Trailer - Job Search for High-Performing Misfits
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[00:00:08] Melissa Vining: If you're a high performer looking to grow and make an impact, but feeling stuck, underappreciated, and burned out at work, you're in the right place. I'm Melissa Vining and this is the Job Search for High Performing Misfits podcast. I help high performers leave draining jobs behind, reclaim their careers and land roles and organizations where they can thrive. Tune in for tips, insights, and inspiration for your journey to fulfilling work that fits you.
[00:00:37] Hello, welcome to the job search for High Performing Misfits podcast. My name is Melissa Vining. I'm a certified career coach and certified resume writer, and I am very excited to finally launch this podcast. It has been years in the making, and I can't wait to dive into all of these great topics with you.
[00:01:01] So in this episode, it's really an introduction to the podcast. I'm going to cover two main topics. I'll start by introducing this concept of a high performing misfit in the workplace, and then I'm going to talk a little bit about my story and what led me to this point.
[00:01:18] So let's start by breaking down the concept of a high performing misfit. We all have some idea of what it means to be a high performer. So if you're a high performer at work, you're probably the person who works really hard. You tend to get things done faster and better than most people. You probably think about things differently. You approach things differently. And because of that, you get different results.
[00:01:44] So in my view, there's really two components to this idea of being a high performer. The first is that thing that I just talked about. It's the internal drive for excellence and continuous improvement. But it doesn't just stop there. It's not only about the internal drive, it's also this external motivation to do good and to make an impact. So for you, work is not just about the job or the paycheck. You want to contribute in a way that feels meaningful and fulfilling. You want to help other people and make a difference. And you really want to be able to get up in the morning and say, this is why I'm doing this, and this energizes me.
[00:02:25] So that all sounds great, but the problem comes in when you take a person like this and put them into an environment where their strengths and values are misaligned. So oftentimes this happens when your why doesn't line up with the organization's why. So I've talked to job seekers in the past who say, I really value being able to help people and to figure out what their problem is, and to come in and design a solution for them that really recognizes whatever they're [00:03:00] going through in that moment.
[00:03:01] And the organization comes in and says, we don't actually care about the people and individualizing this. We just really care about the bottom line. We care about making money here and we're going to do whatever we need to do in order to get there. And all of a sudden there's this kind of conflict between you and the organization, because you're working towards different whys.
[00:03:25] Another thing that sometimes happens is when the organization is really not open to change or improvement. They have a strong preference to do things the way they've always been done. And this is something that drives me crazy as a high performer because I constantly want to improve. I'm striving for excellence for myself, for everyone around me, for the organization. And if someone is going to say, actually, we don't really want that because we want to just stay comfortable, stay in the thing that we've been doing, that drives me crazy to the point where I can't work for that organization.
[00:04:02] So these situations are where you stop being just a high performer and you start being a high performing misfit. So now instead of the company seeing all the value that you can bring, they see you as the problem.
[00:04:18] So in situations where we have high performing misfits in the workplace, obviously this causes issues on both sides. For the company. They're getting frustrated because they just want someone to do the work and they're not really getting the results they hoped for. And then obviously for you as the employee, you're frustrated because you feel like you're not appreciated. You feel like you're being held back because you're not able to fulfill your full potential, and you usually end up being disengaged and miserable.
[00:04:50] So when this happens, a lot of the times the result is that either you're let go, or maybe you end up quitting in a big rage. If you're anything like me, that's going to be the end result.
[00:05:03] So high performing misfits are my favorite people to work with because for one thing, I am one of you, you are my people, but also because you have the potential to make a huge impact, and when you're stuck in a situation that holds you back, where you are not able to do what you do best, everyone suffers. So I want to help you be just simply a high performer in a workplace where you're truly valued and appreciated for who you are.
[00:05:36] So why are we here? Why am I here today talking to you about the job search for high performing misfits?
[00:05:44] I started off my career as a professional musician and music teacher. It's something I had dreamed about since childhood, and I really wanted to be able to inspire other people in the same way that my teachers had inspired me. So I started playing the flute when I was eight years old, and I spent my whole life training to do this one thing. I went to college for music education, and I found myself in this very intense, high performing environment. I was obsessed not only with the music aspect of this, but also with the educational psychology and the leadership aspects of what I was doing too, and I made a name for myself as a leader in my music school and my community there. I spent all of my time learning how to be an expert in the flute, while also trying to become the best possible teacher and leader that I could be, and I was pretty successful with that.
[00:06:37] So the problem came, when I graduated, I came to a hard realization that I was completely under prepared for what it actually means to make a career out of this. I got into the real world, and even though I was great at what I was doing, the reality was the demand for it was so low. Music education as a whole is highly undervalued in our society, so it became clear that this was not a sustainable career, and it was very frustrating to me because I was not able to make the big impact that I really wanted to make.
[00:07:12] So for the first eight years of my career, I felt like I was living in this constant crisis where every single day I was thinking, what should I do with my life? So in effort to make a bigger contribution, I was doing music and also doing all kinds of other jobs simultaneously. And not only did I find myself to be a high performing misfit in the music area, but in every one of those other jobs, it was the same story. At one point, I actually had a federal job as a court reporter in Boston, and for those jobs you have to fill out all this paperwork and give every detail about your life. So you have to put down all the places you've ever worked, all the places you've ever lived, all of this information. And that was a big light bulb moment for me, because I realized it was so hard for me to fill out that paperwork because I had more than 20 jobs and I wasn't even 30 years old yet.
[00:08:10] So why do I tell you this whole story? Because I've been there. Getting to this point, took me eight years and I made all the mistakes that everyone else makes along the way. But I ended up landing as a career coach, and now my why is to make sure you don't have to go through the same thing.
[00:08:28] So in a way, my journey was not about luck, because I spent years researching and exploring and doing the internal and external work to get to where I am now. But at the same time, I also feel very lucky because I found not only the job that allows me to do what I do best every day, but also an environment where I'm really authentically valued for who I am.
[00:08:54] At this point, I've been career coaching for over three years, and I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to teach my system to over 30,000 people and to impact their lives for the better. So now I'm doing this podcast because I know you need it. I want to help you get unstuck, grow in your career, and land a fulfilling and enjoyable job that fits you. I want to take you from high performing misfit to simply a high performer so you can go out and make your big impact on the world.
[00:09:30] If you love this podcast, be sure to hit subscribe. Leave me a review and share it with a friend so we can help more high performing misfits find work they love. See you next time.
