“The conventional seams between disciplines are fraying, and the set of skills necessary to succeed are broader and more nebulous than they’ve been before. These days, you’ve gotta be a real polymath to get ahead.” — Chris Messina
I went to college for engineering imagining it was going to be like an episode of Mythbusters. I couldn’t wait to hack projects, make a mess, and blow something up!
Mid-way through the 4-year slog, I dropped out, bored and disillusioned with theory based instruction. Bummer.
A few years later, I was finishing a masters program at the University of Virginia when the collapse of Lehman Brothers signaled the start to a brutal economic downturn. Bummer.
I then tried to start a delivery-by-cargo-bike company (like this one). I failed. (Probably shouldn’t have chosen fish delivery as first client.) Bummer.
My education and career are full of twist, turns, wobbles, and pivotal lessons in “bummer” moments. I always find myself thinking, “I wish future me was around as a guide during those times.” For the past few years, I’ve been playing that role for ambitious college students and building a framework to accelerate their own career path.
I call this framework The New Rules — though I’m uncertain of the old rules or if anyone ever wrote them down.
- Manage Uncertainty
- Be on a Mission
- Seek Experiences
- Environment Matters
- Make Things (aka Don’t be Boring)
Before I dive into these further, let me lay some groundwork.
There is no linear path. Many career options today did not exist when you started college. The problems you will be asked to solve, and the skills needed, will continue to change and evolve over your career. Your career will be made up of many chapters with unexpected opportunities. Talk to more professionals about the twists and turns in their path. Learn how they made decisions, and faced uncertainty.
This is hard work. There are no shortcuts here. Gone are the days of sending out tidy resumes. The best jobs require new strategies. Although you will work hard, these new strategies are based in doing things that activate your curiosity and talents.
You have powerful tools for learning, creating, and sharing. The internet has delivered low-to-no-cost instruction on the skills and tools to power your creativity and share your ideas globally. This has changed the relationship with how you learn and how to distinguish yourself.
“You don’t win by being more average than other people.” — Seth Godin.
Curiosity is more important than passion. Don’t get stuck trying to ‘find your passion’. You are not picking a single passion/job for life. Most young people lack the breadth or depth of experiences needed to explore and evaluate possible interests (that may lead to passions). At no point during college could I have described that I have a passion for helping people lead epic careers. Curiosity drives exploration and, therefore, the experiences where unexpected passion meets opportunity.
You will need >
- Hustle : resourceful, determined, and comfortable with uncertainty
- Humility : hungry to learn, receive feedback, and do the “low” work
- Empathy : listener, observer, and identifier of need
- Curiosity : big imagination, maker, and a healthy dose of breaking the rules
THE NEW RULES
— MANAGING UNCERTAINTY
Uncertainty is what makes the future so scary. It is not that we don’t know what will happen, but that the outcome may not be pleasurable or favorable. We worry about the downside.
However, you can work to get comfortable with uncertainty and assessing risk through practicing what you can control. The next 4 parts (Seek Experiences, Be on a Mission, Environment Matters, and Make Things) are key functions that you control.
With practice, you will build confidence and resilience through strategies that help you control influential factors to increase instances of desirable opportunity — translation; career upside.
— BE ON A MISSION
Your mission is not “do stuff you love” — that is an outcome of putting the new rules into practice. A well crafted mission acts as a guide to help you answer questions that give you valuable information about making career and education choices (ie. reduce uncertainty).
The more specific your mission, the better it will serve you. This may sound counter-intuitive: I can hear you say, “But I don’t want to limit my options!” Or “I don’t really know what I want to do!” That is ok. You are not expected to know exactly what you want. A specific mission helps you to first narrow your focus so you can pursue your curiosity with intent. Secondly, a specific mission tells other people how to help you.
Learn to ask “why?” as a primary tool to help craft your mission and seek out experiences.
— SEEK EXPERIENCES
All our lives we are asked some variant of, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”, “what are you majoring in?” “what are you going to do after school?” — these questions frame careers with expectations about permanence and social or economic value.
You don’t have to pick what you want to be when you grow up. Most of us will be many things. Remember, your path will twist and turn. Be a driver, not a passenger, and seek experiences that help you explore interests, expand your awareness, and push your comfort zone. Take your time. Just because college is on a 4-year plan does not mean you have to be, nor is it always the best environment.
— ENVIRONMENT MATTERS
Work to give yourself advantages through your environment. Actively choose environments that maximize your interactions with experts and peers who support your mission.
Always ask yourself, “What am I learning here? Who am I learning from?”
Stop searching for jobs and start for searching people you can learn from. When these people are part of your environment, they become the influential factors that increase desirable opportunity.
— MAKING THINGS MATTERS
“As we’re building the team, I look for curious people. +1 if they have a history of doing side projects.” — Ryan Hoover, founder Product Hunt
Don’t be boring. I say that as tough love. No one wants to connect with boring. You are not a 12 point, Times New Roman, one-sheet resume. If you want to stand out, you must be making things.
Making things is a way to let your curiosity lead you to explore interests and reflect on potential career options. What you’ve done is an indicator of what you can do. In other words, what you can do for a company that wants to hire you.
You will experience (and overcome) small failures and demonstrate self-directed learning and decision making when instructions are unavailable.
Ask yourself, “what have I made lately?” If the answer is “nothing,” then we need to chat. (Seriously, I’m at @beingSpencer, let’s go take the first small step together.)
LET’S RECAP
Uncertainty sucks. It is anxiety, fear, rejection, change, and bummers. But we can learn to manage uncertainty by practicing what we can control (be on a mission, seek experiences, choose your environment, and making things).
Thats it! You are now a master of your career!
Of course not. I’m not either. This is just the primer. How do you maximize the potential in your environment? How do you start making things? What do you make? How do you craft your mission?
Answers to those, and more, are on the way. I’m building a big, exciting guide to put this framework into action along with a supportive community to help you massively accelerate your career. It’s what I wish I had.