Pivoting with Purpose: How BossmakeHer Helped Me Redefine My Career

Speaker: Lindsay Bensko

Lindsay Bensko: BossmakeHer has changed my life in so many ways, starting with the outstanding support and community that I received from day one. So whether it was attending office hour sessions, having one on one meetings with some of the BossmakeHer staff, or just networking along the way. I've never felt alone. I always felt like I was amongst people who were my biggest cheerleaders, my best friends. It was just such a community of strong support throughout the experience. We all had our good days and our bad days, but no matter what, we were always there for each other and that was so helpful and so rewarding for me through my journey. Another way that BossmakeHer has changed my life is that they allowed me the space and the tools to create my professional vision moving forward. As someone who they refer to as a 'pivoter', I was moving from one specialty area in my profession and I wanted to do something different with my life and I didn't really know where to start. I didn't know what was available for me, and I had my doubts. And the team there was really able to provide me with the tools and resources where I could uncover on my own, what that new pathway could look like, and then worked to help set me up for success by working with the skills, experience, and behaviors that I had already developed throughout my professional career and be able to brand myself in a way that allowed me to have wonderful opportunities for me to move into that career trajectory that I dreamed of.

Lindsay Bensko: The part of the BossmakeHer program that made the biggest difference for me, I would say was the clarity phase. The clarity phase really made me focus on what is it that I want in my career, what is important to me, what's aligned to my values as a person, as a professional. It's not something that I had really thought about before in my career, I had always thought of work and roles as, you know, what role would I fit in? What kind of company would want to take me on? As opposed to where is it that I want to be? Where do I want to have impact? And what do I think would be the most rewarding for me? And it became really apparent to me towards the end of my journey at BossmakeHer towards the end of my journey at BossmakeHer when I was in a position where I actually had two competing offers at the same time that were very different. And I actually went back to the Clarity exercise and revisited my inputs. And it helped make my decision very easy going into that into that decision making phase because one of the positions was really not aligned with what I had initially set out for. And the other one was, was more consistent with where I wanted to head. And so that Clarity Phase, I think, had I not had the Clarity Phase, that decision would have been more difficult for me and I may not have picked the right role. So definitely the Clarity Phase.

Lindsay Bensko: I would describe BossmakeHer as challenging, encouraging, and powerful. Throughout the process, I always felt incredibly supported. There was a tremendous amount of compassion from the BossmakeHer team, from my peers, part of the program. We were always just cheering each other on and encouraging each other to really achieve whatever they were dreaming of. And you could feel that through the process and that was really rewarding for me. It definitely had its challenges. I had to push myself think outside of the box. Put the thought in. Put the work in. So there were times where it felt like a really good challenge and one in which I'm really thankful for. And just incredibly powerful for me at this point in my life and wanting to be someone who wanted to pivot into a different career path, and trying to uncover what that could look like and what that could mean for me. I'm really confident there's no way I could have done that without being part of this program. And I'm so thankful that I've been part of the part of the team and will always consider myself as part of the BossmakeHer team.

Lindsay Bensko: Advice I'd give to a friend who is going through the job search process on her own is stop. You don't need to. BossmakeHer has this figured out for us and the majority of us are not experts in job search. We're just not. And it's not just about the job search either. It's really about what's your strategy, what are your goals and how to position yourself to be the one picked. That's really the beauty of the program, I would say in addition to being able to network and be amongst an incredibly talented network of professionals like you who are going to become some of which are going to become your best friends overnight. The support is so valuable that I would say don't hesitate. Join the team. The BossmakeHer team is going to help you uncover what is that pathway for you and how are you going to get there. And they're going to provide you with that support every step of the way.