128: Figuring Out What REALLY Fits with Eric Murphy

Introduction 00:00
Hey, this Happen To Your Career Episode 128, figuring out what really fits.

Eric Murphy 00:07
The company I was working at, I was making a decent amount of money, but I also worked at fossil fuel company. And I care a lot about climate change. So that was a challenge for me. And I wasn't exactly the best fit. So I was looking for a career where I would be a better fit, and also be able to achieve my goal of effective altruism.

Introduction 00:33
Hey HTYCers, if you've been struggling to figure out work that fits you then join our eight day free mini course, all you have to do is text HTYC to 38470. That's HTYC to 38470 or simply visit, figureitout.co that's figureitout.co. See you there.

Scott Anthony Barlow 01:03
This is Happen To Your Career, we help you stop doing work that doesn't fit you, figure out what does and then make it happen. Whether you're looking to do your own thing, or find your dream job, you've come to the right place. I'm Scott Barlow.

Scott Anthony Barlow 01:21
This is Scott Barlow, and you are listening to Happen To Your Career. This is the show that helps you figure out what work fits you by exploring other stories. Now we get to bring on experts, like, Mike Vardy, who's a productivity guru, or people who have really amazing stories like Jerrad Shivers, who designed the career in life he wanted, and then went after it, and got it all well, being able to move from one town to another. And then people just like you that have gone from where they are to what they really want to be doing, and the people just like our next guest, and I can't wait for you to hear my conversation between myself and Eric. Because if you want an inside look at how the HTYC process really works. When we work with our clients, and when we work with our students, well, this is gonna be a good one for you here. And also, you're gonna find out just how far a 15 minute phone call can take you in landing the job that you want. It's pretty far and we'll tell you how. And then also, the old dating and career analogy makes a return. Yes, it's made a guest appearance on the show several times, because there's so many similarities between dating and your career, and you're going to find out what they are. Now, let me introduce you to a guy who I'm proud to call my friend who's done just an absolutely amazing job, not only with the job search and career search process, but really identifying what actually mattered to him, and then taking his life into his own hands and taking control of his journey, which is not so coincidentally what we talk about here on the Happen To Your Career podcast. So you're gonna find that he got into a job that at first was a great thing for him, and then slowly realized that his values had absolutely changed. And then well, as his values changed, he realized that he wanted something more, wanted something different, and wanted to be doing something else with a different company that really lined up with well, quite frankly, in environment and work that he loved. So you're going to hear him take you through step by step exactly what he did, and more importantly, why he did it. Here's a really, really, really compelling look into the life of Eric Murphy.

Scott Anthony Barlow 03:54
Eric, I'm way excited. And we were talking about this before we hit the record button. But I've been wanting to have you on the show for a while now. I don't think I told that to you but I'm really excited to be able to have conversation in this type of format. Because over the last number of months, you've done some pretty amazing things. And I want to be able to, not only talk to you about that, get into your story and what you've done, but at the same time, help other people understand what you've done and your story and how you actually did it. I guess it's probably an easy way. So welcome to Happen To Your Career.

Eric Murphy 04:31
Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here too.

Scott Anthony Barlow 04:34
Very cool. Well, you are, I would say a pretty interesting person by a lot of different standards. But particularly to me, you've got a very eclectic set of interests. And well, let's start with a little bit about your background. So you are first of all, an avid 49ers fan, and we almost couldn't be friends because of that, but...

Eric Murphy 05:06
I mean, at this point for 49ers, Seahawks rivalry isn't much of a rivalry anymore. I feel like you guys just feel bad for us.

Scott Anthony Barlow 05:17
This is true.

Eric Murphy 05:18
I figure that makes it easier.

Scott Anthony Barlow 05:21
Yeah, it does for me.

Eric Murphy 05:24
It doesn't for me.

Scott Anthony Barlow 05:27
That's fair. We've been working together and talking for a little while now. So I've gotten to know you over the last few months here. And when we started working together, you know, you came to us for a reason. What was that reason? What were you interested in?

