Chan with a Plan

The stages of the employee lifecycle, from excitement to becoming disengaged

EPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode of Chan With A Plan, host Max Chan speaks with Karen Loftus a consultant that helps the C-Suite improve employee engagement and implement change management and leadership development initiatives. In this conversation, Karen discusses her journey of working in HR and has a lot of experience with understanding why employees come and go. This episode is to help you understand the employee lifecycle from being really excited for a new job to getting disengaged from the organization and looking for your next opportunity. 
 
QUOTES
“That first week, it's about getting all the stuff that you need to be a successful employee, whether that be your laptop or a phone or technology or software, or if you're actually sitting at a desk, maybe it's a key to the building, and a desk and you know, or uniform or whatever that might be.” – Karen Loftus
“Obviously, technical roles take a lot longer. Because if you're dealing with software, or let's say your tier one support or something, you really have to get up to speed on the software for the client calls you're taking.” – Karen Loftus
“And so instead of having 5000 people in your target market that could potentially be interested in a job now you have the world.” – Karen Loftus
 
TIMESTAMPS
[0:44] Meet Karen Loftus
[01:59] Karen explains the employee lifecycle
[04:25] First couple years of the employee’s experience
[07:39] Should you leave a job after a couple years
[12:01] Questions to ask the interviewer or panel
[16:04] Signs of a disengaged employee
[18:22] Improving the company environment
[21:26] Get engagement with a survey
[25:33] The point along the process where employees get disengaged
[27:24] Getting honest survey answers
[32:22] Navigating the PIP plans
[36:27] Common reasons employees leave
[38:08] What challenge have you faced in your career and what did you do to overcome it
[40:11] Connect with Karen
 
RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS
Karen Loftus on Linkedin
Chan With A Plan
Max Chan on Social Media

3 reasons why you should consider getting a MBA to help grow your career

EPISODE SUMMARY
Max discusses whether getting a MBA will be beneficial for your career path or not based on this past week's episode with Zeinab Alliji and her experience with getting her MBA.
 
TIMESTAMPS
[00:27] Max’s story about wanting an MBA
[01:04] MBA vs. Social Media
[01:58] 3 reasons why you should consider an MBA
 
RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS
Chan With A Plan
Chan With A Plan Facebook Group

Is getting an MBA worth it and is management consulting as lucrative as it’s made out to be

EPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode of Chan With A Plan, host Max Chan speaks with Zeinab Alliji, an ex-consultant and financial services professional who has worked in tech for the majority of her career. In this conversation, Zeinab discusses her journey of investing in education to acquire her MBA. She has also worked in the consulting space, one of the more lucrative fields that many professionals want to get into. This episode is to help you make an informed decision if you are thinking about getting your MBA, or if you’re thinking about getting into the consulting field. 
 
QUOTES
“I had 18 months where I worked on three different big, large programs. I had two head of mentors and a director who was also a mentor of mine, and they really helped me pick where I wanted to go and why I wanted to go there, as well as giving me a lot of opportunity because they have visibility at that level.” Zeinab Alliji
“I think a lot of the big firms now are getting a lot better at providing consultants with work life balance. But you generally do find, in consulting firms, it is younger people who don't necessarily have families. I think the type of people that go to consulting firms are the ones that do want to work hard.” – Zeinab Alliji
“On the other side, it was just a case of me figuring out what was important to me. And I think that's probably a key point around this is, regardless of what you want to do before you even think about kind of applying to places and trying to get that to land a job, you really need to know why you're doing it.” – Zeinab Alliji
 
TIMESTAMPS
Part 1 - Consulting
[2:46] Meet Zeinab and how she got into consulting
[6:45] Zeinab’s take on management consulting
[9:25] Work life balance in consulting
[12:28] Consulting compensation
[18:43] Interview process
[22:46] Time frame between interview and getting a job offer
[24:53] Pros and cons of consulting
Part 2 - MBA
[26:59] What made her decide to get an MBA
[31:17] MBA application process
[35:34] Advice on doing well in an MBA program
[39:18] Condensed vs. full MBA programs
[43:35] Life after getting her MBA
[48:57] Do MBA’s give you better skills
[51:49] What challenge have you faced in your career and what did you do to overcome it
[54:28] Connect with Zeinab
 
RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS
Lattes with Leaders Podcast
Zeinab Alliji on Linkedin
Chan With A Plan
Chan With A Plan Private Facebook Group

Why self-education is important to your long term career success

EPISODE SUMMARY
Max discusses how formal education will make you a living, but self-education will make you a fortune, based on this past week's episode with Emilie Mazurek on how to become a UX/UI Designer with no experience. 
TIMESTAMPS
[00:28] Formal education vs. self-education
[01:15] Adapt and learn to continue to grow
[02:48] Recap Emilie’s story
[03:44] How to get unstuck in your career
 
RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS
Chan With A Plan
Chan With A Plan Facebook Group

How to become a UX/UI Designer with no experience

EPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode of Chan With A Plan, host Max Chan speaks with Emilie Mazurek, UX/UI designer. In this conversation Emilie discusses her journey from being in the hospitality industry to working her dream career as a UX/UI designer. She hopes her story will help other students and professionals realize that it’s okay to pivot and go after what can truly make you happy. 
 
