Guest blogger for Re:e-learn - Anna Höglund IT Recruitment Consultant
I attended one of these networking events a while ago. The event was on a boat - a small and awfully rocky boat. Of course the rain was pouring down outside. I was also tired, hungry and didn't feel at all like socializing. I was this close to leave and blame it on seasickness but then the lecture started.
It was a great lecture about creativity and slowly but surely I forgot all about what a bad time I was having and how terribly seasick I was. Instead I got more and more interested in this lecture and soon I actively took part in the ongoing discussions.
During the break I met a girl who asked me “Okay, so, who are you?” And my immediate reaction was to answer “Well, my name is Anna and I work as a Recruitment Consultant and ...” but instead I said “Well, I’m not going to tell you what I do, instead I will try to describe who I am.”
After that I was silent. For a long time. God how difficult! Who am I when I’m not describing what I do for work? After a while I managed to utter a few carefully worded sentences and I thereafter asked her in the same way. Ten minutes into the conversation it felt like I had known her for much longer. I saw the person beneath the role. The role that we all, for different reasons, tend to act when in public.
Imagine applying this approach to your everyday life. Is it possible for you to describe yourself based on who you are without mentioning what you do?
A parallel can be drawn to the individuals without a current employment or education. Most of us have at some point been unemployed - how do we then describe ourselves? Who am I without my job? Who am I if I don’t mention what I have accomplished?
By writing this blog post I would like to illuminate the following questions: What defines you? Are you something more than your profession and your accomplishments? Wherein lies your value?
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