Eric Murphy 05:53
I guess the more people will get to know me as, I think about stuff like a lot. A very existential, philosophical, thoughtful dude. And sometimes maybe to fall, but it's also what I guess drives me and I started this job, and it was about two years in and I realized that was very good job, or it was good job with good people, it didn't fit my values. So the reason why I live is to, it sounds cheesy and corny, but is basically to make the world a better place. And I have found, I saw this video about this thing called effective altruism about two years ago, that kind of changed my life and changed the way that I look at things. And it's basically how to effectively make the world a better place. And how a lot of people do that is by using their career capital to give to effective charities. And the company I was working at, I was making a decent amount of money, but I also worked at fossil fuel company. And I care a lot about climate change. So that was a challenge for me. And I wasn't exactly the best fit. So I was looking for a career where I would be a better fit, and also be able to achieve my goal of effective altruism. So that's why I came to you. It was to find a career that fit my values and had a work culture that also fit those values, but to where I could pursue my personal goals of making enough money to get to charities, basically.

Scott Anthony Barlow 07:55
That has fascinated me as we've gotten to have conversations, over the last few months here and from everything that I know about you, it was kind of a, I'm gonna use the word juxtaposition, mostly just because I want to use the word juxtaposition.

Eric Murphy 08:13
It's a good word to use.

Scott Anthony Barlow 08:15
But it really kind of described your situation a little bit in that, like you're there, you're earning good money, you're making decent living and you've got friends and all this other stuff that is really, really good. But at the same time, it's like pulling at who you are because, you know, you have this passion for renewable energy, you have passion to, as you said, change the world. And I've seen you make good on that with how you act and how you behave and how you, you know, spend your money and all kinds of things along those lines. So I believe that you walk the walk when you say that or walk the talk or what however you describe that pick your cliche, right?

Eric Murphy 08:57
I do the best I can. Nobody's perfect, obviously. But what I found at my current job that's about to switch over to a new job was, it just wasn't sustainable. Because there's a, I don't know the exact statistic, but I've heard, it makes sense, just add... just beat up my old personal experience that, people that are altruistic to the point of self sacrifice to the point where they just give and give and give would not thinking about themselves in compared to someone who gives altruistically, but still focuses on what they need. The second person that focuses on themselves as well as other people gives in every... gives better in every measurable metric. So what I found at my other job was, it just wasn't sustainable. And it just wasn't a good fit, and it wasn't gonna work out too much longer. So a change had to be made.

Scott Anthony Barlow 10:13
So let's jump to the end here, for a second, you've just recently, really recently accepted a new position.

Eric Murphy 10:26
Yes.

Scott Anthony Barlow 10:27
Tell us a little bit about what that is, and what you get to do. And how you feel about that?

Eric Murphy 10:34
Well, I guess I'll start with the last question, how I feel about it. I feel super excited. There's a little bit of nervous mainly because I'm moving to a new city. And I think everything and probably because I also re-think things a lot. But it's awesome, I'm very excited to go, get this new job there. What they do is they pretty much are experts in building code, fire code, structural code. And essentially what they do every single day is review plans. And basically make sure that buildings comply to code, which... what that translates to me is making sure that buildings are safe, which is very, very fulfilling to me. And the company culture is, I got to go out there for three days to meet everybody and meet the owner.

Scott Anthony Barlow 11:39
And they company out there and...

Eric Murphy 11:41
Yeah, the company culture was like nothing I've ever experienced. And that was one of the main things that really told me about this job. In addition to that, the mentorship that I'm going to get from my future co workers and the owner of this company is second to none, I'm going to learn so much and be able to have so many skills that are going to basically make me much more marketable in the future. And it's definitely an awesome company and a company that I have, honestly, right now I have intentions to spend my career at. So that's a very exciting, very awesome thing. I get to live the companies in the Bay Area. And so I get to live in a place I've always want to live, like you said, before the ocean, sort of Golden State Warriors, and I'm a little bit more excited about them right now. But yeah, I'm excited to live... the company is a very good fit for me, and specifically the people at this company are kind of support me to grow into the person that I want to become, which is awesome.

