#17. Career Advice.
A few weeks ago I was speaking with other students who are currently graduating. The underlying theme I detected was anxiety about the future – moving cities, securing a job, and settling into adult life, in the midst of uncertainty caused by the pandemic. This reminded me of an article I wrote in 2018; In Pursuit of Why. This was about my own experience, after graduating from my undergraduate degree, in the midst of the global financial crises. Interestingly, the lessons proposed then are still valid today.
Today I would be republishing this article, with an updated section.
This article is for anyone graduating, in the early stages of career, or making a transition. I hope this helps.
Here goes.
IN PURSUIT OF WHY
It’s a great feeling, when you are at university. You are progressing year on year, engaging in sports and all things social, and then you graduate, and life hits you in the face.
The obvious next step is to find a job. Simple enough right? Think again. You apply for different jobs and you are rejected, again and again. At some point you will settle for anything. Anything that pays the bills, and helps you save face.
Eventually you’ll get a job, go to work each day, do whatever is expected from 9 to 5, come back home, and the next day, repeat. Soon, its just about the next pay check, and it hits you
Is this it?
Why am I here?
Where is this going?
In Nigeria, we treasure education and any training where we receive a certificate at the end. A certificate that can be used to secure a better opportunity in the future e.g. a job. Most of us (millennial) were encouraged to study Engineering and Law, so, one day we can return and work in a well-paid role in the thriving oil and gas industry.
Makes sense, right? So I did just that. Speedily after graduation, I returned to Nigeria to ride the wave to oil riches. Guess what?
No Jobs!
Huh?!?
Something about the global oil price being too low to justify oil production. No production meant no projects. No projects meant no jobs and no oil riches.
Great!
At this point It appeared that all the studying, tutorials, and ‘all nighters’ were for nothing.
I needed to find my WHY, and this is how I did it.
Get Back to the Beginning: when you were a kid, what did you enjoy doing? What did you hate doing? In school, at home and in your free time. Reviewing past experiences to identify the patterns behind your preferences, will go a long way. For me, I enjoyed building things and working with tools: problem solving. I also enjoyed business and sales: entrepreneurship. Surprisingly, my latest roles have involved car manufacturing, jets, and entrepreneurship.
Consider your career Strategically: Once you have found your interest, you need to review YOU like a business: Are there many employers in your chosen role and industry (market size) ? Is there a chance to gain transferable skills (economics of scale/scope)? How do you differentiate yourself from others(unique selling point)?
Get Money: Whilst you are applying for a new job, you still need to pay the bills. Find a side gig that you can do in the meantime, that isn’t too demanding
Meet People: This really should say networking, but I am going for both the formal and informal context. Network with friends, mentors, and those in your chosen field. It begins with a smile, an introduction, and a conversation and may lead to a step in the right direction
Get out of your comfort zone and get some experience: This experience may/may not be relevant to your aspirations, but it keeps you busy, engaged, and motivated.
Let go of your ego and sense of entitlement and thrive on GRUNT Work — So I got this one from “Tools of Titans” by Tim Ferriss. I couldn’t have said it better
I believe school is ultimately important because we learn how to learn, and gain a social network. These are invaluable to adapt in this changing and fast paced world.
Still, it’s perfectly fine not to have figured out your purpose, and it doesn’t make you a failure. You only fail when you give up. So never ever ever ever ever GIVE UP!
Keep calm and keep moving forward.
UPDATE
Last year, Reid Hoffman, the Entrepreneur and Investor (PayPal, LinkedIn, and Greylock Partners), published an excellent commencement speech called “My 2020 Vision for Graduates: How to be Optimistic in Terrible Times.”
I’ll highlight a few sections that are relevant.
When we talk about what happens next, we often frame the conversation in reactive terms. We talk about getting back to work. We talk about a return to normalcy. In my opinion, that’s the wrong orientation. We should be thinking in terms of moving forward.
As the saying goes, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
In the words of Darwin, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It’s the one that is most adaptable to change.”
