Rudi, Nicole, Ängela and Kai talk through their experience and help you define and discover your purpose.
Transcription:
Michael "Rudi" ...: Hello, and welcome to The What's Career Got To Do With It? podcast, where we hope to provide a space for honest conversation and information that encourages the listener to take the next steps in their career journey. Wherever you're at in this process, we hope this episode will meet you with affirmation, guidance, and maybe some laughs along the way. On today's episode, we will discuss an answer or many to the questions of, "What if I haven't found my purpose?"
Nicole Mitchell: Question of the day.
Michael "Rudi" ...: Have you guys found it?
Nicole Mitchell: I'm still working on it and that's okay.
Michael "Rudi" ...: I feel like that could be a response to a lot of things to say, "And that's okay." Well, it depends.
Nicole Mitchell: Absolutely.
Michael "Rudi" ...: You need to make money, then yes, you need to find your purpose.
Nicole Mitchell: And it's okay.
Michael "Rudi" ...: But for real, though, maybe we begin with a little bit of sharing surrounding that, and our understanding of purpose and the work that we're doing, and what the meaningful work we're doing. So what is your why of the work that you do?
Nicole Mitchell: Yeah, I think, for me, it was definitely wanting to give back what was given to me. So I was a sophomore in undergrad. I had no idea what I wanted to do career wise. I was a pre-med major for a semester, and then got all that chemistry on my schedule and said, "Mm-mm. Nope, not going to do that." So then I switched to pre-law and actually fell in love with it. But randomly, I had a roommate and she got work study in the athletic department. And one day, she came back and she was just miserable and I was like, "What's going on?" She's like, "I hate my work study." I was like, "Okay, well, tomorrow, I'll go with you."
And I went with her and I fell in love. It was media relations. We were doing all of that. And I had some amazing mentors along the way. And essentially, that led me to finding my purpose of being a servant leader, wanting students to be okay with plan B, C, and D, and hoping that in some way, I could inspire students to have comfort in knowing they don't have to have it all planned out right when they hit 19 and 20. I had people along the way do that for me and I've always felt it my purpose to give that back.
Ängela Bonner: Well, how about you, Kai?
Kai Kelley, Jr.: I was thinking about it [inaudible]
Michael "Rudi" ...: Kai is over there in deep thought.
Kai Kelley, Jr.: I honestly was. I was in a trance and it was just about what is our why behind what we do. I think for me, it comes from a couple of different places. I think when I look at my family background, a lot of the way that we treat one another and how we look at our community through service of either through faith or education, I think that informed in the background, what I decided to do as a profession. But intentionally I wasn't thinking of it that way. It was just always something that you had to do to be a decent human being and community member through service, whether it be advising, having conversations, being a listening ear for somebody. And so for me, I took it from that standpoint. I didn't know I could turn that into a purposeful career. So I think that's what I was zoning out about, and I was thinking about Chick-fil-A.
Ängela Bonner: Not sponsored, not sponsored, but Chick-fil-A. Not sponsored.
Kai Kelley, Jr.: We just like the food. We'll discuss their mission and purpose later, but we love their food.
Ängela Bonner: Wow. Kai, I think we were kind of on the same wavelength, which is why I'm looking at you like that. I think for me, I come from a family of servants, and it's just what you do. And I think during my process in undergrad, I knew what I wanted to do and I did it. But then I had to think about what Nicole was talking about, playing A, B, and C. I like to c