The small wins strategy

The Small-Wins Strategy

What major stressor do you currently face?  My major stressor is uncertainty.  The uncertainty is in two areas, regarding my course-work for my MBA (will I be able to achieve good results in all my courses?), and regarding my ability to find rewarding work during the upcoming summer period and my future career.

What are the major attributes or components of the situation?  Regarding course-work, my major components are the term projects, in particular for marketing.  In fact, the only course where I feel confident that I will be able to succeed with no problems is GSO 6006.  Regarding finding a “stage” for the summer and future career prospects, it is challenging determining how to go about re-orienting my career.  I worry that employers will not consider me for employment as they consider that my 20+ years of employment “over-qualifies” me for any positions they may have available.

What are the subcomponents?  For GSO-6006, the course is all quantitative, and thus far I feel that I am mastering it well.

Attribute 1: For MNG-6133, my worry is that the quality of my work may not be sufficient in general.

Attribute 2: For CTB-6007, I am doing all right from week to week, but I have some concerns regarding the end of term project. 

Attribute 3: For MRK-6004, I have concerns about my capabilities as it is a “non-quantitative” course in French requiring a team term project, which makes for a lot of uncertainty about whether I can perform well enough. 

Attribute 4: As for finding work and future career prospects, my biggest initial concern is finding a full-time job for the summer months that will help direct me toward an interesting career – if the employer would like me to continue on a part time basis during the upcoming Fall and Winter terms, that would be a bonus.  I am not yet concerned about long term career prospects.

What actions can I take?  For MNG-6133, I will try my best during the individual and team work and “let the chips fall where they may”.  For CTB-6007, I will initiate getting together with team members to get started on the term team project.  For MRK-6004, I will actively search out what activities that I can perform in order to best contribute to the team term project.  For finding a summer job, I will enroll in SPUL services, I will ensure that my LinkedIn profile under FSA-MBA ULaval is the best possible, and I will look into other networking possibilities to give myself the best chance to find a good summer job.

What actions helped me best cope with previous similar stressful situations?  For course-work, my previous successful strategies were to spend the “week-off” from courses to get ahead on term assignments, and also to take breaks from school work.  After too many 10+ hour days in a row my productivity plummets, so occasionally clearing my mind by doing something unrelated helps me in the long term.  As for finding gainful summer employment, my last employment search was many years ago, so my memory fails me, I will just try to “get myself noticed” for potential job opportunities.

What small thing should I feel good about regarding previous coping strategies?  For course-work, getting ahead of things during the reading week worked well for me previously, so I think that I can make a good dent in end of session projects.  For finding employment, I will just try my best, I do not have any specific strategy in mind.