World of Podcast: Leveling Up – Blog 2
(651 Words)
In this installment, I want to relay some of the ways that podcasts can help you level up so to speak. Once again I want to express my continued amazement at how underappreciated and underused podcasts are. As a medium for relaying information and imparting knowledge they are truly impressive. There are an endless number of specific skills and knowledge you can learn just by listening to a podcast that teaches those things: however, we can also gain what might be called secondary skills in abundance as well.
SNIPING FOR ACTIVE SKILLS
There is such a large cornucopia of specific skills and knowledge that I will limit myself to some of the knowledge I have personally benefited from. In 2017 while applying for the position of Service Advisor at a car dealership, I realized my lack of experience could be a hindrance. Being the aficionado of podcasts that I am, I quickly found a series of job specific podcasts to immerse myself in. The best of which I found to be Service Drive Revolution with Chris Collins. His podcast “discusses little known service drive secret weapons to help pull your service department ahead of the pack” (Service Drive Revolution, 2020).
All of a sudden I had switched gears to spending any walking or downtime learning what I could about the Service Adviser position. My 35 minute walks to and from work each day, 30 minute lunch breaks, time shopping, doing chores etc were all spend listening and learning. Unfortunately, after making it to the top 2 picks after a selection of over 60 candidates, I didn’t quite make the cut. Thanks to the interviewing panel repeatedly expressing how impressed they were with my knowledge of the position, I knew my efforts hadn’t been in vain.
I am currently undergoing a similar process of leaching knowledge and experience from Drilling related podcasts. Getting familiar with some industry concepts and lexis. Even hearing from industry professionals about what makes apply for drilling jobs different from other industries. I will withhold those particular gems though, no point making things too easy for my competition.
SPRAY AND PRAY FOR PASSIVE SKILLS
Some of the more overlooked benefits to listening to podcasts regularly are the passive skills that we can develop. For instance I can attribute the following skills to my consumption of podcasts:
- Active listening
- Increased focus
- Multitasking
- Critical thinking
- Self motivated
Those without such a carnivorous appetite for podcasts might not see the correlation to these skills, so let me break a couple down.
Active listening: it is easy to listen absentmindedly to music when moving about, but to actively listen and learn to the podcast is in fact not something that came naturally, overtime I have continued to get better at not just ‘hearing’ but ‘actively listening’ to the podcast.
Increased focus: Along the saem lines of actively listening, I have found that over time I have gradually been able to expand the amount of time I can focus on a podcast before getting ‘cast fatigue’. This can vary based on topic, but I can now listen to hours of podcast without getting distracted. Case in point, the epicly long episodes on Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History where 4 hour long episodes are the norm. His podcasts are described as “Passionate without being aggressive, loud but smart, and the trademark fast, staccato vocal delivery that has been compared to William Shatner after too many espressos.” (Carlin, 2020).
Sure as rain, we can all benefit from improving or outright gaining these skills, and for the low-low cost of $0.00 no less. Whether working as a team or independently, anyone with well developed skills from this list will shine far above their colleagues and competitors.
Especially in the drilling industry where safety is of the utmost importance, I am confident that strong listening skills and ability to focus can make people stand out among the herd.
And here’s my name to say so.
D.A. Mills
References
Carlin, D. (2020). Dan Carlin. Retrieved from
Service Drive Revolution. (2020). Service Drive Revolution with Chris Collins. Retrieved from
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/service-drive-revolution-with-chris-collins/id1125522101
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