On career as a portfolio
When I was in 10th grade in a country in eastern hemisphere, I had to decide in which direction I want to focus m career on.
Burdensome choice to be made for a person who is yet to learn a lot about how the world works. It still works the same way where I was born and brought up in eastern hemisphere. Also works the same way in a lot of countries in western hemisphere.
There were only three respectable choices available for me back then.
- become a doctor
- become an engineer
- become a chartered accountant
Now I realize it is because, the country I was born in, didn’t have, what economists call, a complex economy. Meaning, there were not many industries thriving. Hence, only a few professions seemed as a right choice, if you want to end up making good money.
I decided to go with Engineering. I had a curious mind. So, somehow managed to score decent grades throughout my bachelors studies.
Due to my adventurous nature, I also ended up doing a lot extra curricular activities, which involved playing a lot of sports and founding my own company.
Then, I decided to go abroad in western hemisphere, to pursue further education, ended up doing masters in engineering as well.
This was the first time, I was living away from home, hence, there was a lot of adjusting to be done. i had to pick up a few skills like, how to organize myself without relying on anyone else. It ended up shaping a lot of self confidence.
Curiosity again was the driver during my masters studies and I continues to pursue adventurous by learning about business and economics apart from Engineering studies.
After finishing my masters study, I was faced the same brutal choice of deciding in which direction should I take my career?
I was 24 years old. I thought I should go for a job which can maximize my options later. so I took a job at the edge of technology an business. I was able to get it because of the development of character taken place as a byproduct of my extra curricular activities, on top of engineering background.
If it would be pre-internet, then i would end up with the same job for the rest of my life. however, since the rise of internet and particularly social media, he traditional outlook of one career path has been disrupted.
Looking back, I wonder about the kid who is right now in 10th grade. how does he/she think about navigating the career?
On the one hand, student have a lot o choices, and many f them start to earn money by the time they are 16, some of them even own a few businesses.
On the other hand, I think it has become even more difficult given the number of choice have increased but the sense of direction is gone. There is no truly paved path. OR to be precise, the paved paths are deteriorating and new paths being created also last a few years.
I think due to current educational system is under equipped to deal with the situation. Hence, large amount of kids finishing high school, university, or advanced degrees find themselves with a feeling of disorientation.
What could be done about this? Well, I don’t know which profession will have its field day a few years from now, but I do take the approach of my favorite author Naseem Taleb, when it comes to learning skills and making myself future proof!
Study skills which are anti-fragile
Focus on learning basic skills, which have been in demand long before the rise of internet and social media. For example: learn critical thinking, abstract problem solving, interpersonal communication, etc.
This is not to say hard sciences are not useful. Study of those, also have been relevant pre internet. As a rule ask yourself, the profession you are preparing for, how long it has been around? The longer the better.
Keep your options open
Make choices in life which lets you stay flexible in terms of career options. since, the world is changing faster than ever before, antifragile career is the one where you have multiple options, instead of just one.
Think of your career as a portfolio:
Every year, there are new kind of jobs created, which didn’t exist before. My outlook is now about creating a portfolio of careers, each one of them has it s own purpose. For example: one of the careers should be well paid. the other should be fulfilling, and another one should focus on solving one of great problems facing the mankind.
Write down the mix that you want, and start working towards creating it.
This might seem a bit far for you, but remember you can start now to have 3–4 careers after a decade.
Become street smart
Learn skills which are not taught at any school. for example, learn skills of persuasion, negotiation, investing, managing emotions, etc.
be ready to invest time and money necessary to acquire the skills of street smartness, as these will serve you well and hey are rare as vast majority of people do not take the initiative to learn them.
Last but not least, learn to enjoy life for all its colors…
