
Adults constantly lie to children, and never more so than when they talk about careers. We look to the future wild optimism, believing that the hard part is deciding what we want to be when grow up and not the reality check that comes after it. Many of us, if we could go back in time, would give a few words of advice to our younger selves. These would be mine.
- You don’t just need to look at what you’re good at, but also what you’re bad at.
When we think about the future, we naturally minimize obstacles. “I’m not a morning person, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it!” we say, or “This job will actually help me overcome my fear of children!” “Sure, I’m not very organized, but I’ll learn to deal with that.”
People are very resistant to change. In many ways (too many ways), I’m very much the same person I was when I was six years old. We also underestimate human variance. What many people are good at naturally we might assume is easy for everyone. It doesn’t work that way. I know doctors who can’t tell time—teachers who are great with children but struggle with addition.
Sometimes we think that because a job isn’t that “hard” it won’t be difficult for us personally, and this is also misguided. You don’t need to go to college to be a waitress, but that doesn’t make it easy. Many jobs are challenging not for the knowledge they require but for the skills, like communicating, organizing, planning, etc.
You can develop as a person, but you can’t change into someone else, and if you have a weakness now you should assume it will be there for the rest of your life. You can find ways to minimize its effect, but you’re always going to be dealing with it. So seriously consider the parts of your personality that can make certain jobs hard for you:
- Are you a morning person?
- How do you feel about rules and deadlines?
- Are you punctual?
- How much human interaction can you stand?
- Do you hate either sitting or standing?
- Do you have a quick temper?
- Do strangers scare you as much as they scare me?
2. Job satisfaction depends on much more than being in the right field.
Even if you’ve found what you’re meant to do, the details of a specific job are very important. For example, will you have an office with a door you can shut? This can make a big difference for an introvert. Also pay attention to your commute. You might as well calculate it as part of your working hours, especially if you’re driving. Technically I work from 7-2:45, but when you throw in transportation, it ends up being more like 6:15-3:45. This is nine and a half hours. See if your pay is worth that before you accept.
If you’re a highly sensitive person, take your stressors seriously. Avoid noisy work environments and make sure your dress code allows you to be comfortable. Even something that sounds as minor as being required to wear high heels can take a toll on you physically and emotionally.
3. “I like to help people” is unhelpful.
Most of us will say that we enjoy being of service to others, that making a difference in the community is the key to a rewarding job. This is useless information. A much better question to ask is how you enjoy helping people.
You can help people by changing their babies’ diapers or by removing their brain tumors. Pretty much every job is designed to help other people because otherwise no one would pay for it.
I realized recently that I don’t feel as if I’m contributing to the world unless what I’m doing is somehow unique. If it doesn’t rely heavily on my own insights, creativity, and ideas, it doesn’t hold much meaning for me. For example, as much as teaching is supposed to be rewarding, I know that many people can do exactly the same thing I’m doing. Students don’t need me to tell them about this or that grammar lesson because I’m the only who knows about it. It provides a service to the world, but it isn’t changing anything. If I were stuck teaching children their ABCs everyday, I would feel completely useless, unless I was the one who had invented the alphabet.
I’m not alone in this feeling, so consider carefully not whether you want to benefit others but how you want to do it. It could be emotional or physical, a unique contribution or a standard service. But it makes a big difference in terms of your job satisfaction.
4. You can be a good student and a terrible employee.
Maybe at one point in time school was teaching you marketable skills, but I think that time has passed. It’s pretty easy to get by in school on your natural intelligence, something valued surprisingly little in many jobs. Teachers average your overall performance. Employers do not.
If, for example, you have an A average but skip several homework assignments, you’ll end up with something like a B. Not bad. If you approach your job the same way, you will end up not having a job.
Conversely, although you won’t learn enough in school to be prepared for your first job, you will still have to go to learn some of what you need to even be considered for a job. In general, though, you will learn much more by doing than by being taught. So you’re better off spending your teenage years learning how to design a website or use PhotoShop than expecting your teachers to prepare you for life.
5. Your job matters because it will consume much of your waking life.
I used to think that a job was important for a steady income but that I wouldn’t get paid regularly to do what I actually care about. So, I could be like, a doctor, and write books on the side! I actually believed this was possible at some point.
Most jobs will wear you out by the end of the day. You’ll be too tired to do much of anything afterwards. I come home wishing I had a stay-at-home wife who would have dinner waiting for me. I have no idea how people with children manage.
Your job matters because it will consume most of your energy, and if it’s not what you love, you will end up spending a lot less time on what you actually care about. Maybe that’s fine if you don’t have some other passion you wish to pursue, but if you do, the time spent at the steady job you take to pay the bills is time lost.
I have a lot of respect and admiration for people who choose to sacrifice a higher paycheck for a job centered around their goals. They’re paying money for a good life, and that’s a whole lot better than paying for money with your happiness. Whenever I figure out how to do the same thing, I will definitely let you know.











