Guest Opinion: Professional development from the school of hard knocks
BY TERRI MORK SPEIRS |
Director of marketing and communications, Des Moines Pastoral Counseling Center
Recently the board of my professional group, Association of Women in Communications (AWC), sat around a table discussing our upcoming program year. We considered potential educational topics such as persuasive writing, public speaking and digital marketing to be presented for working-women by working-women.
Our goal was to build a rock-solid, year-long series of practical learning opportunities for area professionals including new college graduates transitioning from campus to office. We wanted our program to be as relevant for emerging young communicators as for people like me (read: older).
As we deliberated options, contacts and venues — all for the purpose of helping others succeed — I couldn’t help to think about the first months after my own college graduation.
Diploma(s) in hand, I crashed into the great unknown. I was raised blue-collar, the daughter of truck drivers; I knew how to work really hard, but I was not versed on the value of networking and knowing my own worth.
At age 25 I found myself with two liberal arts degrees, one ginormous student loan debt and zero contacts. I moved back to my parents’ house (thank you, Mom and Dad) and back to my professional comfort zone (waitressing.)
If only there had been a group of women out there looking out for people like me, strategizing for my professional success. Instead, I learned the white-collar life through the school of hard knocks, through years of trial and error and a work ethic inherited from my parents.
It seems unlikely that I now find myself in a position to convene opportunities for professional education because I feel like I still have so much to figure out for myself. The great thing is this: both can be done at the same time, enhancing development for one’s self and others too. I’m convinced when we help others succeed, we all do better.
The day my AWC colleagues and I met, I remember the floor-to-ceiling windows of the board room. We could look out to see the largeness of our community, and look within to picture the collective potential. I’m pretty sure we could all recount the many ways we’ve learned through the hard times.
You, dear reader, probably could too.
Terri Mork Speirs is the director of marketing and communications and interim director of development for the Des Moines Pastoral Counseling Center. She also volunteers as co-chair of programs and professional development with the Greater Des Moines Association of Women in Communication. She is a freelance writer, a cello student, and a participant in St. John’s Lutheran Church.
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