“Your work is most enjoyable when it’s an expression of your own creativity. Take what you like most about your work and put your personal touch on it.”   Connie Garcin

When Connie Garcin was a management trainee with Smith Transportation Company, she heard that there was a position available as a safety director. Although she had virtually no qualifications for it, she thought it might be interesting, so she took it on the condition that if she wasn’t doing it well in sixty days, she would return to her previous job.

Fortified with her journalism background, she began asking questions about safety of everyone she could in the industry. She found out that there were many safety problems. At that time industry injuries were at an all-time high, and so were the freight claims.

Over the next few years Connie educated herself in the industry and its problems. She joined the California Trucking Association, and formulated ideas that might help both Smith Transportation Company and the industry. She looked at the people side of the business, which made it interesting to her. She created programs that saved not just money for the company, but also increased the morale of the employees. That’s how she found out that, as she says, “Your work is most enjoyable when it’s an expression of your own creativity.”

Connie found the joy in her work, as you can, by doing the following:

1.     Look for opportunities within your company. If you are bored at work you may not need to look much beyond your desk. Ask HR if there is something coming up, something that might catch your interest.

2.     Take a risk. If there is a job available that you are not qualified for, but believe you might enjoy ask for it. Like Connie, offer to do it for six months to see if it works out well for both you and the company.

3.     Self educate. Look around for whatever learning opportunities you can find to help broaden your knowledge about your new job position. Join associations where applicable. Get on committees in those associations.

4.     Talk to everyone. Learn from all you can about the job, what people need and want. Generally, people like to help out and will help you learn the questions you need to ask.

5.     Tap into your creativity. Coming into a new position that you may not have training for means that you bring in a fresh approach and perspective. Capitalize on that with new and creative ways of approaching the issues and problems.

6.     Have fun. Notice that the new challenge gets you challenged and revved up. There’s a great deal of joy in learning and performing something new. Have fun with it.