QUOTES
“Most of the projects were group work, which at the time was like very annoying, but looking back, I'm extremely grateful for it because now I work in a group, and having that experience is extremely valuable.” Emilie Mazurek
“I did try networking. For me, it felt a bit disingenuous, just because I knew the reason, I was reaching out to them is to see if they would like me and want to chat with me and have any openings. And I know that the best time to do networking is when you're not looking for a job.” - Emilie Mazurek
“I also have to look at some of my peers from the boot camp. A lot of them did get jobs, but a lot of them didn't. And their $15,000 is just gone. You get out of it what you put into it, I think too.” - Emilie Mazurek
 
TIMESTAMPS
[1:55] Meet Emilie
[4:07] How did Emilie decide that UX/UI design was the right career path for her 
[4:57] Was the bootcamp full time or part time
[5:44] Emilie explains what the bootcamp was like
[7:26] Working in a group setting
[8:37] Utilizing the bootcamp experience during interviews when searching for a job
[12:18] Was there an ROI from the bootcamp
[12:39] Realizing her portfolio wasn’t job ready
[14:19] Landing her dream job as a product designer
[15:01] Networking and online job application process
[17:38] Red flags when searching for a UX/UI job
[21:22] Going over cover letter and resume format that helped Emilie
[24:27] Emilie’s experience interviewing
[26:51] Why she decided to keep going and giving value
[27:54] Carving out time with a full time job and still trying to learn new techniques to be better
[31:42] Finally getting the job offer
[34:43] Proudest moment so far in her job
[38:04] 3 lessons learned from Emilie’s journey
[39:44] What big challenge did she face and how she overcame it
[40:35] Contacting Emilie
[41:03] Outro
 
RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS
Emilie Mazurek's Portfolio Website
Emilie Mazurek on Linkedin
Chan With A Plan
Chan With A Plan Private Facebook Group

1 big life lesson I learned from the death of my grandmother

EPISODE SUMMARY
Max discusses how his grandmother's passing gave him a huge lesson about why you shouldn't wait till tomorrow to do something; based on this past week's episode with Dr. Rowena Winkler on how the death of a parent impacts career change.
 
TIMESTAMPS
[1:11] Your mindset tends to be based off of your parents
[2:32] Max’s personal story with loss and living life
 
RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS
Chan With A Plan
Chan With A Plan Facebook Group

How the death of a parent impacts career change

EPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode of Chan With A Plan, host Max Chan speaks with Dr. Rowena Winkler, a Cosmic Catalyst Coach & Realignment Strategist that helps women find their voice and take intuitive action steps so they can live authentically empowered lives. In this conversation, Dr. Rowena Winkler discusses how her career was on autopilot until the passing of her father prompted her to evaluate her stressful career trajectory and led her to pivot from academia to a more fulfilling career in the marketing industry. 
 
QUOTES
“My sister told me that dad had passed away. And once I found out and I just, you know, I told my students, I walked out, I told the chair of my department and I got my things together and drove home.”- Dr. Rowena Winkler
“[In terms of staying at a career I was no longer happy with] I think it was just the fear of failure, right, that I had invested so much time, so much energy, so much money into these degrees and into this education and the expectation that I would do what I quote, unquote, was supposed to do with these degrees, which is to be a tenure track faculty member, you know, I was a rock star of my department. So I think there was also a fear that there would be judgment or that I would let people down.” - Dr. Rowena Winkler
“I think the journey as an immigrant kid, especially much of my life, was checking these boxes and performing and achieving, especially academically, and just doing all of these external validation things to make me feel that I'm contributing, that I'm valued, that I have worth. And it just got to the point where I didn't even really know what I wanted anymore. And that I needed to find time to figure out for myself inside what makes me happy, and not what makes my family or makes other people around me, the department chair, whoever happy, you know, I need to advocate for myself.” - Dr. Rowena Winkler
 
TIMESTAMPS
[0:43] Meet Dr. Rowena
[6:26] Broader acceptance of improving mental health and advice for professionals currently struggling with their own mental health
[10:17] Benefits of talking to a therapist about your mental health over talking to a good friend
[11:36] The major event that happened in Dr. Rowena’s life that would change her career path 
[15:28] Why Dr. Rowena didn’t make a career move right away but instead stayed in a career path she no longer desired 
[16:42] Dr. Rowena’s advice for people staying at roles that aren’t right for them but don’t want to make a move
[18:40] Dr. Rowena’s plan to get out of academia
[24:39] How Dr. Rowena knew that Marketing Communications was the field that she needed to move to once she left academia 
[26:09] Resigning from academia and what her superior and co-workers thought of her making this move 
[27:37] Asian parenting dynamic affecting career choices 
[33:27] What Dr. Rowena is doing now in her career 
[35:53] One career lesson that Dr. Rowena can share to help people take action today to start getting what they want in their career and life 
[38:06] Contacting Dr. Rowena
[38:43] Outro
 
RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS
Dr. Rowena Winkler Website
Chan With A Plan
Chan With A Plan Facebook Group

How to deal with rejection in the job search

EPISODE SUMMARY
Max discusses how you should deal with rejection in the job search in order to push forward and keep applying to land your dream job. Based on this past week's episode with Stephanie Su on how to land a coveted software engineering job at Meta. 
TIMESTAMPS
[1:58] The mindset shift you need to make to effectively deal with rejection in the job search
RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS
Chan With A Plan
Chan With A Plan Facebook Group