Scott Anthony Barlow 11:59
Okay, so I don't know how it seems to you. But I'm looking at this just as a whole entire situation. So you're in a job that really didn't line up with a lot of your values. Maybe you thought it did when you originally joined and everything along those lines. But as you got more information, went over time realize that there was a disconnect there. And then...

Eric Murphy 13:27
I would correct that just a little bit. So it lined up with my values when I first signed up for a job, but unfortunately, I got this job right out of college. And I changed a lot from when I graduated college to now. So my values changed. Not that it's a bad thing to want to go to work and provide for family. It's not a bad thing whatsoever. But for me, I wanted to work in your career intentionally that, like I said, my goals and my dreams was to make my small impact on the world. And once my values changed, that's when this job didn't line up my values anymore.

Scott Anthony Barlow 14:20
So that's a really good distinction, though, I think, because that's what happens for people. I mean, and that's truly even a better way to say it. And I think a more accurate way to say it, because as you go through life, like everybody has stuff that causes them to change slightly and value stuff more like one thing versus another. I mean, that happened for me, we had little kids, and all of a sudden, guess what, I valued completely different things that I did before Alyssa and I had kids. So yeah, and I think that's truly what happens, it's a little bit of a moving target too in terms of what you learn about and what you value. And as you learn about yourself, and as you learn about all those other things that go along with it. So great distinction. So you're there, you realize that your values have shifted the company no longer aligns. And then now, you want to go to something that's completely different. And you and I talked about from the beginning, you wanted to go to very likely a different city, completely, and even different state. And then, now you've actually... you've done that, you've been able to make that transition completely different city, completely different state. And I would say just knowing a little bit behind the scenes that it hasn't necessarily been easy.

Eric Murphy 15:42
No.

Scott Anthony Barlow 15:45
Fair to say, right?

Eric Murphy 15:46
Yeah. It's very fair to say.

Scott Anthony Barlow 15:49
No, I was just gonna say... so where did that start for you like when you started thinking about this and when you started, we started working together, and you began making this transition, how were you thinking about what this transition would look like?

Eric Murphy 16:05
So one, this for me this transition it's been like, it's, I think, about a year and a half in the making. And you didn't come into the picture until probably halfway into that. Which I think you were the final, once I enlisted your services, you're the final push to actually make it happen. So thank you for that.

Scott Anthony Barlow 16:40
Yeah, absolutely.

Eric Murphy 16:42
Yeah. But it was about a year and a half ago. The one challenge that I had was... the job that I had was a very good job, as you know, my parents would define a good job.

Scott Anthony Barlow 17:04
What do you mean by that? I'm so curious.

Eric Murphy 17:06
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. What I mean by that is, it was super stable. And it was even though it wasn't like, as I said earlier, it wasn't sustainable. It was not something that I should give up lightly. It actually gave me the advantage of really thinking about where I was going to go to for my next career, which, to be honest, I think that was my first mistake in going into this career in the first place. One thing I learned from you, Scott, is not every... most jobs aren't going to be a good fit. Like you have to pursue and look for the best job, that's a best fit for you and that just take something that's "a good job" becaus yeah, that, otherwise, you're going to spend several hours a day working at something that isn't optimal for you. So yeah, it was a very, very long process and a lot of work. One of the biggest challenges that you remember is, my old job was very, very demanding, and the type of job search that was required to find a really good job, that took a lot of work. So it was like having two jobs. There's, I remember, I distinctly remember days where I called you, I was like, "dude, I just worked a 13 hour a day". Like, crazy stressful 13 hour day, and I'm just burnt out. And that was my normal job, not even the actual job search.

Scott Anthony Barlow 18:51
Yeah, and that was interesting in itself, because I remember talking to you at the beginning and you're like, no, you don't understand, I am working a lot. Like, "okay, all right. What does that look like? Can you describe it to me?" It's like, well, "I'm going in at this time and I'm pretty much solid straight through" and that's one of the things that we ended up talking about too is like, where is the time going to be coming from in order to actually make that happen? And then, how do you focus on the most important things, versus just anything in order to make the job change and make it in a very effective way? And I think you did a really, really nice job about that. So, but it was a progression over time. So where did that start for you? And how did you feel about the process as you jumped into it with really, really limited time? And then how did that progress for you as you went along?

