My answers to the careers question

As some of you may know, one of the hats I wear is the Academic-Advising-at-a-University hat. And the most frequently asked question I get is about careers (perhaps because I am the Advisor of an undergraduate program that is liminal in nature): Where do alumni tend to go? What can I do with my major? After having this career conversation with various individuals and thinking about this topic in my sleep for many nights, I thought I'd write down my very general (i.e. non-major-specific) thoughts on the matter. DISCLAIMER: the following thoughts are my own!

This may be relevant for you if you're unsure about the whole how-to-go-about-figuring-out-your-career thing. If you're up for reading the rest, get yourself in a comfy position on the couch and make sure you have your favorite beverage (and/or snacks) in hand... because it is long! :)

Disclaimer #2: I ain't got no Master's degree or PhD so for those who would like to know the details about what it's like to pursue graduate studies you'll need to talk to the experts (i.e. graduate students) - I ain't one.

I'll address the things that bother me the most first: The notion that if you go to university and get a degree then you'll get a job that directly connects from said degree is an outdated misconception for the most part. This could still hold true for some cases, but it's not the case for all degrees/careers.

So this question bothers me sometimes: "What can I do with my major?"
To me, this sounds like another way of saying "What job(s) can I get by getting this degree?"
When I'm in a good mood, I think: "You can do whatever you want with your major; you have the freedom to cater it to your interests."
When I'm in a not-so-good mood, I think: "Getting a degree alone isn't going to guarantee a job, unfortunately."

In relation to the aforementioned misconception, this question bothers me as well: "How does getting a major in X make me competitive compared to getting a major in Y to get a job in domain Z?"

Let's be very general for a moment and say:
Students who graduate with a degree in X tend to get jobs in domain Z

Based on the first premise, it may be tempting to think:
"If I graduate with a degree in X, then my odds of getting a job in domain Z will increase."

Well, maybe, but I see it more like this:
Students who graduate with a degree in X (and pursued relevant extracurricular activities and co-ops/internships and research projects and personal projects and reached out to professionals in domain Z and got mentored - or even better, referred - by those people, etc.) tend to get jobs in domain Z.

The competitive advantage and the originality is going to come from the individual, not the degree. It is not so much an IF-THEN process; it's much more of an AND-AND-AND-AND-AND-... process. So every little thing counts.

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Now that the first part is taken care of... :)

Students who come to me in their 4th year and beyond tend to carry a different nuance when they ask "What can I do with my major?" or "Where do alumni tend to go?" I tend to interpret these questions like the following: "I can't imagine how I can use all the esoteric material I've learned in my undergrad in a job - I feel useless, I feel so behind (compared to everyone else who learned stuff that they can use directly at their first job), and I don't even know where to begin. I don't even know what I want to do." This was what I had thought when I was graduating.

When we go back to that first premise:
​Students who graduate with a degree in X tend to get jobs in domain Z

I find that it's also tempting for people to think the following:
"Since I'm getting a degree in X, maybe I should work towards getting a job in domain Z."

If there is a "should" in your train of thought, I strongly encourage you to stop for a moment. ​As tempting it is to go for the low hanging fruit or to just go with the flow, this thought can set you back further for a couple reasons.

1. If you make it to an in-person interview for a role that you do not feel enthusiastic about, it's likely that you will not get the job. The organization is watching you as much as you're watching them. If you aren't enthusiastic the role, they can usually tell. So might as well go for a role that you care about. Being selective and sending 5 applications to organizations you think dearly of will be a better investment compared to doing the shotgun approach and sending hundreds of applications to organizations you don't care as much about.
2. If you land a job based on what you "should" be doing (which is not in accordance with what you want to do or like doing), your mental and physical health will decline in the long run (in other words, you will die earlier). Inertia is strong - especially when there's family expectations involved, and you need to sustain yourself financially, or you need to financially sustain your family, etc. - but for some things, it is worth stopping for a moment to think deeply about what is really important for YOU. And I think YOUR FUTURE is definitely one of the things that's worth investing the time to put a lot of thought into.

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"So how the heck do I figure out what I want to do? Where do I even begin?" I'm no master at this by any means, but I consider myself a student in the figuring-out-what-I-want-to-do area since mid-2018 (I wish I started at least 10 years earlier). I hope that one of the things I mention will give you a sense of discovery or resonance (or mirth if nothing else).

Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself to get started. If there's anything that stands out for you, that's where you can dig in some more - whether that be doing research about the domain/role (reading about it, conducting informational interviews, etc.) or simply taking more time to think through it.

• ​Do you like working on... Products? Projects? Programs? Operations? How important to you is time scale or having closure on something? (e.g. operations keep running and running and running... there's not so much closure compared to a project where there is a clearer start and finish)
• How much predictability vs. unpredictability do you like in your work? Do you find knowing what you'll be doing the next day relieving or boring?
• Do you prefer to work in small vs. big organizations? (Both have pros & cons.) How much importance do you place in benefits - not only things like paid leaves, vacation, and pension, but also things like professional development opportunities and labor relations?
• Do you like being told what to do? To what extent?
• Do you prefer to do a standard work week or have a lot more flexibility? (By flexible, this could mean remotely working in a different time zone or working in odd hours)
• Where would you want to live? Where would you be willing to relocate to for work?
• How do you spend your energy? What do you do to recharge? What do you need to do to recharge?
• Who do you enjoy hanging out with? Researchers? C-suite people? Accountants? Students? Animal lovers? Donors?
• How much runway do you have to stop and think about all of this? Do you need a job to make ends meet? If so, how long can you stand it?

You may have noticed that none of these questions so far have to do with the domain of your work. The what you do is important but the how you do it is equally important. Work is going to be a big part of your life so you'd want to have it be compatible with  your lifestyle. Otherwise you're fighting against yourself constantly.

Now onto the more domain-related questions...

• ​Is there something that you obsess over? If you don't have a recollection, ask your family and friends and see how they think. You might be always talking about a particular topic without even knowing it.
• Is there something that you cannot resist getting emotional over? Could that be management? Could that be animal care? That might be a sign that you have a lot of emotional investment that can keep you going when the going gets tough.
• What did you love to do when you were little? Do not feel ashamed to incorporate your childhood into your work. Need an example? After approximately a decade of neglecting myself, I decided to take illustrations and diagrams more seriously.)

"I don't know what I like yet!" This is a normal response - finding your own preferences both in terms of what you want to spend your life on and how is a life-long process in itself. You will need to try things out, and you might not like some of it. But that's okay because you are learning about yourself and you know what to look for (or what to avoid) when you look for your next thing. And I'd like to share something that I have heard from multiple people in my life that I personally find reassuring: ​You are doing your best. You are doing what you can with the information you have at the time. Hindsight is 20-20 but we can't see into the future. If you try something and don't like it, resist the temptation to go like "I should've known better". You are still doing your best, with the information you have at the time.

Also - whenever you find a clue, whether that be a personal preference or an industry you never knew about and might want to look into... WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN somewhere so you don't need to remember it all. Eventually, you will start to have enough clues that it will become your own rubric in evaluating different career options.

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"Where are the jobs? What companies should I apply for?" This is something that I cannot give a straightforward answer for, partially because it is not my job to look for jobs and place people. And I do not have the right to dictate where anyone *should* go...

There are different ways one can look at what's out there. The easier way would be online. I am trying to make it a habit to browse jobs twice a week at least. If this becomes a habit before you really start looking for a job, it doesn't feel like you need to suddenly do research on the industry's landscape. Some roles can have names that sound counterintuitive so if there's a posting from a company that you're interested in but don't feel like the title is right, it's still worth checking out the job description. It can be worth checking out Glassdoor as well to get some info on what people say about the organization.

The more challenging way (for me, at least) is to look offline. How? Through the old-fashioned way of meeting and talking to people. Although this could be daunting, technology does help make it slightly easier to find a gathering (e.g. Meet-ups). Informational interviews are also great to do especially if you're not sure if you want to go into a particular area or not. And this even holds for actual job interviews - hopefully you have done a good amount of research about the organization or industry in advance, but it is a good opportunity to learn more about it. Ask those sharp questions. And if an organization or hiring manager takes offense that you are asking sharp questions... drop the mic. Their loss.

Not getting that job offer after going through the interview(s) can hit hard. Rejections can hurt a lot. Hang in there. You are not at fault. The posting may have been out there (to cover the organization's rear end) for internal hiring purposes - we never know. Every time you see a door that closes, it is presenting you with a better opportunity.