The Career Clinic Blog

What’s your story? Does it make you want to keep reading?

Next Generation Nepal founder Conor Grennan is constantly checking in with an older version of himself. Whatever he’s contemplating--for today, the week ahead, or the next several years--he asks, “Will this make me proud when I’m fifty?

“Do I want to be the guy who almost moved to Prague when I was a young man?” Conor wondered. “Or do I want to be the guy who actually did it?”

He moved to Prague.

Do you see why I love working at The Career Clinic? My wonderful guests never let me forget how important it is to keep reaching.

I hope they’re doing the same for you!

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You’re good in math, but you have no interest in becoming an actuary. You’re okay in science, too--but you have even less interest in becoming a researcher or a professor. You want to make really good money when you graduate, and you thought Dagny Taggart in Atlas Shrugged was one cool chick.

Engineering it is! Or…was.

The reasons I just gave for choosing civil engineering as my major in college weren’t altogether irresponsible for a high school kid. Except there’s more to it.

I wanted to be special, and a woman in engineering was special at the time.

Pathetic, I know.

I sailed through my freshman year on what I’d learned in my advanced math classes in high school. Sophomore year was a different story. I knew within a week I was in deep, deep trouble. I was getting into more of the core engineering classes--and if I stuck with them I was in for…hell.

The problem was, I didn’t know what I’d rather be doing. The things I loved to do, the things I was really good at, were fun. And fun was something I thought you had in the evenings or on weekends or after you retired. Not at work.

Now what?

I took the advice of a favorite professor, who knew that many of us wanted to bail. “Make sure you’re running to something,” he suggested, “and not away from it.”

It made sense. When you don’t know where you’re going, as I’ve come to believe, you may as well hang out where you are.

Not only that, but it would’ve really bothered me to quit. You don’t quit something just because it’s difficult. I knew I’d prove something--if only to myself--if I got that degree.

I graduated with a 3.0 average, I passed the Engineer-in-Training exam, and I never went near a real engineering job after I graduated. Smart moves. Every one!

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The author of Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal didn’t set out to change the world. Conor Grennan, who’s also the founder of Next Generation Nepal, was just trying to get a date.

It would’ve worked on me!

“I moved to Prague after graduating from college,” Conor says, “not because I was adventurous or super cool, but because I wanted to appear adventurous and super cool. I wanted to distract attention from the fact that I couldn’t get a job.” What about his work in an orphanage in Nepal? “It helped me justify a trip around the world,” he says.

What can you do when confronted by such honesty besides dabble in that yourself? So while were still on the air I told Conor and Darrell the real reason I majored in engineering.

I’ll tell you tomorrow.

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Every stroke counts.

It’s a philosophy Keith Gockenbach lives by. Keith’s a chemical engineer who became a professional golfer in midlife. He credits much of his success in the office and on the course to knowing every stroke--every connection--matters. “Everyone I meet can help me in some way,” he says. “Everyone I meet is important.” So he’s nice to (you guessed it) everyone.

Being nice is its own reward, but there are other benefits.

You don’t waste time dividing people into categories like “worth being nice to.” You don’t suffer the consequences of guessing wrong when that person flies past you in the game of life. And it’s more fun to play that game when you realize you can’t know how much someone will figure in the outcome.

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Do you think it’s a good practice to interview for a job you don’t want? You know, to practice interviewing?

Some career consultants think that’s fine. I’m not one of them. A career consultant, that is. But I also don’t think it’s okay to waste someone’s time. Practice on your own time.

If during the interview you discover the position isn’t what you had in mind after all, you’ll want to turn it down graciously--once you get an offer, that is. A note of appreciation is always in order, especially if it’s by snail mail. It’s the right thing to do, but it’s also pragmatic. Things change. The person who brought you in to talk about the less-than-ideal situation might change jobs herself, and be hiring for your dream position the next time you’re looking.

I was going to offer a suggestion for what to do if you don’t get the job you’ve interviewed for and want desperately, but I realized I already had. Write that note.

I’ve had a lot of practice writing thank-you notes after losing out on a job. I’m a writer! I rarely get the gig. But when people take the time to consider my work, they get a heartfelt letter. If they offer me suggestions for how to improve that work, they get a longer heartfelt letter--and probably some gourmet cookies.