Eric Murphy 19:49
I think the biggest thing, I think you probably agree with me on this was just practice, because the reality is, things didn't go perfect every single week. And they're, what we did for our job search was, it was a lot of work and there certain weeks, I think the progression came from getting better at that job search from doing it every single week, and learning how to prioritize... prioritizing is huge. Basically learning every single week, what works most effectively, and then focusing most of my limited time on what worked. And every single week, it kind of progressed, so more efficient, better. And it eventually started coming into getting opportunities like offers. And yeah, it was, it didn't, I guess, I would describe it as it wasn't like instant gratification, because the type of job search that we did, which is it's how it has to work was, you put in a lot of work on the front end, and the better opportunities come up on the back end, it wasn't like you put in an application and you get a call two weeks later, it was you put a lot, you lay the groundwork, you lay the foundation, and then things start coming, opportunities start coming on the back end. And yeah, I think the progression came in is basically learning how to lay that foundation more efficiently, and learning how to basically subtract everything that wasn't working.

Scott Anthony Barlow 21:36
Let me cut back in here for a second. I want you to meet Tracy.

Tracy 21:40
I'm Tracy and I'm from San Diego. I am a microbiology lab supervisor at a medical device diagnostics company here in town.

Scott Anthony Barlow 21:47
Before Tracy found our eight-day figured out course, here's what life was like for her.

Tracy 21:52
I was drowning in debt, and seriously struggling to find a way out of it. I've got student loans from the late 90s that I'm trying to pay down as well as a car loan.

Scott Anthony Barlow 22:03
Okay, now you might be thinking, what does that have to do with Tracy's career? And what does any of this have to do with this eight-day figured out course.

Tracy 22:11
And this course really helped me to gain a lot of clarity around what was important to me, and helped me to see possibilities beyond my current situation. So with that, I've actually started a small virtual assistant business on the side, and I have been able to seriously accelerate my debt repayment plan, I will be a completely debt free in just over two years from now.

Scott Anthony Barlow 22:32
Wow. Congratulations, Tracy. We love hearing stories just like that one. Now, if you want that type of clarity, that can help you move forward in your life, here's what you can do, just text HTYC to 38470, HTYC to 38470 or just visit, figureitout.co. That's figureitout.co.

Scott Anthony Barlow 22:56
Well, in for you too, I think the foundation really started with being very, very clear about what you want, because we did a lot of work upfront. And you did a lot of work, I guess I should say, upfront to be able to really understand very clearly, hey, what's in that great fit type category and what's not in that great fit type category. And I think the reality like for me looking at you and how you progressed, you probably could have gotten the job in like three weeks. But it wouldn't have been close at all to what you wanted, and what what you figured out for yourself about what you wanted. So help people understand a little bit about what that process was like for you in defining what it was that you wanted, especially as you had kind of these relevations about what you valued and how you evaluate spending your time and all that stuff got meshed together?

Eric Murphy 23:55
Definitely. So, one, first off how Scott's career coaching works is, very first thing he does is establishes what your strengths are and things like, so what your strengths are is basically obviously things you're naturally good at, that is applied to the word strength. But also, I think, tell me if you disagree with me, but I think things that you're passionate about also aligned into strengths. That is basically, what Scott basically does is, he tries to... he puts you through all these Strengths Finder tests, or I shouldn't say he because it's more than just Happen To Your Career, more than just Scott. But they put you through these strength finding tests. And what they're doing is trying to identify a career that you will excel most in. So something that is naturally good for you. So when you get into this career, you flourish as opposed to working against something, working against your weaknesses, I guess. So that's the first step that we identified. And we kind of develop the picture of the type of career that I want to go after. And another thing, tell me if you disagree with this, some I learned for myself as we're going through pursuing a career, at first we had a very defined I want to go after this, I had a very defined I want to become a solar engineer. But then I learned even though, solar is awesome, I learned that it's the analogy I use is like how I date people is, I like to have... I like to focus on, like important things, but still keep it broad like, I like to, if I'm going on out on a date with a girl I like to have, she has to be a very good person, that challenges me to be a better person. Like that's a very important relationship quality for me. I don't like that things like, she doesn't like the 49ers, we decide it's not gonna work. If you have a point where I would say like pointless dating standards like that, but the thing that I fear about having standards like that is essentially, I'll get to miss out on some, I'll probably miss out on some really awesome, non 49ers fans, who can be a great person to date. And the same thing with a job. Like, I think I learned to focus on what is really, really important in job fit, but then be kind of open minded about the things that are super important. One of the challenges is finding exactly what those important things are, which Scott helps a ton out with. And I think that was the first stage of my career.

