Episode 103: Good Career Advice Might Not Be What You Think
When Eddie Wilders graduated from high school, all he knew was that he wanted to go to college. He didn’t know which college, or what programs he would be interested in, but he knew he wanted to be the first in his family to get a degree and do something different.
Career Guidance Stories, Reviews, and Regrets
When Eddie Wilders graduated from high school, all he knew was that he wanted to go to college. He didn’t know which college, or what programs he would be interested in, but he knew he wanted to be the first in his family to get a degree and do something different.
Eddie’s guidance counselor in high school was anything but, friendly and open, there for support, but did little to actually guide and help her students with important decisions.
He didn’t have any more success with that kind of guidance in college. When he was about to graduate with his Communications degree, rather than giving him some concrete ideas for jobs to apply for, his counselor said: “You can do just about anything with that degree!” And left it at that.
Eddie and I met in the comments section of a post on LinkedIn, asking about career advice. I responded to his comment on the post that I received plenty of decent career advice, but looking back now, none of it applied to me. All the advice I received was general, not specific to my tendency toward passionately learning something for a while, and then getting bored, self-sabotaging, and then switching jobs.
His questions and concerns were geared toward how he could guide his young daughters, since he didn’t receive useful guidance, and I immediately reached out to ask him about his experience and to record it for this episode.
Our conversation spanned from dressing appropriately for the job you want and for the environment you find yourself standing, to taking a trial and error approach in career decisions from early on. Eddie didn’t feel like he had the luxury of the trial and error system because all he knew was the experiences of his parents: Find a good job, get really good at it, and stick with it because it’s a good job and it pays.
Looking back now, he knows he wants his daughters to feel confident in trying different professional environments until they find one that feels right.
It’s always a pleasure to speak with someone with an important message, and Eddie shares one I’m sure most people can relate to, getting stuck in something because of the expectations and experiences of others.
Connect with Eddie on LinkedIn, and let him know what resonated with you about this episode!
Episode 72: Persistence, Curiosity, and Following Instincts Create Career Resilience
When Bob Musial failed his role-playing test in his first sales job, he was humiliated. He was the only new hire out of seven to fail that session, and that made him even more motivated to prove to himself and others that he would be successful in that job.
Apply All Experiences to Every New Environment
When Bob Musial failed his role-playing test in his first sales job, he was humiliated. He was the only new hire out of seven to fail that session, and that made him even more motivated to prove to himself and others that he would be successful in that job.
He could have given up; it would have been easier in some ways to choose a different path after that dip in his confidence, but he didn’t. Instead, he doubled down on efforts to prove to himself that he could do whatever he set his mind to do. Part of that was trusting his instincts and ignoring a lot of the advice and guidance he was being given. And that aspect of his career resilience, coupled with his sense of humor, stayed with him for his many career transitions through 40+ years.
“Your sense of humor will set you apart. Take your job seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously.”
When it comes to career resilience, some of us take a more zig zag path, what I like to call a “gypsy career.” For those of us who regularly choose to change industries, roles, and environments, career resilience is dependent not only on our curiosity and ambition, it depends on our ability to convey to a potential new employer that we can apply all of what we’ve learned from every experience to be successful in a completely different role or industry.
For people who choose a more linear career path, career resilience depends on an ability to stay curious, and to prove, over and over again, that they will continue to be competent as the organization shifts into the future.
What does career resilience look like for you?
“Be curious about every person you meet. A diverse network is a powerful network.”
Bob & I discussed this topic and agreed that regardless of your career path, your career resilience grows with every opportunity you take to learn, and to build strong relationships across all parts of your life. As I’ve mentioned before, protecting your future income is critical, and two aspects of that are life-long learning in every aspect of life (personal growth/development, skill building), and building your diverse network of people before you need them.
Bob Musial, principal at StreetSmart Business Development, is a coach, humorist and author, with a 45-year background in sales, marketing, advertising and customer experience. His book, “Soft Skills. Hard Returns,” contains humor-laced stories with practical applications of soft skills in situations most people encounter daily. The ebook is available on Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble and other platforms.
Connect with Bob on LinkedIn to keep up with work!