Hiring the job

I think the person who takes a job in order to live - that is to say, for the money - has turned himself into a slave.
-- Joseph Campbell

Whitney Johnson, a blogger over at LinkedIn wrote an interesting post about hiring the job. Her point was that you should approach each job for what it can do for you.

I think that a lot of us, myself included, but especially those of you just launching your careers, all too often lose sight of that.

Working at some bulge bracket bank for the green it provides or the prestige in conveys is a fool's game. It may work at first (you'll get bigger paychecks than you've ever seen and you'll rack up the style points with that models and bottles thing), but in the end, the consequences of jumping to a job for the wrong reasons will bite you in the ass.

This is somewhat different from the "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life" idea. Understanding exactly what you want from a job gives you some ability to steer your destiny. Without conscious choice, you may drift along, not optimizing your potential happiness.

Whitney distinguishes between jobs that you do to gather resources (in her case babysitting, waitressing, secretarial work) -- what my father delights in calling scut work and jobs that advance you. Scut work is important too, it's like the fishermen who spend days catching cod so they have bait to catch crab. It is necessary so that you have the resources to make the next step.

But knowing what you want from a job that advances your career is important too.

I've seen and know a lot of mid-career people that were trapped in their jobs. They have no way forward for advancement and yet they feel under-challenged. Stuck in drudgery.

The burst of energy that you start your career climb with dissipates. The momentum will not carry you. Inertia will bind you in place.

Whitney's career got traction when she saw that she could shape her destiny. She started on Wall Street as a secretary. She writes:

But for the first time, a job wasn’t just about making enough money to get a college degree: the curve I wanted to scale was my career. I wanted my work to do the emotional job of allowing me to learn, to be challenged.

She used that motivation to work her way up the food chain to investment banker, analyst, and eventually the founder of a boutique fund.

When I was first starting out, I think I made neither good nor well informed choices. I initially decided to be an electrical engineer, in no small part, because it paid better. When I look back at what I entered into those PSAT bubble surveys, I originally wanted to be a mechanical or a civil engineer. Instead, I just opted for a path that would lead to a higher salary. That was a mistake. I really wasn't thinking it through.

Similarly, through the early part of my career, I had a pretty standard career progression, but I don't really think I thought about it much.

This changed.

I was pretty much your standard individual contributor type. Happy enough to labor in the trenches. Then the tiny group I was in was going to expand. A lot. From 3 to 20-odd people. I decided I wanted to pick the people I worked with. At the same time, a matrix management position opened up that would let me administratively manage them. I decided I wanted to have control of how they were compensated too.

I too worked my way up the food chain. I picked up skills and found the things that I enjoyed and the things that I could do when called upon. I started looking for ways to stretch myself, to learn new and interesting skills.

I did not want to become a dinosaur -- fossilized and trapped.

Later, when I left my comfortable job at the National Lab, I knew again that I needed to be strategic in my thinking because I was 3500 miles from my home base and my wife, my kids, and my mortgage holder all needed me to succeed no matter what. Also, I was getting to an age where retirement was closer in time than my education was. It was important to figure out how this was all going to work.

I discovered that I could pick jobs for the opportunities they offered me to grow rather than for the cash reimbursement they offered. Once I realized that, it became a lot easier to smooth my career path. And amazingly, the money came along with it effortlessly. Now I have more opportunity than I can possibly pursue. I have happiness and a measure of financial security. Planning made that easier to achieve.

When recruiters call or when I chat with CTO's and CEO's who want to offer me new jobs, they are often amazed at the breadth of my experience. It is clear for all to see that I value intellectual challenge and want to find new ways to use my current skills. I'm still pretty picky because I want to think clearly about what each potential job does for me rather than what the job gives me.

So, my advice is to think about what your job can do for you. To dream a little, and to think about the doors that open next. Pick the job that expands your horizons rather than the one that only fattens your wallet. In the long run, you will be happier and more successful.

In closing, take Whitney's parting words to heart:

Dreaming has made the difference between having a job and having a career.

I'm happier with a career. Will you be?

 
UFOinsider:

This came at the perfect time for me, as it helped put into words what I'm realizing.

Thank you!

Same here, just need to get that opportunity to break out of one of those dead end jobs to a position that'll provide that opportunity.

Give me a kid whose smart, poor, and hungry...............
 

I'm willing to bet that most of the people whom work in banking now if they were forced to switch to flipping house for a living they would actually enjoy it.

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 
Best Response

I have mixed feelings about this post. On the one hand, it has a ring of truth to it. But look at a major portion of it from a slightly different angle. The best thing a job can do for you is to increase your future earnings potential, or "human capital". So whether you're focusing on the cash inflows in the present or those that are likely to occur in the future because of your increased human capital, the point is that greenbacks are the only tangible benefit from sacrificing your time and energy into a job. Everything else is either intangible or irrelevant, or both. You can be challenged and acquire personal growth in your own time and on your own terms.

 
<span class=keyword_link><a href=/resources/skills/finance/going-concern>Going Concern</a></span>:
...So whether you're focusing on the cash inflows in the present or those that are likely to occur in the future because of your increased human capital, the point is that greenbacks are the only tangible benefit from sacrificing your time and energy into a job.

Exactly... but sometimes we are so caught up in the present that we don't think of the long term.

So thinking of your increased human capital is just as important as thinking about your day 1 compensation.

Sure psychic income is great, but green cash for a job you enjoy is better.

 

Just don't forget what we can learn from Back Door Mark.

"It's very easy to have too many goals and be overwhelmed by them... The trick is to find the one thing you can focus on that represents every other single thing you want in life." -- @"Edmundo Braverman"
 

Earum facilis saepe amet tempora et. Saepe minus eos est. Ut aliquid velit nihil pariatur rem voluptas iste.

Progress is impossible without change...

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. (++) 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (86) $261
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (13) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (202) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (144) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”