Hey,
Here are some principles I've learnt for thinking about careers in your 20s - especially if you're in a job funk right now.
A few years ago, I was at a world-class university studying the most noble degree. I had a clear path to success ahead of me.
But I wasn't sure I wanted to take it.
Objectively, I should have charged ahead; subjectively, the thought of staying on the beaten path felt empty.
So what would I tell myself looking back?
1. Please, Please, Please DO NOT Try To Predict The Future.
It's comforting to make over-specific retirement goals and dream of big career titles, but don't do it. Why?
Because curveballs are the only certainty in life. Thinking a few steps ahead is helpful; having a general vision is helpful; planning 20 meticulous steps ahead is a waste of time. Staying on the straight-and-narrow means that you might miss outlier opportunities that will transform your journey.
Serendipity is the spice of life. So soak it up, and let it take you to beautiful and unexpected places. In 5, 10, 15 years, you might be surprised at where you end up.
2. Be A Generalist First, Specialist Second.
Experts will still get paid the big bucks. But...
The best will know the context around their work. In other words, they are generalists first, specialists second. Generalism will keep you grounded as the world changes, and coupled with a good dose of expertise, you'll have a winning ticket.
Expertise in meta-level things like change, learning and emotional management will pay exponential dividends.
3. The World Is Moving Too Quickly For Linear Career Paths.
Few people will have the same career for 45 years these days, so your first job isn't a life-sentence.
Work is changing faster too. For thousands of years, you could have been a blacksmith. For hundreds, you could have been a pirate. For decades, you could have been a typist. But today, you could be something that has never existed before, as long as you embrace that it might not exist again soon.
To grow means to change, and change is the name of the new game.
So what can you do about it?
1. Question your deeply held beliefs.
Start with these questions, write out your answers, and see what thoughts spill out:
Have you questioned any of your assumed strengths and weaknesses?
What motivations have driven your career path so far?
Have the opinions of friends, family or society played a heavy-handed role?
What assumptions did you make as a teenager which you should revisit, now that you've joined the working world?
What assumptions have you made about the type of life you want, or the amount of money that you need?
What assumptions have you made about needing permission to do what you want to do?
2. Exercise your agency.
I was going to write about increasing your luck surface area, making small bets, and other strategies, but
has done a better job of it than I could. Read her essay here. In summary, these steps increase your agency, your realised potential. They are:Court rejection: “If you’re only asking for things you get, you’re not aiming high enough.”
Seek real feedback: “If you aren’t trying to get real feedback from people who know you, you’re cooking without tasting.”
Increase your luck surface area: “To some extent, the more confident I am that a conversation is relevant, the less likely I am to discover something exciting during it.” (this is also something I learned from
)Assume everything is learnable: “Whatever it is, assume it can be learned and that the task is to figure out the best way to do it.”
Learn to love the moat of low status: “The idea is that making changes in your life, especially when learning new skill sets, requires you to cross a moat of low status, a period of time where you are actually bad at the thing or fail to know things that are obvious to other people.” (from
)Don’t work too hard: “The reality is that grinding, even if it temporarily increases output, kills creativity and big picture thinking.”
3. Remember this little secret about truth and certainty.
When I was a kid, I thought adults knew what they were talking about and had their shit together.
It turns out everyone's just making it up as they go along. I see it in my job, I see it on TV, and hell, I even see it in my parents who seemed like they knew everything when I was a child. That's a hard thing to unlearn. Now I'm not saying that people are clueless. I'm just saying that when it comes to messy reality, there's never one right answer.
So the take away is this: by questioning your deeply held beliefs, and then exercising your agency, you'll get closer to figuring out the truth - your truth.
And truth is the only way out of funk.
For more on this topic, check out these writers:
- on
- on
- on (and ergodicity)
- on
- on
- on
One Liners
Your future holds your potential, but your history holds your power.
As a river takes time to carve a valley, so a habit takes time to shape a life.
The biggest hurdle in getting comfortable with failing is thinking that you are special. Because special things are precious, and precious things are guarded against failure. Maybe you are special, but probably not - and that’s something to celebrate!
Recommended reading from Substack:
🌕
documents his adventures on Delta III.😫
explores mindful momentum and the though traps of motivation and procrastination.🪜
on climbing down the entrepreneurial ladder.🐢
on the classic slow is smooth and smooth is fast.☄️
on what we can learn from Camus about burnout.
Recommended reading beyond Substack:
Song of the week:
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This is all great advice Zan. Thank you.
I would say you need to be open to shifting direction around any stage in your career and being a generalist really helps.
I’ve lived through one big recession. Looking back on that time it was pretty scary. I was in consultancy at the time and we lost client after client as budgets were squeezed overnight.
The thing that helped me was to stay close to the money.
By staying close to the money I mean removing as many steps between you and improving the bottom line. For me, I worked in commercial. I brought in big projects to the team and was able to clearly demonstrate I could generate cash for the business. This was gold in those difficult times.
I kept my job.
Others who were more removed lost theirs. When it came to the crunch there wasn’t a tangible link to the cash coming in for them.
It was a brutal time but until you’ve gone through that you don’t really see what a company really values. It’s like the tide goes out and those left standing are those who can demonstrate that clear value.
Somehow we’ve managed to stave off a recession for 15 years. Through money printing and good luck we haven’t had that serious struggle but we still need to prime ourselves for when it does happen.
Good advice but...but....for everything mentioned here, the opposite may also be true. If you have a strong sense of what the future holds, go for it. If you really love something and want to go deep into it, go for it. If you've found a linear career path that gives you happiness, then do it by all means.
The thing is, there are no right answers. But personally, if I were to talk to my 20 year self about career I would just say, "Find what you love to do / learn and put in the time"