Scott Anthony Barlow 27:07
So what were those most important things for you, Eric?

Eric Murphy 27:10
So eventually, I developed the top three. And one is, a job that fits my values. So day to day is very important for me to work in a job where I felt like the work I was doing was contributing to my community, was making the world a better place. And my new job that it does that, it definitely fulfills that for me, just talking over with them and basically looking at they... when I was with the job, they're showing me examples of... one of the things they really clicked for me was they're showing me this community in the bay area where there's an explosion that caught... that basically caught fire to some houses. And because in San Francisco, a lot of this particular community, the houses were very, very close together, which is not the fire code. Which one of these houses were built fire code was probably not even...

Scott Anthony Barlow 28:20
Fire code. What?

Eric Murphy 28:21
Yeah, probably wasn't even in existence at that time. But because they're so close together, a couple houses caught fire, and it went from one house to the next, let's spread like crazy, which made it much more difficult for the firefighters to fight this fire off. And it also cause much more damage and probably killed more people because of it. So knowing that my job has a direct influence on things like that, is very fulfilling to me. And I feel like it's very contributing to the community. So one job that fits my values. Two, a job that is life sustaining. And that's a very broad category for me. So let me define it a little bit. So life sustaining. Part of it is to, one, make sure that I'm not starving to death. And, but also doing the things that I want to do with my life. Doing things like effective altruism, doing... it enables me to live the life that I want to live and...

Scott Anthony Barlow 29:33
Learn at the same time. You also like to go to concerts and you've got a thing for vinyl and...

Eric Murphy 29:40
Yeah, love music, all those things. So it's, yeah, it's basically a job that enables me to live the life that I want to live. And it's, I think that this particular one that's always evolving for me because there's, like, that can't be perfect, because if I had 100% the life that I want to live, I'd be like, I'll work 10 hours a week, just and make a million dollars. Like, you have to be realistic with it and make basically prioritize things and make sacrifices of the things that are less important. So, that's number two. Would you say that's pretty clear?

Scott Anthony Barlow 30:28
Yeah. And I would say too that, like, whatever your, I mean, your ideal lifestyle is gonna be different than Eric's here, but whatever it is, it becomes a progression too, and, you know, if you want to work 10 hours a week, and you want to make, you know, $1.7 million a year, there are ways to do that. And lining that up with your other values and things along those lines. Like that is a possibility. It may not happen in five months necessarily. But you know, if that's what you're after, like there are certainly ways to make that happen.

Eric Murphy 31:08
Good caveat. As another thing with Scott teaches you, is how to think, how the possibilities are endless. Yeah, that really teaches you to think that way, which I'm still working on.

Scott Anthony Barlow 31:25
No worries, man, like what you have already done is downright amazing. And so these two categories, like far and away, compared to most of the planet, I would say, you know, this is far more intentional than what most people are looking at their career. So I'm curious, what the third one is for you? And help everybody understand that.

Eric Murphy 31:49
Number three, for me is a word culture. And specifically for my... and I know, this isn't for everybody, but my band is definitely a progressive type, word culture. And my current job, it's a, the word culture, on a scale of one to 10, that my current job is, it looks to me like it's going to be like an 11. They flew me out there for three days to basically check it out. And I mean, I honestly didn't even know that companies like this existed. I was very, very, very impressed.

Scott Anthony Barlow 32:29
Well we had that conversation, too. Right? Like, okay, so if you say that, you know, these types of things are out there, then I guess I'll trust you.

