How to pick a job you actually like?

Advice for my sister who just graduated

Photo by: Seyi Ariyo via Unsplash

Last Friday I joined my sister’s graduation party. Yes, after 2 years of Covid restrictions, we were finally allowed to come together and party again. And what’s a better reason to come together than a graduation party?

The moment you graduate is a moment you are looking forward to for years. It is like a finish flag at the end of a marathon race. A marathon that includes sweat and tears, drunk parties, regrets and memories, deadlines, sleepless nights and reading uninteresting papers.

The final months before your graduation are like the final few kilometres of that marathon. You think about quitting, you feel tired and the soreness and pain throughout your whole body.

The only thing that prevents you from stopping is all the effort you already put in and your family cheering you on from the sideline.

So, you push through the pain, decide that you are not going to give up now and sprint all the way to the final finish flag. All the way till your final graduation presentation.

Till your ultimate moment of glory, till your diploma and till the champagne. You have done it. You think it is over. You succeed.

But unfortunately, that is not completely true. Graduating is not the finish line, it is actually just the start.

Because now you have to start working and pick a career. But without the structure, safety and guidance of a school, without the supervision, without the curriculums and without the clear direction. You now need to completely decide for yourself in which way to run.

I barely have any work experience myself, but yet I would like to share 4 pieces of advice that helped me make some career-related choices. Nothing new or surprising, but that does not make it less true.

Advice #1: Do something you love

Now I know what you are thinking: “You can easily say that, you are graduated as an innovation engineer, you have the luxury to pick what you love doing and not worry about paying the rent.”

You know what, you are right, I will most likely find a job that I like and that pays well. But hear me out.

When I suggest picking something you love I do not mean you should choose something like surfing, making pancakes or giving hockey training. There are more jobs that can fulfil your passion, for example where you can work with a lot of other people or kids, where you be active and do not have to sit behind a desk or where you can laugh with colleagues.

It can be a restaurant or opening your own hostel, you can become a professional talent coach or you can become a surf instructor in Portugal.

Do something that makes you come alive. Because I believe we do our best work when we love the work we do.

Advice #2: Do something that helps others

There are endless companies big and small that do not add any value to our lives. They are just selling crap. They are making money by purely leveraging the greed in all of us, consumers.

I would advise you to do something that aims at helping people. Like fighting for the environment and saving the polar bears, making kids smile, sport more or eat healthier or giving people the holiday of their dreams.

Yes, making money is important, finding work we love doing is important, but trying to help others will give your work a sense of meaning that keeps you going.

I know, wise words and a bit hypocritical for someone that is working within a bank, which is not exactly a charity. However, I can now say that I am most proud of my projects related to sustainability, social housing and cyber security. Projects with the potential to add some value to the world.

Try to do something that makes this world a slightly better place.

Advice #3: Do something you directly see the result of

Do not work in a company that is too large.

You can have work that pays well, that you love doing, that does good in the world, but you still lack that sense of meaning on a day-to-day basis.

How come?

Large companies — like for example banks are often so big, so complex, so slow-moving, so split up across continents and silos that your feeling of purpose gets lost in an endless number of meetings.

If you are working together with 20.000 others on a product that yes — aims to change the world, but only in 15 years from now, there is a high chance that you will lose your sense of contribution and meaning.

It is no surprise that many colleagues within these big corporates end up starting something for themselves or joining a smaller company after a few years.

To be fair, the possibilities to learn new things and the financial stability within corporates can be fantastic, but it can also decrease your sense of fulfilment in the long run.

Advice #4: Forget traditional careers

What is a career in the first place? A career is a fixed path describing your growth in a specific industry or profession. But what if we just forget that word at all?

Yes! Please grow, learn, take risks, try out new things, laugh, start a company, stop it again, join another, leave, see and work in different parts of the world, fail, succeed, do charity work and meet amazing people.

You will most likely work for 40+ years, and in that period you are going to make a lot of right choices and wrong choices. You are going to love a lot of jobs and regret some of them. Do not overthink it too much, just try, give it your all and have some fun along the way.

Jeroen