40: 2021 Retrospective

In this brief episode, I talk about my 2021 and give a challenge to all of you listening.

Connect with Heidi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiekirby/ or on my website: www.heidikirby.com

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Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiekirby/

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Transcript

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Hello friends, and welcome to the block the building learning and organizational culture podcast. I'm your host, Heidi Kirby. And on today's episode, we are wrapping up 2021 kissing and Goodbye, good riddance. Moving on to 2022. So I did a retrospective episode at the end of 2020. And it is one of my least popular episodes. And in it, I just kind of shared how the year went from me, and what I learned and then like, post some thoughts for the listeners. And I'm just gonna do that same thing, again, even if it has a very low if it has really low downloads, and really low engagement, because I just kind of I enjoy that. So in January 2021, I started my first official manager, hiring manager role with direct reports, I was lucky enough to go through the hiring process and to hire an instructional designer and former teacher to my team. And so that was incredibly exciting. I had to start going back into the office, which I realized I wasn't a big fan of at all. And I really realized that I just enjoy remote work, I enjoy being at home, as somebody who deals with some chronic pain issues, it has really just increased my quality of life to not have a commute or to sit in an office chair that I'm not necessarily used to all day or, you know, it's just it takes such, so less of a physical toll to work at home. Plus, I'm a lot more productive. Because I can work from like 830 to six, and take breaks to go on a walk or a bike ride or throw dishes in the dishwasher or throw in laundry. And I'm not at that six o'clock mark feeling like, oh my gosh, my house is a mess, I need to cook dinner, I need to do this, you know, whatever. And so I'm just really, I've embraced the remote work thing. And I'm no stranger to remote work. I've worked remotely in different roles. And I apologize if you can hear my puppy snoring. I got a puppy for Christmas. And he's sitting on my lap while I'm recording this. And He's snoring. I don't know if you can hear that. So I apologize. But I made a huge decision in October to be part of the great resignation. And to leave my job without without something else lined up. And to kind of use my network and to find opportunities through that and the opportunity that I accepted. For a customer education manager position that is yet unannounced on LinkedIn, I'm not going to officially announce it until I have had my first day. That role wasn't really it wasn't, you know, referral of somebody else. It was just pedal to the metal, hard work, interviewing, having some absolutely amazing people helping me along the way. I definitely couldn't have done it without Sarah konista and Aaron Chancellor, they were both rooting for me giving me advice helping me with my resume helping me with my, you know, my strategy, my vision, my making it happen, right. And so it's with great excitement that I'm starting 2022 With that new role. And I'm also going to get back into the classroom, which is funny, because, you know, I'm talking all these people who are desperate to get out of the classroom. And in the meantime, I'm like, you know, I kind of miss it. And then I was presented by my wonderful friend Cheryl Oberlin with an opportunity. I just couldn't refuse to teach podcasting at the graduate level. I just couldn't I couldn't refuse that right like that's an opportunity that you you don't get every day. But all that said so I received those two job offers actually, one the day before my birthday, one on my birthday, which was incredible. But my birthday is in December and I quit my job in October so there were two months there that I was out of work and it was scary. Every, it was intense. It was a constant battle with myself of am I good enough? Is anyone ever gonna hire me? Am I gonna make it are things gonna work out for me and it was really, it was really mentally and emotionally taxing. So if you're somebody who's out of work and you're looking for work, I totally get it. I've been there. And it's honestly just as hard no matter what level you're at, right? I'm not going for those entry level instructional design roles anymore. But it was equally as hard for me to find a job. And it took a lot of a lot of chances. You know, I was runner up for a few different roles. And then I finally found the one that I think is going to be an awesome fit. But also, in 2021, I started the year out, helping with teaching a path to l&d and helping mentor a ton of educators who are looking to get into instructional design. And that was really fun, and amazing and wonderful. And in about August, I decided to take a step back from that, and focus more on working on my PhD research and dissertation. And so I'm trucking along with that research. And I'm hoping to be done before the middle of next year. Hopefully, we'll see how that all pans out. But just working towards that and working on this podcast, I have been desperately trying to stay consistent, even when, you know, the job search was making me feel bummed out and depressed. And, and I'm so glad that I've kept it up because it's gotten a lot more traction this year than it did. In 21. I started and it's gotten so many more views in since like, October of this year, since I wasn't working and was had more time to promote it had more time to network with people on LinkedIn, I think that really helped to kind of launch it to become something even more more popular than it was. So that's been really exciting to watch that grow, because I enjoy doing it so much. And so there were a lot of setbacks, there was a lot of stuff that didn't quite go my way or didn't go exactly how I saw it panning out. But there were a lot of good things as well. And so I think that in hindsight, you really have got to, if you're looking for a job, you've really got to interview who you're going to be working for, you got to come up with a list of really tough questions for those people to answer. So that you know that it's a good fit, tech stack specific how they're going to support you what kind of leader they are. An interview is such a two way street, that it's so crucial. It's it's just it's so important to find the right fit, because when it's not the right fit, you know, pretty early on and no matter how you kind of tried to force it, it just it doesn't work. So I'm going into 2022 with a lot of different opportunities that I'm working on. Other than my job, some other stuff, events and things going on too. And I'm really excited to see where it takes me. And so I would challenge all of you to make a goal for yourself for 2022 to learn something new. Your choice, it can be anything but just make a goal to learn something new. And maybe it's something you've always wanted to learn but never had time for. Or maybe it's something that you been kind of afraid to learn because it might be too difficult or it might take too much time. But I would just encourage you to to keep learning and to keep making learning. You know kind of your your purpose and the reason that you do the things you do because I found that when I keep learning at the center of what I'm doing in and out of work even that it just helps to kind of like it gives me a home base, right if I'm always learning and I'm always trying to find the next answer. Then I'm able to approach Pitch everything with a sense of curiosity and a sense of, eventually I'll learn something from this right. So I'm looking forward to 2022. I've already got a list of guests to interview, a ton of people a ton of amazing, wonderful, talented people. And so I look forward to sharing more episodes with you and 2022 Thanks again for joining me on the blog. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with friends and review us on your favorite podcast platform. I hope you'll tune in again soon.