As for why it stings not to get an offer for a job you don’t want, I’m afraid I can’t help--but I can relate. How many times have you watched a child who’s completely lost interest in a toy suddenly decide it’s her favorite only because some other kid wants it? It’s a cliché, how often someone dumps a boyfriend or girlfriend only to be upset when that person rebounds a little too quickly for the dumper’s taste.

I guess you just have to remind yourself this isn’t something you wanted. Then go get what you do want. And don’t delay. In the words of one of my favorite bosses: “Ready, fire, aim.”

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A job interview isn’t a competition. You’re not trying to edge anyone out of anything.

A job interview is an opportunity to find out if you’d enjoy working with the person who suggested you meet.

“In my book,” communications consultant Richard Gallagher says, “no one ever blows an interview. Even if you walk in unprepared. The purpose of an interview is to show who you are.”

Maybe you’re the kind of person who doesn’t prepare for important meetings!

An interview is an information exchange. Maybe you’ll click with the person asking you questions, maybe the job will be even dreamier than you imagined, maybe you’re needed this afternoon.

And maybe not.

Then what? What happens if you get an offer for a job you don’t want, or don’t get an offer for a job you do want? And why the heck does it sting if you don’t get an offer for a job you don’t want?

Some thoughts in my final post this week.

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If you had all the money in the world, what would you do for fun?

A lot of you, from what you tell me, would host a radio talk show. The biggest surprise in the three or four years of having that on my resume is how many people want it on theirs.

Surprising only because they live in big homes next to movie stars or make the rounds of morning television shows or speak to audiences of thousands for more money--at one gig--than I used to make in a whole year. And when we finish recording interviews for The Career Clinic and I ask if I can return the favor their answers are often some variation of, “Yes. Please tell me how to get your job.”

I laugh. And I answer with some variation of, “I’ll tell you as soon as we figure it out ourselves.” Because The Career Clinic, while every bit the blast I imagined it would be when I dreamed it up twenty years ago, is a startup.

Read into that whatever you want!

It’s glamorous for two hours a week while we’re recording. The other one hundred and sixty-six hours of the week? I should turn it over to Darrell at this point, because it isn’t even glamorous for him for the two hours we spend recording.

And yet, and yet…this morning we had a little sunlight burst through sixteen years of mostly fog. His name is Mike, and not since Skip--who helped us find Mike, by the way--have we looked at each other and thought we might get to put North Shore Productions in the win column after all.

I love the scene in Rocky where he’s telling some kid if you hang out with bums, you’ll become a bum. You hang out with winners, however he worded it, and you’ve given yourself a chance at a good life.

I’ve never really thought of myself as a winner except in terms of the people I’m lucky enough to rub shoulders with. Darrell, Katie, Skip, Mike, Chris--to give you a few examples--what an embarrassment of (aspirational) riches!

All I want out of life is to have earned the privilege of having them in mine.

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Do you get nervous before you give a presentation? I do. When the butterflies show up--they feel more like wasps, by the way--I say to myself, “I’m nervous because I care.”

And then I have fun, because talking with people in person--being able to tell which direction to head next based on the expressions on their faces--is fun.

It reminds me of how I used to freeze up before starting a big project. Then I read Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art. Now I still freeze up, but I don’t freak out about it. I recognize it as part of the deal.

And then I get to work!

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Once upon a time I had a landlord from hell, who told me what heaven was. “Where you are now!” he said. “You will look back on this time of struggle, when you didn’t know how or even if things would work out, as the very best time of your life.”

He was right. Actually he’s been right more than once. The last couple of years, for example, have been scary interesting for Darrell and me. This business is not for sissies. Which I am!

I keep thinking of a presentation I gave recently, to people who were wondering how to summon the courage to go after their dreams. “I have no idea,” I admitted. “I go to bed scared every night.”

Like so many of the people I admire most, though, I found something I’m more afraid of--a boring story. I have more in mind for myself than that.

And I hope the same is true for you.

Scary is also exciting…and fun. Take it from someone who’s never sure she’ll make it off the roller coaster alive. Then watch out, because you might get trampled in my rush to get back in line for another ride!

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You're supposed to have problems. Doesn't that put the molehills and even the mountains into perspective?

The question is whether you have the kind of problems you like to solve.

I mean, for the most part.

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