Chasing Purpose - My Story
I used to call the cops whenever I would visit my grandma’s house. It’s one of the many stories I tell when I talk about my career path. When I was younger, I aspired to be a police officer because I wanted to help people and I thought that being a cop was the way to achieve that dream. I remember being 5 years old calling them because I wanted to say hello. Or waving down cop cars and firefighter trucks so that they could see me. It was, and still is, my passion to help people.
Fast forward to college, my idea of how I wanted to help people changed drastically. I was a senior at The City College of New York and working full-time at a news company. I was young, impressionable, and learning to walk in my purpose by producing stories on current events in the world. My supervisor would encourage me to stay in the news industry and remind me that I was helping people, even though I felt that I was only “indirectly” doing so. But there was a distinct moment where I got a gnawing readiness for change. A major story broke one day - it was a shooting where many children had been injured and killed. I, along with my colleagues, worked to track down photos of the children. While I was getting all of the photos in order to run into another room to call a parent for verification, my co-worker’s eyes met mine. I could see the cloudiness in his eyes, trying not to let his tears run down. I pushed through my tears, too. It was an acknowledgment that we are human and it was okay to not feel okay in all of the chaos. When I got the parent on the phone, he pleaded me for privacy and hung up on me. After 4 years of chasing information for television and slowly feeling numb to breaking news, I was ready to move on.
Around that time, I was apprenticing at a non-profit digital marketing program learning about advertising and technology. I was prime for a switch and made the jump to work for an ad-tech company. In the beginning, I thought it was so refreshing and different to be a woman in tech and have a change of pace. I quickly discovered that the title and role didn’t give me the satisfaction I was looking for. It was a rough year and a half, justifying to myself my purpose and salary. The two were at odds. But, I felt that gnawing readiness for change once again. Luckily, the apprenticeship program I completed was hiring and I jumped on the opportunity.
Since then, I have stayed in non-profit, and more specifically, within workforce development. In every job I have ever been in, satisfying my purpose has always been important to me. I tell this story for a few reasons:
“Why”: In many ways, I always thought I was on the “right track”, but in actuality, my career path took many twists and turns to get me to where I am today. Often times, we look at our jobs and our titles as an extension of who we are. In doing so, our purpose can be distorted or shape-shift into other things. Whether you are in your job out of necessity, or for money, passion, community or independence, I encourage you to find your “why”. On the best and worst days, your “why” will never waver and you’ll always be satisfied to some degree chasing it.
Build: I’ve managed relationships with large companies and leaders with the craziest and longest titles to advocate for students and their employment. I’ve held many workshops and 1 on 1 sessions to assist with the professional advancement of others. And more importantly, I am growing an amazing network of mentors, supporters, and friends that have pushed me to be better and uplift me when I’ve doubted my transitions. Let’s rewind in case you forgot - 5 year old me wanted to be a cop. An NYPD police officer! Although I am not helping people in the way that young me imagined, getting to my purpose has been a brick-by-brick building process. Everything you are experiencing now is your stepping stone to your career path. Keep building your skills and the people around you. Those two things will never fail you.
Run, unapologetically: It’s called The Nguyen Method for a reason. I’m known to be a whole-asser (never, half-asser) who commits to doing the work that it takes achieve my goals. I operate on 1000 and that’s my style. But even so, the process of launching my own business has been a “swimming in doubt”, “what if I fail?”, and “what am I really doing?” process. My “why” has kept me grounded and attached to my own mission and vision. This belief has allowed me to continue to run on days where it’s felt impossible.
The Nguyen Method was born out of my own experiences and my desire to work with others to support their growth. I have been working all my life, but I’ve never been more energetic about working than I am right now.