Ten Years Ahead

The ad agency where I did my college internship had only three people: an account exec, a media buyer, and an art director. As a Graphic Design major, I reported to the art director who held the same degree I was working toward, from the same college I was attending, and (most importantly), he'd graduated exactly ten years ahead of me.

I've thought about that ten year gap over the years, and it now feels like perfect amount of time for anyone giving career guidance.

Someone with a few years more working experience can be helpful – especially in a practical "here's what it's like for me now" kind of way – but when a person has only put in a bit more time than you, they're limited in how much big picture guidance they can give. In the pond of your career, they're only a few yards ahead of you and the majority of the water is still unknown to them.

A mentor twenty years out is around the center of that pond, and anyone further along than that is working their way toward the opposite shoreline. Those kinds of advisors can give useful feedback to someone starting out, but the distance between the two can be an impediment. The water they're passing through is likely different than the water you currently find yourself in (and if they have any perspective, they realize this and let it temper their feedback).

But someone ten years out is still wading toward the center of that pond. They have enough of a lead on you that they're navigating obstacles you aren't able to see yet, but they're still close enough that they can call back to you and give you a heads up on what to look out for as well as what to look forward to. They are your ideal guide.

I'm now further out than that art director was at the time my internship – more or less at the center of the pond. When a recent college grad asks me what the design field was like when I started out, my answer will always include some variation of "…but things are different these days." It would be irresponsible not to make that point.

I feel I'm most able to be helpful with someone in their second decade of work. And when I'm looking forward, it's the more senior people in my field that I pay the most attention to now. They've made it through the deepest water, after all.