Career advice to ponder

This is not a preach, but rather a passing on of information that was given to me by my coach, my father. He said it to me after I graduated from university and left me to ponder. It probably is more for the younger generation, but the same philosophy applies to everyone…no matter the decade.

He told me: “Your twenties is a very challenging time. You think you are grown up and you are not. You think you know who you are and you don′t.”

In many of the so called advanced cultures and societies, maybe… at the most, depending on ones ethnicity and geographic location, less than 40% of the people get a university degree. Clearly depends on where you look up the information, but you get the idea. About half of them will actually end up in a career using their degree. This clearly raises the question, as to whether you go to university to get a job or to better educate yourself about the world? So that you are able to think more intensively and more critically and going going to university clearly doesn′t guarantee this. Because, intelligence plus character should be the goal of true education. But again, that′s not what this is about and that is another conversation in itself.

This is about building your career, your profession, it′s about carving your path.

Do you date the first person you meet? Or, do you test the waters?

Do you partner with or marry the first person you date? Or, do you test the waters?

When you are younger, looking for a job and starting your career can almost be exactly like this. You don′t have to have it all figured out and all planned…..it doesn′t work that way for everyone. Whether you go to university or not. There is no one set way that things happen. You need to try different things. You need to create professional experiences to help you grow. Doing two, three or four things by the time you are thirty is fine. I did three.

The more you learn, the more you earn and in the meantime you are building your professional network.

If you want to find your dream job, the one that is fulfilling and rewarding and that will allow your character and abilities to develop more fully, then this is something to ponder.

#careergrowth #personalgrowth #professionaldevelopment #emotionalintelligence #coachchris