750. Expert Interview: How to Take Ownership of Your Career

Ross Wehner

“I still felt like I was at a company that I really didn’t align with. It is an enormous company with more than 300 thousand employees and it is easy to be a cog in the machine rather than a key influencer. You are always on the clock and there’s a lot I am willing to contribute to my life and career, but I did not want to give it all for just this company. I knew I needed to find a different fit for me, for the work/life balance I was looking for.”

Ross Wehner is an internationally featured career performance coach and speaker who changed careers to live his purpose, pursue greatness, and improve his own well-being. He is a former engineer and Fortune 100 recruiter who now fulfills his purpose by empowering individuals to accelerate their career growth, magnify their impact, and discover meaningful work that they love. Ross brings out the best in his clients by relighting their fires, aligning their work with their values, and equipping each of them to reach their full potential.

How to Take Ownership of Your Career

“I was enrolled in a co-op program at Purdue University—one semester I would take classes full-time towards my mechanical engineering degree and the next I would be working full time at General Electric while taking a few online courses. When I started my career at GE I worked as an engineer and also a recruiter bringing in new talent for leadership programs that GE offered. I worked with countless students through this process and was able to quickly see the patterns of behaviors that make some candidates successful and others not.”

Why Is This Important?

“Technology is wonderful in so many ways, but it is so ingrained in our lives that we are constantly battling to stay connected to ourselves, for our own headspace. There are few places in our schooling or in the organizations we work in where we are given the resources or are encouraged to look within ourselves to ask some of the deeper questions about who you are, what your skills are, what motivates you, what your dreams are…and more.”

What Are the Key Lessons Learned Here?

“It is obvious but key that you need to know your destination. Define what your career goals are, in detail and across the key dimensions of your career and your life as a whole, whether it is relationships, health and fitness, financial, retirement or myriad other aspects of you. As you grow and change, unless you have a continual finger on the pulse of your goals, they may not be right for you once you have achieved them.”