I went to the Center of the Universe last week.
Literally!
At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, there is a room called the Center of the Universe that monitors every single message from deep space - sorry for the lousy picture.
By now, I imagine you know I am fascinated with all things "out there," from space to consciousness to psychedelics.
What was really cool about this visit was to meet some of the passionate, dedicated, yet chill people working there.
Their projects take decades of preparation and are calculated in billions of miles and dollars.
In contrast, the fashion industry has everyone burning out for next season's collection and sales.
Houston, we have a problem!
I've been scratching my head to understand what I could learn from rocket scientists.
A few things came up:
First, these engineers shared that they openly embrace failure since they do things that have never been done ever before.
Second, my tour guide told me that because of the complexity of these projects, no single individual could possibly understand all of a spacecraft.
Third, building one requires absolute precision; there is no room for approximation when sending humans into space.
All of the above made me realize that I could rename "failures" as beta testing and that although I want to continue to strive for excellence, I could focus more on precision vs. perfectionism. What I loved, however, is how precise they talked about what they do, which resonated because one of my frustrations as a recruiter is how challenged some fashion executives are when speaking about their skills.
I meet amazing talent that I won't present to clients because they are too clumsy interviewers - they talk too much or can't precisely share their achievements.
It's normal; very few of us learned to speak about ourselves, which can make interviews uncomfortable.
If that has been your experience, you're in luck; here is a masterclass focused on sharing achievements like a pro because you want HR and recruiters to understand how amazing you are!
It follows the STAR method. It is an easy way to showcase your successes, even if you have ADHD.
It's such a game-changer that you'll want to teach it to your team or kids!
And I love Nasa's motto:
Daring Mighty Things Together!
Agate
Want Mighty things together:
- Here's my podcast on what it takes to get your career into orbit
- To plan your next job or next 10 years, I invite you to file in this form to book a 1:1 Coaching consultation.
- If you are networking, you'll want to create your vision card because people really want to know who you are and not just what you do!
..And if you want to geek on more on Nasa stuff with me, watch Laurie Leshin, JPL's Director, talk about all their amazing projects!