She asked me my advice on where she should take her career. She is really happy in her current seat (which is a very similar seat to what I did for the most of my career in wealth management) but felt like something was missing that she couldn’t quite pinpoint. She wanted my advice on where to look next to find a new opportunity, which should be something I am good at now that I am a financial services recruiter!
I thought for a while about how to answer this question, and got to thinking about my own career path and what I’ve learned from some of the decisions I’ve made. After leaving my job in Private Wealth to join a boutique executive recruiting firm, I now get to speak to people all day every day who are smart, ambitious, and considering a career move. From having experienced my own career move and from speaking to others about their decisions on a daily basis, these are the three biggest lessons that I’ve learned:
- No job is perfect. I’ve gained a lot from my new job – it’s more entrepreneurial, more independent, more flexible and has a faster sales cycle. But, what I failed to realize when I started my search was that while I’d gain some things that were very important to me, I also gave up a lot. Although I am happy with my decision, I did love the markets and don’t love being so removed. Although my old job was burdened by “big firm bureaucracy” I miss the “big firm comradery” and all of the friends I had. I miss my afternoon coffee breaks. And I miss being surrounded by hundreds of smart people who I could learn from who were all equally ambitious as I was. One thing I didn’t do enough of when I started a search for a new job was clearly articulate to myself the pros and the cons of my existing job. I think it is easy to think about what you’d gain from a new job and much harder to think about what you’ll loose.
- Millennials (myself included) are impatient. We want to love our jobs today, not tomorrow, and oftentimes are impatient while waiting. We worry a lot about our day to day. “I’m not being stimulated enough.” “There isn’t enough flexibility here.” And “am I really creating impact?” We don’t always think about what we have to put in to get there. Maybe it takes time to earn the role that is challenging and stimulating, maybe flexibility is not a feasible way to achieve success early on in a career (because unfortunately, if you’re not at your desk on Friday afternoon to answer the phone, chances are, someone else is), and maybe true impact only comes with experience. When I was thinking of a job switch, I must have sounded like Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory whinging to my husband and parents that “I want a job I love AND I WANT IT NOW!!!” I won’t lie to you, even with my blog – which is a passion of mine and something I chose to do in addition to having a full time job – do I love the day to day? Not always. Maybe 50% of the time. But, what I’ve started to focus on more than my day to day is do I love what this can be in 3 years? 5 years? and 10 years? If the answer gets you closer and closer to YES the farther out you think, you are probably in the right seat.
- Even if you don’t love the seat you’re in, give it 110%. I learnt this one the hard way. Someone recently told me a story about an incredibly successful family in Asia. The patriarch’s first job was to “back office” accounting work for a rice factory. He was educated but it was the best job he could get. He didn’t come from much. He very quickly outworked all of his peers and became the “go-to” guy to the owner of the rice factory. The owner had no heirs and passed away suddenly. Call it luck, but he left the rice factory to this man because of his hard work and dedication to the factory. He transitioned from accountant, to rice factory owner, to an owner of 10 rice factories to an owner of one of the largest Asian conglomerates. Especially now that I am a recruiter, I see how much easier it is to get a new job when you are at the top of your game, rather than the bottom. How much more desirable is the person who says “I’ve received top performance reviews year after year, I can provide references, my company doesn’t want me to leave, but I want to leave for x,y,z reasons” rather than the person who says “I’ve done okay, but it’s because I’m not really in the right role…” Before I left J.P. Morgan, I spent a very brief period of time in a role that I knew by my second week on the job wasn’t for me. I remember spending all my free time thinking of ways to get out rather than pushing myself to be the absolute best I could be despite the (crappy) situation I felt I was in. I regret this because I represented myself as someone who I know I am not.
I guess in offering this advice, it is my long-winded way of asking all of you… why are we so fixated on the phrase that if you love what you do, it shouldn’t be called work? Maybe what will make us successful is putting in the work today. Maybe it will always feel like work, even 20 years down the road when we do land that title that we’ve always dreamed of. But is that so bad? Work is what keeps our minds going, it keeps us challenged and engaged, and it enables us to enjoy so many other things life has to offer. Even further, how can we appreciate victory (in any sense) without putting in the work? Why have loving your job and it being hard become so disjointed? Maybe love is a strong word, but maybe, as a generation, we should start to appreciate the ride up a little more rather than feeling disappointed that we aren’t there yet. I know this is going to be my new mindset 🙂
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