by Irene
I had my first real interview for a "real" job after college at the beginning of my last semester there. It was with a local city's transportation office developing their various transportation programs (car sharing, green fleet, educating building occupants about altnerative modes of transportation to the office).This was the interview I bought my first suit pants and professional shirt, as well as heels (the heels was much too high, can't believe I wore them to the interview). It's really true what they say: you definitely don't want your very first serious interview in life to be for your dream job....cause you're probably going to blow it.
Which is precisely what I did. The interview was going as OK as it could've, until I was asked how I deal with prioritizing my time. If I recall correctly, this was due to the position reporting to two bosses and needing to push through numerous initiatives at once. I had no idea how to answer this question - I think I said something about...just figuring out a way to get it all done based on timelines...and gave an example of all the multi-tasking I was doing on campus. Cause, in college, that's what you did: you pulled all nighters, you crammed, you ran from point A to point B....and it was all perfectly normal. So I wasn't really understanding what they were asking me, and it's taken me a while to figure out since starting and working at my job for over a year now.
So, prioritization is not actually , as my boyfriend pointed out, the same as balancing things. And, in fact, it's the exact opposite: it's giving some things more weight than others, eliminating other things completely from your list of To Do's, and having to make decisions on what is truly worthwhile, what actually needs to be done now, and what can wait, and what you should just say "no" to. On this topic, my co-worker recently sent around a really interesting article, here it is.This is a skill that has been very hard for me to work on. I don't want to feel like I'm compromising on anything either in my professional life or in my personal life. But that approach is unsustainable: there actually are only 24 hours in a day, and I have to learn how to ensure that I absolutely 100% include the non-negotiable things into that time, no matter what else has to drop.
I wish I could go back in time and answer that question now. It think it'd something like this:
"In order to correctly prioritize projects and timelines, I'd need proper information about expectations and deadlines of the initiatives, so that I could outline a plan of action which enables me to meet the targets within a workable timeframe. In the case of two bosses, it will be crucial that both know the full list of projects on my plate, when each projects' key milestones are, and crucial time periods where I should focus on one projects vs. one that might be able to wait."
Writing the above, I think at work that we should play a drinking game. Everytime someone says, "milestone" "outline" "target" "timeframe" "KPI" ...we take a shot.
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