Next Move, Best Move

Chapter 2Taking Stock of Your Experiences

Career Affirmation: My past experiences support my next, best move.

After college, I was convinced that my career would look like Shanté Smith's in the film Two Can Play That Game (2001). I remembered Shanté's character as a high‐powered executive who was confident, bold, and in control of her career. In the film's opening scene, wearing a yellow power suit, she was in her office that overlooked the city. It looked like that traditional corner office on the top floor of a corporate building that signaled to everyone in the room that “she made it.”

Rather than get caught up in the relationship drama of the movie's plot, I paid attention to the snippets when she was coming to and from work, interacting with her assistant who kept her on schedule every day or speaking about the high‐profile projects she was working on and how she had a tight deadline. In the film, Shanté's rival, Conny Spalding, was also a high‐powered executive in the advertising space. To this day, I remember the scene when Conny, wearing a red power suit, walked up to Shanté's boyfriend's job for a meeting right after Shanté had left his office. Conny tossed her high ponytail over her shoulder and sashayed into his office building. In my mind, I imagined another scene before this red‐power‐suit scene, and that scene would have gone something like this:

Conny would have left her corner office on the executive leadership floor of the building in a midtown location in ...