Eric Murphy 32:40
And, lo and behold, it came to be true. So the biggest thing about... So when I say progressive company culture, I think what I mean by that is thinking about things that not having, like, company norms for no reason, I guess. So like, it was just me personally, it may fit different for other people, but not having to wear a suit and tie to work. Just cuz you're supposed to wear a suit and tie to work or, you know, basically, like work cultures that are... I would define a progressive work culture as employee centered work culture, like a word, management has a mentality that it's management's duty to make employees wanna stay. And I know that's a heavy burden to put on management. But when management has that mentality, it makes companies a great place to work at as opposed to companies where management says, your duty is to serve us. If that makes sense.

Scott Anthony Barlow 34:01
Yeah, totally. And I mean, it's kind of the only thing, right, really, when you get down to it. But sadly, so few companies actually do that, too. But it's almost like a good example is like, health care, the customer service in health care, like when you go to the doctor, or something along those lines is horrific. Like they treat you like you have to be there. And you have to tolerate it and everything like that. And you kind of do because there's not too many alternatives out there to some degree. But it's kind of the same thing in the average company, average Corporation, they look at it like they're doing you a favor or something for giving you this job. And it really doesn't have to be that way. And then more and more and more too, the progression is heading the other way, like the company that you've just joined, where they look at it as, hey, look, it's our responsibility to make sure that you're set up for success that you're happy, that you're having a good time here, that you're got what you need to be able to serve the company well.

Eric Murphy 35:07
Yeah, I kind of want to talk about how this my new company, how that... what I just described specifically looks for them. I think it starts at the top down. So I've heard a lot of, so I've met pretty much all my co workers when they flew me out there. First of all, just the idea that after I interviewed with them, they flew me out for three days. Basically to see if I liked it. And they're also, that's not completely it, they're also seeing if I would be a good fit for the organization as well, because part of their business structure is they, the number one thing that they look for in hiring people is good people, people that would be a fit in this culture, it's a very family type of atmosphere. I've heard a lot of co workers describe the owner who works very, very closely with everybody, as a matter of fact, all the engineers, all the people there were doing work, they get training, specifically from the owner, which is awesome. But he's, I've heard a lot of people say that he never had kids. So all of the workers at the company, I'm gonna work at, are basically like his children. And just from talking with him, even the offer process, the negotiation process, all those things, like he used very caring, he's very much... first thing he said, like, "Eric, you have to make this decision for you. Like you don't worry about us, we'll be okay, you have to make sure you're happy with this." And that mentality, it just rang through this company that they care about you, they care about the employees, and they care about the work atmosphere being like a family, and that of course, I know, going in, that doesn't mean, I'm gonna be able, "hey, guys, I know you really care about me. So I don't have to do a lot of work" like that. No, I know, it's not like that. I know, it's gonna be, I want to be a part of this family. And I gotta pitch in and bust my butt to make this company that I love, be great. Let's put in the work and have to grind. And I like it like that. I think it's... we all have this goal. And we're pursuing it all together. And that's, I'm really ecstatic about that work culture that I'm about to be a part of.

Scott Anthony Barlow 37:56
That's really cool. And knowing you, I don't think you would have it any other way.

Eric Murphy 38:02
Right. Another thing, so I've talked about this a lot. But another thing I want to touch on that I noticed is, it's not competitive there at all. And that's crazy to me. It's not like the other people there are like trying to best the other employees to make sure you get that promotion. There's not a mentality of that. It's that we're all in this together. We're all going to focus on what our strengths are, and contribute to this cup of coffee in our own way. It's not about besting the other person. It's working on team, pushing this company forward, which is awesome.

Scott Anthony Barlow 38:48
That's really, really cool. And I want to ask you a little bit about, you know, now that you're here, as you're looking back, and you're about to join this company that you're absolutely ecstatic about, what do you think worked the best for you? What were the two or three things for you, that allowed you to get here? Other than, you know, you did a great job upfront, really defining what it was that you wanted in the first place and being open to different types of possibilities that really aligned with those most important things. That we're going to call it that the, Eric Murphy dating theory. But aside from that, like going from point A to point Z, over here, what were the two or three things that you think are most effective, that you would love to pass on to some other people?

