Decisions & shaping your path
I met Phil at work, when his team briefly joined ours and since the beginning I was intrigued. He was there! When Phil was on the call, you could count on him expressing his opinion. I was a bit annoyed, to be honest. “Who does he think he is?” I thought to myself during our two day team meeting. (I tend to get annoyed with everyone during intense meetings so there is some chance it was not purely his fault :D )
However, I learned much more about Phil as we kept cooperating more. I was impressed by his willingness to learn, explore and actually walk the walk instead of just sharing his thoughts. Later I learned that he also liked art, which made me automatically love him!
After a while I found my answer to “Who does Phil think he is?”. It was so inspiring for me, that I wanted to share it with you as well.
Who are you?
We can find you on LinkedIn as Phil Sterne who writes CVs and make them POP! But how would you describe yourself, who is Phil?
Wow, that’s a big question. Who am I? We all have our work personas. Companies talk about bringing you whole self to work, but people never ever do. The whole self has insecurities, has things you are worried about, problems at home or other aspects of our lives. When we come to work, we don’t bring our whole self. We bring a face, a facade, we bring our knowledge and our skills and we will use some of our personality to enable us to get things done.
In my new role working for myself as a CV Writer and Interview Skills Coach, I've discovered that I can bring my whole self. That means I can enjoy the variety, human contact and creative parts of my personality and combine it with helping people to become their best selves.
Shaping your own destiny
I mentioned that we met at work, but now you have your own company. You are shaping your own destiny. That is one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you, to ask: How did you do that? How did you begin? How did you choose which direction to go?
Most decisions we make about work are two way doors. What I do now goes back to pre-Amazon, when I was working as a contractor. When I left my prior permanent job. I wanted to go contracting and support companies with their recruitment problems. But instead I worked 3-5 days a week for a few months. Instead of doing portfolio work I was doing a job for several months. That was not my plan though I learned a lot, and gained a huge number of contacts.
When I was making the decision at the beginning of 2020 about what to do next, I just knew I did not want to go back to contracting like before. When I finished a six month contract I felt I had missed a lot of time with my family. I wanted to be more in control. If I am completely honest, the idea about writing CVs - I’m not completely sure where the idea came from. My best ideas come while I am in the shower or when I take a walk… it empties your mind… Eureka moment!) I thought… why don't I try this thing and see where it goes. Sometimes we just have to try stuff out, take some action.
I have been helping people with their CVs for years as a recruiter. So I looked online on freelancing websites and how other people were doing it and thought, I can do that, I can write… I wrote a short profile about me and put it on peopleperhour and LinkedIn posts and it all kind of went from there. At the time, there was not a clear plan… I needed to generate an income :) And that was it.
Starting the new path
I started my art business on the side of my full time job. I do feel overwhelmed by all the things I think I have to do. How was the beginning for you once you decided to go for a CV writing?
I was deliberately trying to take on something with as little mental pressure as possible. I left my previous job due to stress. My brain was not in a good place. I had to take a path of least resistance.
I was not thinking about registering as a UK limited company at that time. I thought: “I have done this for friends, let’s see how it would work out if I put it out there.” In the first month, I did 10 CVs for people at £45 a go. I worked on how long it took to make one CV, tweaking the offer and learning how to talk to people. The amount of money was so small, I did not have to register anywhere.
But I hadn't realised, I'm 45 years old - I have 25 years worth of network. I know a lot of hiring managers, candidates, clients and I am connected with them. I was quite surprised that people from my distant past started to reach out to me. The first two were candidates I was talking to almost 10 years ago. I had a person near where I live, who worked with me 15 years ago. All these people were coming to me, getting in touch, having a chat and that spurred me on. I thought it was amazing, I must have done something great all those years ago for them to remember me and come to me now. That gave me the confidence to keep going. People still get in touch with me after so many years.
Crossroads
When we are not happy with where we are, we find ourselves at a crossroad and may not know what else we can do. There is a fear holding us back, fear of uncertainty. Should I save money and fully try out what I want or should I just try to change my mindset and somehow to survive?
It depends on how risk averse you are. I would never recommend putting yourself in financial peril. That in itself can be a massive source of stress. On the flip side of that, there will never be a perfect time to do any of these things. Any change, any big change in our life, will always be uncomfortable and we always come with a reason why not to do it. “I don't have enough money. Timing is not right. What would my friends/colleagues say?” There are things we can control and things we can't control.
What I would do is to write down a list. These are all the reasons not to do it and these are all the reasons to do it. Think of it almost as if writing a white paper to yourself. What is the problem statement and what is your proposal? Be honest with yourself. These are the reasons I have in my head. You can go through it and decide if those are the things you can or can not control.
You can't control what your friends / family think, you can only control how you react to them. About money, you can do basic calculations. Line by line, review your spending and what you can cut back, understand how you spend your money and the minimum you need to survive. Work from there.
One last piece of advice
What would be an advice for people who are stuck in a job they don’t like… they want to change, but they are afraid and they don't know how?
My gut answer from my own experience, was whatever I do next has to be better than this. When I first decided to go contracting, it was a result of a call with one of my internal clients. I was fed up with the hamster wheel of same conversations and re-work… I sat in my kitchen with my laptop… I was so angry it took every muscle of my body not to throw my phone against the wall. The thought of a £500 phone… I stopped myself! Then I thought, I can't do this anymore. I walked down the garden behind my house.. I was trying to get some perspective, I walked with my wife… she said, why don't you just try the contracting you were talking about. I said “I can't do that as I have nothing lined up.” but she told me I’d be alright… I’m always alright!
This was all a bit “spur of the moment” for me, and though it worked out, it’s always a good idea to make a bit of a plan. Think about these questions:
What CAN you do?
What do you ENJOY?
What would you LIKE to do?
What might PEOPLE PAY YOU FOR?
Draw up lists and see what sits in the middle of the Venn diagram - then give it a go. Focus - one thing to one set of customers for three months and see what happens.
