Sunday, April 15, 2012

Zig zag

Zig zag by chispita_666
image courtesy of Flickr's chispita_666
Welcome The Zig-Zags

My 17-year old son was stressed about what college to choose. He explained why—some day he wants to impact government policy, but he doesn’t think he can achieve his goals. Because he doesn’t know if he’ll secure a spot in a particular Ivy League school. Because that would be necessary for networking and securing internships. Because it would lead to the few jobs in policy-making that would determine his success.

What’s wrong with this picture has no bearing on the fact that he is a gifted student with an excellent chance of getting into the school of his choice. I know that he'll be successful in whatever he does. The real problem was the linear vision he insisted on using to define his career path and his life.

Most adults realize that we arrive at our careers through a series of zig-zags rather than through a straight line. But after all, we mid-career adults have the benefit of hindsight. We might have gotten a degree in Engineering but wound up in Sales. Or our interests in Physical Therapy may have somehow morphed into a decent career in academia. For better or worse, we arrived at our career destination.

But let’s not confuse those of us who have changed our minds, or zig-zagged our way through our careers, with someone who lacks focus.

Malcolm Gladwell’s best seller Outliers touts putting in 10,000 hours of practice into achieving mastery in the field you choose. I’ll admit that the current job market rewards subject matter experts who care enough about their field to develop a specialty; not those who become generalists.

But first you have to figure out what you care about. All the focus,  passion and intensity you pour into your livelihood has to start with discovery. And when your passion intersects with what’s needed to solve a problem in a company or a cause, then you’re on to something.

But here’s the thing. You’ll be productive in your job only if you immerse yourself in that kind of intense emotion and practice. You can’t design a curriculum or a skyscraper or a kite without the passion needed to put in those 10,000 hours of practice. Without it you’ll get too distracted. And unless you're unusual, you have to sample different careers to find what really floats your boat.

Of course, the best time to try out careers is when you are young and unencumbered by family or financial responsibilities, like my son. But those zig-zags will creep up on us at any age or career stage. Just go with it.

Flexibility and open-mindedness on the crooked road to your career is a good thing. Just thinking about new options stimulates the synapses in your brain. The logistics might be stressful to plan, but the process as a whole makes you enthusiastic, even optimistic—the very traits you need to get the attention of a Hiring Manager when you interview for a job, or to find investors in your new start-up.

It’s one of life’s paradoxes that as soon as you get really good at your career, you become bored with it. That’s exactly when you want to try something new. Depending on how much money you’ve saved, the new career path could be something you plunge into head-first, it can be a side job you do in your spare time, or it can end up a recreational hobby.

But one thing’s for sure—a straight line to your ideal job is a fantasy very few will realize. Please tell your kids it’s okay to teach ESL in China for a year, or spend the summer interning in a completely random field outside their major. Tell them to welcome the zig-zags.

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