering, I'm looking for ways when I'm listening to you to niche you down into like specialty, because what can make
you unique? And you're exactly right, like talking about your mental health background and your relationships and even you know, understanding your emotional EQ and like how you're able to be a better project manager because you can you can deal with personalities and understand like the psychology behind it. That's what change management teams really are, you know, tasked with Are you familiar with that line of work?
Slightly? Yes, I've seen those within like my job search, and.
What you just did is specifically why I've been looking for not only people to network with, but mentorship because going to school for something else you learn all of the nuances around it, but finding out things on your own, I'm basically on LinkedIn YouTube university because I'm finding out all of the things without someone actually teaching me those things.
Yeah, so having someone.
There as like a guide, that's kind of what I meant by working under someone because they know a little bit more about the field than I do. So sometimes you're searching for something that you don't even.
Know no exactly, and how do you know what's exactly and how do you even know what lines of work are available to you if you're not just talking. So even just having this conversation, I'm glad that this has you know, opened up potentially a new door because I
feel like that makes so much sense. You know, change management teams, they are you know, often tasked with, Okay, we want to overhaul the payroll system, we want to bring in a new we're going to move people to a new office, or have these new policies in place. So let's you know, it's a project to manage the project that needs to get done, but it's also about okay, now, how do we roll out the news. How do we make sure people are excited about it and they don't
get stressed about it. That's an excellent I would say, for sure, And like for you, I think it'll be important not to be in a room with other project managers or other you know, people doing exactly what you're doing, but finding networking opportunities of professionals who, like you said, are decision makers, the hiring managers, the professionals who understand
where someone like you could fit into their organization. So even in Atlanta, I mean, Atlanta is such a booming, you know economy for businesses and small businesses, and I'm like, where are they hanging out? You know, are there organizations like what is it called urban the Urban League? Urban League is one there are I'm sure there's a thriving you know, SBA, a chamber of commerce that you could you know, look to for events and not even to
go to the events, but to find names. And then we find the names, find the email addresses, and you know, look up on LinkedIn and find people who have the titles of jobs that you want and just be you know, an advocate for yourself, you know, informing those connections. And I think that you'll they'll be impressed by you taking your mental health background and understanding how there's that bridge into project management and even more so indepodentially change management.
You know, I could also see a path for you in HR, which sometimes is like closely aligned with or even does some of the work of change management people, you know, in going into that kind of space too. That's that's also an opportunity for you. I wish you were a member of my coaching community. I know I have people in my community who work in exactly these fields. And I'll definitely go through the list of Mandy money makers and see if I can connect you with anyone
because I appreciate that. Yeah, of course that's what happens on you met a new human. If I'm in a position to support you, I want to do that. Okay. So I just feel like you need like a little bit of a reset. You know, this sucks, it's taken a long time, but your opportunity is around the corner. You just got to like feel that way and just keep pushing.
I appreciate that good feel good.
Sometimes we just need a little bit of boost to like, Okay, I'm back.
That's what I do every day. You're so not alone. I mean, that's one of the reasons I found in my career coaching practice is because I was talking to women, especially women of color during the pandemic, who were wanting something new, and it's isolating because the Internet is nice and there's all these resources, and like you said, there's YouTube and LinkedIn and articles on what to do and how to do a job search, but it can feel
like you're the only one. And then you graduate with people and like they're off doing their thing, and you get on LinkedIn and it seems like people got stuff going on, and it's really isolating if you don't have that community of people that you can, you know, align yourself with and feel like you're in the trenches together,
all sort of striving towards something better. So as much as you can find community in a place where you can feel supported, I would say that's going to help you stave off this anxiety, this you know, tick tic tick in your head that's telling you that you should have, should have, should have, should have, should have. We got to ban that where it should from the from.
The vocab, I've heard that, I'm trying, You're.
Trying, You're where you need to be. And and again like, do not discount you have a year under your belt of project management experience. They don't got to know what's part time. They don't got to know all the things that you wish you had that you don't have, and you don't have a mentor, and blah blah blah blah blah.
Just sell it, you know, tell that story, Tell it. Okay, all right, Kivanya, thank you so much for letting me pour into you a little bit and talk your head off, and please keep me posted because I do get quite invested with our BA qah listeners. So I want to know more about your journey. Okay, so stay in touch.
Okay, absolutely, thank you so much.
You're welcome. All right. I want to say thank you so much to Kivanya for joining us on the VA. Thank you a If y'all want to be in the hot seat live with Brown Ambition with either me or Tiffany or maybe even both of us, all you gotta do is head over to our Instagram page at Brown Ambison Podcast, light into our dms with a voice note tell us how, tell us what your question is, what you'd like help with, and you may hear from one
of our producers and be invited to the show. Otherwise, you can email us Brandimission Podcast at gmail dot com or head over to our website brandambissionpodcast dot com and click ask us anything and contact us to find out how you can get your questions answered live on the show. All Right, until next week, y'all, Bye bye, hey bafam. We could not do this show without your support or
the support of our team behind the scenes. The Brown Ambition Podcast is produced by Imani Crosby and Dennis Simplinsky is our in house tech guru. I and your co host Mandy woodrif Santos and we will see y'all next week. BA FAM