When we were young, most of us were told to dream big, pursue our passions, and that we could become anything we wanted to be. We had dreams of becoming astronauts or marine biologists or movie stars. But somehow, as we move into adulthood, many of us don’t end up in our dream jobs, or even in the right field. Instead, we get average, mundane jobs and start climbing the corporate ladder. The corporate life is a good fit for many people, but it isn’t for everyone. How can you break free from it and finally pursue your true passions? We spoke with Jennifer Turliuk to find out.
Learn how you can trade out your corporate life for a career you’re passionate about by watching our podcast with Jennifer Turliuk below:
Jennifer Turliuk is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and career coach. She is the founder and CEO of MakerKids, which started the first and largest makerspace for kids in the world, and now runs virtual programs, camps, and parties on coding, robotics, and Minecraft. Jennifer also offers career coaching services on topics including career exploration, the job search process, resumes and cover letters, interviewing, and negotiations. She has helped clients get into exclusive schools and incubator programs, and also land jobs at companies like Google, P&G, and Kelson. In her new book, How To Figure Out What to Do With Your Life (Next), Jennifer shares a career design process she developed, based on tested strategies and exercises, including quantified self, design thinking, lean methodology, self-discovery, and more.
Starting our discussion, Jennifer reveals how she went from working for Proctor & Gamble to DJing to founding MakerKids and helping kids grow their skills. It’s quite a journey! One of her secrets to success was job shadowing. She shadowed people in a variety of industries, leading her down a path filled with diverse knowledge. Eventually, these job shadows led Jennifer to her true passion.
Most of us don’t have such exciting career adventures, especially that early on. How, instead, do so many of us end up in corporate jobs that we aren’t passionate about? For some, it’s hard to get into the field we want, and we’ll take whatever job we can get in the meantime. We all have to eat, right? For others, we don’t really know what career we want until we’ve gotten some experience under our belt. Getting that corporate job may alert you to the fact that you, ahem, don’t like corporate jobs. Now what?
While it certainly isn’t true of everyone who works in a traditional office job, why do so many people feel dispassionate in corporations positions? Jennifer offers some reasons here. For example, it may not be a good working style fit. Perhaps it doesn’t utilize your strongest skills, or requires skills that aren’t innate in you. Maybe it’s simply the wrong industry for you. We all have different working styles, strengths, and desires for our professional lives. Naturally, the corporate world won’t be a fit for everyone.
If it’s truly not a good fit for us, how can we break out of the corporate machine to pursue our passions? Or, maybe more directly, how do we know which of our passions are worth pursuing professionally, let alone go about achieving them? Jennifer shares some great advice here, from uncovering our talents and passions to finding a path for them professionally.
Jennifer is on a mission to help future generations have the tools for success. She describes how MakerKids helps children discover and pursue their passions. At MakerKids, they provide education and exposure to different kinds of puzzles, allowing young minds to imagine new solutions. Ultimately, this kind of education prevents settling for mundane corporate roles later in life. Indeed, these kids are learning skills that will set them up for success in fields like STEM, ensuring long-term careers that keep them curious and engaged.
To finish out our discussion, Jennifer shares her final, big tip to help us all follow our dreams away from those corporate confines. Tune into the podcast to find out what it is!
Listen to our podcast with Jennifer below to discover how you can break free from corporate life and follow your professional dreams.
Find out about Jennifer Turliuk at her official website here, and be sure to check out MakerKids here. You can also find her book, How To Figure Out What to Do With Your Life (Next), here.
Keep up with Jennifer on all her social channels: Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
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