Career Advice From Steve Jobs

I am not a Steve Jobs fan, I am not a hater either, I just don't think about him much at all either way. I was a bit surprised to find this speech, and even more surprised to listen to it realize that he is quite profound.

Steve tells three great stories to illustrate his point, that you must do something you love and pursue it with passion. Anything less is simply a waste.

Enjoy!

It's Happening Again - Corporate Restructuring

So it is happening for me for the third time in my somewhat short career. The company I have come to work for is undergoing "corporate restructuring."

I think the worse part about these situations is the speculation, rumor, and of course, the unknown. Not to mention the fact that these things generally begin one day completely out of the blue, and then continue on for months and even years.

Am I worried? Of course. I completely agree with the old saying that sometimes the evil you know is better than that you don't know. In one of the previous restructurings the results were better at first, and then unbearable as time went on and it took years to fix the problems that resulted from the initial restructuring. In the other one, the results at first were also better, but as time wore on, old problems and new ones came and again, the situation became unbearable.

However, I know that it doesn't do any good to worry, what will happen will happen and there is little I can do to change anything. And I have also learned that keeping loose and being willing to change and adapt usually makes the going much easier.

Here's to change!

Should We Be Happy At Work?

As I was swapping out the guts of a computer yesterday on the job, a very unsettling thought crossed my mind; I don't like to chase down computer hardware problems.

This train of thought led me to really start thinking that I am perhaps in the wrong career. I then eventually had to ask my self if that even mattered.

There are many great sites out there to get one thinking about careers and being happy at work. I ran across this sort of fun quiz on Monster today "Discover Your Perfect Career." I think that is a really silly name, but the quiz did get me thinking and actually all of the careers it mentioned at the end are things I have dreamed of doing.

The quiz said that I am an ENFP (Extravert, Intuitive, Feeler, Perceiver). I actually think this is pretty accurate. And some of the careers it recommends are Career Counselor, Journalist, Graphic Designer, Copywriter, Corporate Team Trainer and Psychologist. As I said, these are all things I have thought of in the past.

But do we have to be happy at work? Does work have to be meaningful and fulfill me? Or is this a bunch of touchy feely crap that we have bought into? I am not sure that our parents, that would be the baby boomers, gave this a bunch of thought. I have a very hard time imagining my dad sitting around wondering if being an insurance agent completes him. I don't think he worries too much about whether or not he is happy at work. I also have a hard time picturing my father-in-law, a very logical practical Dutchman, wondering if he is happy enough at work.

What do you think? Do we need to be happy at work, are just somewhat content?

Career Advice

In a former job, I had college students reporting to me, and I have stayed in touch with many of them, and it distresses me to see so many of them struggling with indecision now that they have their degrees.

I can relate to this, as I too wonder what could have been if I had been forced to think about what I wanted to do with my life more in high school.

I want to encourage parents to help their kids think through this, so I will post some links below that may be helpful. If you have or know someone who will be going to college, or is in college, and they don't know what to do with their lives, please encourage them to really put some time and effort into this and make a plan.

I love the Wall Street Journal's site CareerJournal. It has some really great articles, including some interviews with people about their jobs.

Another great site is MSN's Collage Grad site.

And another good idea for all high school aged students is to look through some current job postings to get a feel for what jobs and skills employers are looking for.

I got my last job through a posting on CareerBuilder, so I recommend that one here.

Counselor/Job Coach Part

I have often wished that someone would have sat down with me as a teenager and gone over my passions, desires, and goals for my life. I wish they would have encouraged me to talk to professionals doing jobs I thought I may want to do so I could talk to them and perhaps even shadow them for an hour or two to get a feel for what I may want to be when I grew up.

So when I got my daily updates from the Career Builder website with a link to the following article posted there and I saw what some career options for the future look like, I started thinking of careers my talented daughter and smart son could pursue after college.

Potential Jobs:

• Anesthesiologist - potential salary is $225,000
• CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthesiologist) - potential salary is $128,127
• Senior Database Administrator - potential salary is $93,300
• Technical Support Specialist - potential salary is $49,100
• Call Center Manager - potential salary is $53,800
• Civil engineer - potential salary is $57,200
• Project engineer - potential salary is $65,200

Can you tell which one I recommend? If you are good at math and science, then there is no reason not to go for the anesthesiologist. . .right? If you are going to have debt, you may as well have a career that will quickly help get you out of debt. Work is work, you may as well look for something you won't hate that makes good money for you and your family, and will allow for the kind of lifestyle you want. All of these factors should be part of your thought process as you decide on a career.

So what exactly is an Anesthesiologis? For more information on exactly what an Anesthesiologist does, there are some good websites to check out. Again, Mom's bias may be evident.


Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society
University of Southern California Keck School
Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Michigan