Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 4:00PM Sidewalk advice rarely given: About managing a career.
It’s spring and time for soon-to-graduate college seniors to look for a “job.” Daily I encounter students I know, those I meet for the first time, ex-students of mine, friends all who fall into this category. Most of my conversations with people like this occur in the hallway or on the sidewalk and, if I were to be honest, I have to admit that we don’t ever have the time and opportunity for me to say what I’m really thinking or feeling about this matter.
What I rarely have a chance to say about getting a career started.
Yesterday a long-ago student of mine—and now friend—Francis Doehner, sent me a short written commentary by Michael Lewis on his advice to a frustrated young employee in investment banking: “A Wall Street job can’t match a calling in life.” The distinction that Mr. Lewis makes between a “job” and a “calling” is one worth considering at both the beginning of one’s professional life as well as when making a mid-career change. My reading it—which I highly recommend—prompts me to make five points I rarely get to say in all of the campus sidewalk conversations with my young friends who are on the hunt for a way to make a living beyond college…
First, find a position above all that genuinely interests you and that you find involving; conversely, don’t ever focus solely on what they say they’ll pay you. Virtually nothing you undertake to do is ever worth the money, particularly when it’s done just for the dough. Every person I’ve ever met who says they took the job for the money wishes that they hadn’t.
Second, find—as you are able—good people to work and collaborate with on a day-to-day basis. While we all have bills to pay and the need to buy things we think we desire, all of us at some point also have payments to make on the demands of our souls—the part of us we call “human.” We all have needs for what money can never buy—it’s sappy to say so so directly, but it’s the unvarnished truth.
Third, don’t fret in a particular way about the money you’ll get offered. If you are a good person to work with, you’re engaged in the process of work, and you produce consistently good results—the money will find you; however, if you look for the money all by itself, it’s rarely to be found. By believing that we can go to work each day, but only for the pay-check once a month, is deceiving ourselves about what we really want and need to be a vital person. We’re not machines and shouldn’t fool ourselves to think that we can play that part for very long without paying, sometimes a very dear price.
Fourth, in any job, new or old, be guided by what you can give, not necessarily by what you’ll get from all your efforts. Your contribution to the workplace and the people around you at work will pay huge dividends to you as a person, both in the short-term and the long-run as well. When you take this approach to your time “at work” you—and your circumstances--will be changed in ways that are only positive. Sometimes I’m pretty sure that the world is filled with only two kinds of people: givers and takers. To some it’s an irony that the people who strive to give more than they take end up the real winners in most of life’s lotteries, whereas those who work the angles to maximize their own self interests rarely ever succeed, despite their ambition to the contrary.
Finally, make a career that’s filled with meaning and not all the other trivial stuff that most people focus on: time-off, travel opportunities, employment benefits, money. Mr. Lewis framed the matter this way: What are you in the market for…a job or a calling? In my judgment, his advice to the frustrated young Wall Street employee is exactly right.
You can answer that question directly, or allow time to answer it for you. Either way, I think you’d be happier if you stopped thinking of what the world has to offer you, and started thinking a bit more about what you have to offer the world. Real excitement isn’t just in whatever you happen to be doing, but in what you bring to it.
In the end, you have to look for it not on the outside, but on the inside. In my experience, if you find it, the other stuff will take care of itself.
It would not be easy to put a finer point on the matter.
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Reader Comments (4)
Brent should read this.
Dr. Murray,
This is a great post for all graduating seniors to read. I'm one for follwing my calling and the money will come shortly after. Once this objective is realized, choices become a whole lot easier. However, this realization is easier said than done.
Thanks for posting--off to RT!
Michael
Class of 2010
Bryant University
KM,
This post to me shows Bryant's greatest strength. There is a distinct emphasis on finding a calling/passion that I feel is lacking at other schools. On another note, would love to see a post on what the 'character of success' really means from the admin's pov...
Keep up the good work,
-ND
Thanks for re-sharing. The money quote is the one you include. I have bookmarked the piece and as Bryant
Students email me for advice or questions I am going to forward them this as well. Francis