Eric Murphy 39:39
So are you talking about specific job search techniques? Are you talking about an overall outlook? Or either one?

Scott Anthony Barlow 39:51
Either one, whatever you think is was most effective for you or combination of.

Eric Murphy 39:55
Are you okay with me sharing some of the secrets?

Scott Anthony Barlow 39:58
Of course, please? Yeah, that's why we do. To share as much as possible.

Eric Murphy 40:03
Okay, yeah, for sure. So one, I guess I'll give one like, one answer. That's like an overall philosophy for job searching. And I think number one thing is being intentional about your job search, not just... I touched on it earlier, but not just taking a job that is, oh, it's a good job. But like being intentional of this whole career thing. I'm gonna spend a lot of time doing it. And it's pretty important with my life. So I need to find a job that really, really fits me. I need to find out what that is. And I need to be intentional with every single one of my moves to make this career happen. So that's number one. Two, the actual, as far as the technique that worked the best and making that happen was basically cold calling a bunch of companies, and essentially saying, hey, I would call them and they're... a lot of companies would have a dial by name directory. And I would find like a director or manager on LinkedIn, and I'll cold call them until they picked up their phone, and basically say, "Hey, my name is Eric, I'm an engineer. And I'm currently wanting to make a job transition into a field like yours. And I was wondering if you had 15 minutes or so to basically give me any advice on how to make that job transition, or any advice on just careers in general. And it doesn't have to be now but we could schedule it." And almost every time, they said, "Yes" and we have this conversation, and after the conversation, I would follow up, I get a lot of very valuable information from them. Now for the conversation, I would follow up and say, "Hey, can I keep your contact and just follow up with you periodically on my journey?" And they pretty much always said, "Yes." And what happened was, I developed a network of people from doing that. And when I would apply for jobs, I had the ability to get my resume out of the stack. And basically towards the top because they knew who I was. And that was probably the most effective technique into making this job transition happen.

Scott Anthony Barlow 42:42
Well, it seemed like doing that, and by the way, it should, just to help everybody, all the HTYCers that will listen to this, realize that, you know, your job search and how you went about this was tailored to your strengths, and also what your situation was, or what you were after. So there's certainly different methods that you can use. And you should use the right ones that are going to be most effective for you. But this one, you know, knowing that you were wanting to move out of city, you wanted to be able to move into a very, very specific set of roles, you didn't have any experience in the industry that you were interested in moving to, you had some non industry experience. So all those odds going against you, you know, this, you ended up using this approach. And I thought it was really, really effective for you, based on who you are too, at the same time. Now, what was really interesting out of that for me is, you accumulated like this massive amount of contact information and people who would pick up your phone call or answer your email or whatever else, right?

Eric Murphy 43:55
Yeah. It's really cool. So many contacts that I would like lose. But yeah, that was very cool. I kind of developed mini network for myself. And it gave me the ability to learn about a lot of companies too. Like I said, I was interested in solar. And what I found was, I found towards the end, which I didn't exactly go into solar, one, was there other companies that fit this sort of that community aspect that wanted a job. But two, even though there were solar companies, they didn't exactly fit what I wanted to do. And they're definitely great solar companies, I'm sure would fit what I wanted to do, but some of them were there a couple of solar companies that were a, you know, it's solar And that's awesome, but it's still pretty much just like a regular job. Which wasn't what I was looking for. And I got to learn that from getting this network and talking to people and making all these contacts. So that was very useful. And that's also how I got the current job that I have.

Scott Anthony Barlow 45:26
So here's another question for you. It's kind of wrapping it up here because, you know, I truly believe that if you wanted to, you could have gone and gotten a job, probably, you know, probably a decent job, probably a good job, what you call it, good job before.

Eric Murphy 45:42
I love the tone how you said that.

Scott Anthony Barlow 45:44
Yeah. You know, you probably could have done that in like four to six weeks-ish, you know, not counting back and forth for offer time and whatever else like probably gotten a job offer too at that time frame, I believe, you know, having worked with you, I believe that you could have done that. This took longer than that. And so looking back, I guess the question would be, was it worth it, taking that type of approach? And if it was for you, and I suspect I know the answer just working with you. But if so, why? Why was that worth it?