Lesson 1: Be Adaptable
That is your superpower. You’re young. You haven’t been living your adult life in a specific way for ten, twenty, forty years. And as a person who is most likely in their 20s, you’re at a more adaptive point in your life than those who are both younger and older than you.
Lesson 2: Be Strategic and Intentional
What’s the best move for you right now, given circumstances and opportunities? Instead of sticking with a single vision for your life, be willing to experiment. That doesn’t mean leap before you look, though. Just the opposite. Plan.
Reid’s Story
In 1995, Reid was a project manager at Apple, but got an offer from Fujitsu. Then, Fujitsu was 12 times bigger than Apple. It had more responsibilities and came with a big raise. So, he took the offer.
Despite it being a great opportunity, Reid regards this as his greatest mistake. This is because it stopped him thinking about another option, he was considering at a new startup; Netscape, which would go on to launch the first ever web browser. In the new Internet wave, Netscape was at the heart of the action.
It was the fastest-moving, most innovative company.
It was Reid’s dream to one day create a software product that would improve the lives of millions of people. To achieve this, he thought he needed to get a job at a well-established company.
In retrospect, I really should have been trying to get a job at Netscape. Whatever its title was. Whatever it paid. Because Netscape was where, at the time, there was the greatest concentration of smart people designing the future I knew I wanted to be a part of.
And that meant it was the best place for making high-value connections that could have had a major impact on my overall career arc and professional interests.
Lesson 3: Leverage your Network
Don’t just trust your intuition. Trust your allies too. Don’t just listen to your heart. Listen to your smartest friends. Follow your network.
Think about where your network is strong, and what opportunities that strength creates. And especially now, consider market realities and overall industry and cultural trends.
By anticipating where tomorrow’s best opportunities may arise, you increase your optionality over time and position yourself to pursue productive new career paths. For example, if you were paying close attention to the rise of YouTube in the mid-2000s, you would have understood it wasn't just going to create new jobs for software engineers – but also a much larger number of new jobs in video production, advertising, entertainment, education, and more.
So, what’s the YouTube or the Facebook of 2020? And what’s the new kinds of jobs they'll create? You should be spending serious time investigating these questions. And how do you do that? By cultivating a strong professional network.
Relationships create opportunities
Lesson 4: Leverage Luck
Things change, and they change fast. Much of our lives are determined by timing – and how we respond to both good luck and bad luck. Right now, you’re starting out with a lot of the latter.
Eventually, something new like the Internet will come along. If you invest in strengthening your network, you'll have a better chance of spotting it when it does. You'll be better positioned to take advantage of the opportunities it creates.
MY COMMENTS
In hindsight, my 2018 article was prophetic. By identifying my preference and interest, and the market realities (in Nigeria at the time), I was able to strategically evaluate my career options.
It enabled me to defer a great job offer to pursue entrepreneurship. A risky decision at the time.
But pursuing entrepreneurship enabled me gain valuable experience. From building a product, to selling it to customers, and growing a company. I was able to build my professional network, which led to other opportunities down the road. Through my network, I was interviewed on CNBC Africa, and received other job offers.
By showing up and getting out of my comfort zone, I gained confidence in myself, which I can apply throughout my career.
Regarding luck, I once read an excellent book called Great by Choice by Jim Collins. He showed that what separated great companies from their counterparts is not luck per se but what they did with the luck they got – Return on Luck.
We all get bad luck. The question is how to use that bad luck to make us stronger, to turn it into “one of the best things that ever happened,” to not let it become a psychological prison.
Graduating, working, or studying during this pandemic can feel unlucky. But how can you use it to make you better. For me, it has enabled me to build the habit of writing this newsletter every week.
SUMMARY
Lesson 1 - Get Back to the Beginning: Identify your interest and preference
Lesson 2 - Be Adaptable: Consider market realities and overall trends
Lesson 3 – Be Strategic and Intentional
Lesson 4 – Leverage your Network
Lesson 5 – Get out of your comfort zone and get some experience: This would require you let go of your ego, but would result in income, experience, and new networks
Lesson 6 – Leverage Luck
Keep calm and keep moving forward.
Good luck.
Nero.
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