How to Host a Career Shower to Celebrate Career Milestones and Accomplishments

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In 2003, the single and childfree Carrie Bradshaw grew tired of the number of baby and bridal shower gifts she had to buy. The Sex and the City character | SUCCESS

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People celebrating over a glass of champagne

In 2003, the single and childfree Carrie Bradshaw grew tired of the number of baby and bridal shower gifts she had to buy. The Sex and the City character caused a stir when she created a registry to celebrate herself. She questioned why babies and weddings seemed to be the only adult milestones worth celebrating. The premise was groundbreaking at the time. Nevertheless, not much changed in the years following the episode.

However, more than two decades later, a new trend for celebrating career milestones is catching on. More people are celebrating professional milestones by having a career shower.

According to Olivia Dreizen Howell, CEO and co-founder of Fresh Starts Registry, “A career shower is powerful because you are worthy of being celebrated for your accomplishments, not just having babies and getting married. Professional accomplishments are the illustration of all of the hard work you’ve done to get where you are and are worth celebrating.” Amy Chan, an entrepreneur and author of Breakup Bootcamp, agrees. “We need to broaden our perspective on what is worth celebrating,” she says.

Kellie Gerardi, an astronaut, author and popular science communicator, comes from a family that embraces a “celebrate all the things” approach to important life milestones. While her family marks pregnancies and upcoming weddings “with so much love,” they “bring the same energy and enthusiasm to professional achievements, too,” Gerardi says.

Her family coined the term “career shower” to mark professional achievements because these celebrations are similar to baby or bridal showers in many respects. In Gerardi’s family, career showers involve “friends and family coming together to show their support and celebration in honor of a major life event,” she explains. For example, when Gerardi’s mother became a master gardener Gerardi helped throw a garden shower to celebrate. When Gerardi found out she would be going to space for the first time, her family threw her a space shower to mark the milestone. When Gerardi announced her second space flight, her friends and family hosted a space sprinkle, which she describes as an intimate brunch with homemade decorations and space-themed cookies with meaningful phrases.

Gerardi’s family has been throwing career showers for as long as she can remember, and she is proud to continue the family tradition of celebrating professional growth milestones. Gerardi loves that her daughter “is growing up seeing that not even the sky is a limit on her dreams and that all of her multitudes are worth celebrating and rallying around.”

Gerardi is not alone. Chan has hosted five career showers for friends and has had a career shower of her own. Chan has thrown career showers to help celebrate a stay-at-home mom who returned to the workforce after many years, a friend who left a toxic job to start her own business and a friend who got a sought-after promotion after years of hard work. Recently, one of Chan’s friends threw her a career shower to celebrate the launch of her second book.

Although Chan believes that weddings and having children are “wonderful occasions,” she says “they’re not the only moments in life that deserve recognition and celebration.” Chan believes that career showers are particularly important for women who choose to remain child-free or opt not to marry. Like Carrie Bradshaw, “they often find themselves consistently buying gifts and celebrating others’ milestones,” while their life milestones may be ignored, she says. “Getting a dream job, getting a killer promotion, starting a business, hitting a huge career or work milestone, or a great achievement like publishing a book,” all deserve to be celebrated Chan says.

When Chan hosts career showers she invites those who have been supportive of the guest of honor’s career journey. She prepares discussion prompts designed to “share and exchange wisdom, offer support and explore how we help each other grow,” she says. She might ask guests “What’s a lesson you learned in your career that’s helped you grow?” or “What advice would you give your younger self about money, business or career?” She ends by requesting that each guest share an “ask,” which is “one thing they’re looking for to help them in their career, whether it’s a connection, advice or support,” she says. That way, everyone leaves with new wisdom and guidance that can help them reach their career goals.

Howell recommends using a career shower as an opportunity to create a vision board for the guest of honor. “Or tell everyone to bring their favorite motivational phrase and create a journal,” so the person you are celebrating “can look back on the support they are getting on rough days,” she says.

Julie Neale can attest to the value of such creations. The founder of Mother’s Quest threw herself a career shower when her company turned five. At Neale’s career shower, one of her friends created a collage “capturing all the wonderful stories and messages,” guests shared about how Mother’s Quest impacted their lives. “I still have that framed and where I can see it every day,” she says.

Although not all career showers involve gifts, some do. Gerardi says that “the sentiment matters so much more than the budget.” At her mother’s garden shower, Gerardi gave her a flower press kit and a cookbook called Eat Your Flowers by Loria Stern. At her space shower, Gerardi got a one-handed stopwatch to use during flight training.

Howell is seeing an uptick in registries for career showers. She is excited to watch this development grow. “So much of our life is entwined with our work and career, so having a career shower is a fantastic way to celebrate your fresh start in your career,” including with items that can support the guest of honor’s new venture, she adds. She has observed that registries for career showers tend to focus on two areas, practical needs and wellness. Those starting a new business or transitioning to working from home might register for items like a stapler, a keyboard, ring lights and lamps, she says. Registries that focus on self-care might include items like heated eye masks or an under-the-desk foot massager.

Just like baby and bridal showers, there is no one right way to plan a career shower. Gerardi recommends that anyone who wants to throw a career shower “just start planning.” She says that “they don’t need a big budget or even a big group. The point is to just celebrate and honor your loved ones for the things they’re most excited about or proud of. It doesn’t need to be elaborate or expensive,” she says.

Neale also recommends inviting people from your community who have “supported and influenced your path,” even if they aren’t close friends that you would normally invite to a baby or bridal shower.

A career shower is a success if “the guests have fun, feel inspired and leave with a sense of community,” Chan says, but there is no one right way to get there.

Photo credit: JLco Julia Amaral/Shutterstock.com

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