Career, Money & Relationships: Perspectives From A Millennial Podcaster
JourneyNorth Podcast | Season 01 | EP 12
If you’re at the same life stage as me (about to graduate from university and transit into a working professional), I’m sure we are thinking about the same things:
- How does the transition feel like?
- Will I be able to cope with the demands?
- How can I best position myself for what’s to come?
In this episode, I speak to Andrew, who had these same questions and started a podcast, “Careers of Millennials”, to learn more about 3 core aspects – career, money and relationships, from the perspective of a millennial.
Who Is Andrew Toh?
Professionally, Andrew is an Operations Analyst at a bank. In recent times, however, Andrew began exploring his creative side by diving into podcasting, digital marketing, and even creating YouTube videos.
His podcast, “Careers of Millennials”, aims to share the best career advice from expert advisors and industry leaders for millennials to overcome challenges.
Transiting From A Student To A Working Professional
This was one of the questions I was really curious to find out about as I wanted to know what I can expect. In Andrew’s words, “it can be a little rocky”. For Andrew, he still considers himself a student, in the sense where he’s still learning how to lead a team, how to lead a project, and these are skills that take time to develop.
He has had to put in the conscious effort to find out areas in which he’s lacking in and work on them. Of course, it requires practice and refinement along the way, but Andrew says that you will eventually get the hang of it.
In fact, it’s easy to slip into a state of comfort and lose the hunger to improve, so Andrew also touched on the importance of staying hungry!
There’s No Replacement For Hard Work
Through his countless conversations with people from various backgrounds, be it from the boomer generation, or the millennials, one thing that stood out to Andrew was the realisation that hard work is still valid today.
Even with the hype over technology and “working smart”, there’s still no replacement for hard work. If you want to achieve your goals and fulfill your dreams, you have to be willing to put in the hours and be committed.
One issue millennials face today is the obsession over instant gratification, where we want things to happen almost instantaneously. Unfortunately, many things take time to develop and grow. Therefore, we need to be prepared to put in the hard work and be patient in order to see our efforts pay off.
Learning How To Sell
When I asked Andrew what was one thing people should start working on immediately, he mentioned the importance of learning how to sell. The ability to sell was one thing he wished he started working on earlier.
This can range from the ability to sell your profile on LinkedIn, how to close a sale, or to raise money for your startup. All these actions require you to know how to sell.
Personal Thoughts
Personally, I totally agree with the need to learn how to sell. This was something I realised myself as well, because it is important that we learn how to position ourselves, how to make ourselves more attractive to others. Sometimes, selling has a negative connotation to it, but I believe if you do it genuinely, it shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing.
I also love how Andrew is using his podcast as a platform to not only improve his own skills, but also spread valuable and useful content to millennials who might be facing similar struggles. Definitely check his podcast out if you want to learn more about how to deal with career-related struggles as a millennial!
Show Notes:
- Visit Andrew’s Website
- Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn
- Connect with Andrew on Instagram
- Connect with Andrew on Facebook
- Connect with Andrew on Twitter
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Hosted by Marcus Cheu. Connect with me on LinkedIn & Instagram.
If you'd like to tune in to the full episode, you can check out the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.