Eric Murphy 46:21
So I think I'm gonna look back at this decision and say that this was... one of those decisions, that was like, the best decision of my life, you know, I think this is gonna be one of those pivotal decisions. And there's gonna be a couple like that in my life, like, you know, the girl you marry, or the spouse that you marry. Or, you know, whatever, what have you but I think this decision that I made ever look back and say that, so for something that's that special to me, like, any amount of work is totally worth it. And it wasn't that much worth it, work is a couple months. So a couple months of work for something like that is absolutely 10,000% worth it. And I apologize, but there's a part two to that question that I forgot about them.

Scott Anthony Barlow 47:19
I was just curious as too if, you didn't think it was worth it. And why did you really think that's worth? And you really kind of answered that too. And, you know, it's so... Oh, go ahead.

Eric Murphy 47:35
I remember what I wanted to say too. The reason why I think it was worth it was, because it's such a big thing in your life. Like, where you work, what you do is, it's like, that was some folly that I had right out of college was I had this image of, I just needed a job that where I could support a family and just support my lifestyle. And it doesn't matter what the job is, as long as I'm saying that my job, it's all good. But I learned that holy crap, you spend well over most of your life here, and a lot of your listeners are probably thinking, like...

Scott Anthony Barlow 48:19
Thanks for that, Eric. Awesome.

Eric Murphy 48:21
Yeah, but I wasn't thinking like that going into it. And the reason why it's worth is because it's... your career, such a big thing. It has such a massive impact on your life. So making sure that it's a good fit. A good career is very important.

Scott Anthony Barlow 48:43
Well, sir, I just want to say, very publicly, nicely done, you've done some pretty amazing work here in doing the hard work and figuring out what you really actually wanted, because that's something most people will never do in their lives, and then actually translating that into work that pays for you to go there and have some of those things that are most important to you. So congratulations.

Eric Murphy 49:15
Thank you. And I know, you're probably gonna say I did the work which is true, but I don't think I could have done it without you, my friends. So thank you.

Scott Anthony Barlow 49:25
That means a lot, man. But yeah, absolutely appreciate you.

Eric Murphy 49:29
I want to qualify that and say without you and everyone else at Hapn To Your Career , because, again, it's not just you, there's plenty of people doing a lot of work.

Scott Anthony Barlow 49:39
We've got a lot of people behind the scenes that quite frankly, I wouldn't get to do anything like this, like even have this conversation. If they weren't a part of this, it just it simply wouldn't couldn't happen. So, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for making the time and talking us all through this and this massive transition that you've made, because this is what many people who are listening to this show, really hope to be able to do, make a transition to a new industry, to a new career, many times in, you know, pretty challenging circumstances, like in your case where you made it for the brand new city, brand new area, and a lot of people look at that and think, "hey, it's not going to be possible." And you're proof that, hey, it's not only possible, but you can actually do it systematically, which is what you've done. So way to go.

Eric Murphy 50:33
Yeah, it was a lot of fun, and this conversation was a lot of fun. So thank you.

Scott Anthony Barlow 50:46
So if you want to do some of the same things that he did, here's what I would suggest, I would suggest that you get started by by our eight day free mini course and determine, hey, you know, do you even want to move down the path of really figuring out what... and being intentional about what you want to do in your life. And that'll give you a taste of that. So take that first step and go over to figureitout.co that's figureitout.co or you can text HTYC to 38470, and we'll get you started. So, that's not all though, because I want you to hear what's coming up next week on the Happen To Your Career podcast.

51:28
You know, somebody who's stuck in a job ,who just feels like they're meant for something greater, they've always believed it, that seed has been planted within them, and now they're itching to get out. It's like, if they don't do this, they know they're gonna regret it for the rest of their life ,if they don't take that leap of faith and move forward. So they're at that point where they're having that awakening, and now they're seeking to really feed that.

Scott Anthony Barlow 51:50
We'll, see you then. Thanks so much for taking the time, making the time and listening to our show. I sincerely appreciate it because I know your time is valuable. And I enjoy you spending it with us. All right. We'll see you next time. Adios. I'm out.