Just Keep Moving – Lessons Learned on the Job Hunt

“It is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction. “ Pablo Picasso

Tonight, I would like to share some of the things I’ve learned while searching for jobs, and make some friendly recommendations for anyone either in the hunt for, or already in an entry-level position.

I’ve never been one to make New Years Resolutions (can you imagine anything more arbitrary?), but this year I decided to jot down a few regarding my professional development. Here’s a few that made the list:

• Make more mistakes. Fail more often.

You’re either thinking (a) this guy is so full of himself that he doesn’t think he makes mistakes or (b) why the hell would someone want to fail more often? Let me explain! It’s nothing new to point out flaws in the modern education system, but let’s look at one: the absence of failure. With all the extra help offered from teachers, tutors, & classmates, it’s almost impossible to fail. Failure is an immensely important part of any serious development for two reasons. First, if you set audacious goals (which you should!), you will experience occasional (if not frequent) failures. Second, failures offer the best opportunities to learn. So set bold goals and learn from your failures: your professional growth will exponentially exceed that of your risk-adverse peers.

“Anyone who has never made a mistake, has never tried anything new.” Albert Einstein

• Quit using the kid sitting next to you in class as a benchmark!

It’s human nature to compare. Seemingly without fail, humans adapt their expectations to fit their surrounding reality. Repeated studies reveal that lottery winners experience a brief jolt of happiness over their first few months of newfound wealth, and then find themselves either back at their previous equilibrium or even lower. It’s easy to let yourself align with the average of what people directly around you are doing. You need to remember however, that these people aren’t your competition (they’re only a small fraction of your competition). Your competition includes people graduating from MIT, Harvard, Yale, & Columbia. Many of them are MBA students. Beyond them, you’re competing with rapidly advancing populations in China and India. It’s easy to see this as a threat, but welcome this as an opportunity: you have the chance to work with the smartest minds in the world, regardless of their origin. So remember, your competition expands past UNCW, and always aim to associate with people smarter than yourself: you’ll learn plenty and it will help keep you humble.

“People only learn through two things. One is reading and the other is association with smarter people.” Will Rogers

• Read. (I know, I know, but there’s really no way around this one. Sorry.)

I’m guessing half of my audience just left. Two years ago I would have done the same thing. Let’s ignore how awfully similar that sounds to an addict in recovery, and explore why I’ve made this 180 with such conviction.

A broad range of knowledge is going to be a rare, and invaluable talent in my generation. One of our greatest advantages is also one of our greatest burdens: we have access to more information than any previous generation. The problem, is that our constant 24-hour access to this data gives us much less incentive to remember it. In a job setting, this prevents us from connecting the dots of multiple pieces of data, that alone, would mean nothing.

Just Keep Moving!

You are responsible for your own career path. You control where you will go. You control how you get there. This is a lot of responsibility, but it’s an even greater amount of opportunity. You can coast through school, work, & life aiming to meet the bare minimum and avoid criticism. OR You can take pride in your work. You can find a job that you actually enjoy. You can attain fulfillment & meaning from your career. If you ask me, the “easy” path of doing the bare minimum sure seems harder in the long run.

“I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.” Stephen Hawking

A few important notes:
– I don’t suffer any illusions that I’m being completely original here; much of what I’m recommending is practically cliche it’s been said so many times.
– I try to follow my own advice as much as possible, but I’m far from always being on the right path. I feel like I’m beginning to get a pretty good grasp of what best leads to professional development, but “knowing” and “doing” can be deceptively far apart.
– Feel free to disagree with me on any of this, and please share your thoughts in the comments if you do!

– Terry Hayes