Advice sought and delivered
Monday, July 23, 2012 at 12:08AM 
Got a request from somebody who's a protegee of someone Linked In to me. We subsequently linked to each other.
This fellow then asks me for career advice in the following vein:
The purpose of my message is to learn about your ascent to being a world renowned analyst.
Often times, analysts are perceived to be indispensable because of their technical ability to first access data and then render it in easy-to-understand graphs and charts. After the completion of this time consuming task, analysts are then expected to explain data trends and irregularities in "plain English". By this time, my eyes are so glazed from normalizing data, my write up - while good - is lackluster at best.
As I read "The Pentagon's New Map", I see the book's content as a balanced amalgamation of data, research and insights. You are exactly what I want to be what I grow up.I would love to be that analyst who makes a difference in the way business and political decisions are made.
How do you recommend I get to that point in my career?
My reply:
- Never turn down a chance to do public speaking. In fact, seek them out at every opportunity. Even if you do a lot of public speaking, it will take the usual 10,000 hours before you get really good.
- Study as many foreign languages as you can fit in. Studying several languages is more important than mastering one. Good storytelling is ultimately translation, and the best-communicating experts are experts at talking to other experts from fields other than their own.
- Write every day. If you don't get enough opportunities, then start you own blog or join a group blog.
- Prepare to view good writing as a lifetime pursuit. It will take nonstop writing for about a decade before you really get good.
- Whenever possible, seek out and work with professional editors on everything you write.
- Read authors whose style you admire and work their tendencies into your own material.
- Listen to what people say you do best and then do that as much as possible, getting others to do things for you that you do poorly. So if mentors you trust tell you're not a good writer and not a good speaker, then spending your life trying to overcome your weaknesses is probably not a great idea. You'd be better off sticking to what you're best at and trying to make those skills world class.
- Nobody is good at everything. Life involves choices.
I have learned - over time - to keep my advice general like that, versus trying to plot out career paths for others, because, when you do, you inevitably advise them to either: 1) retrace your "brilliant" journey; or (worse) 2) do the opposite of what's made you such a bitter fuck about your life and career. It's like when you go around asking profs for advice on your PhD topic (which I did all over greater Boston): they either have you updating their own diss or tilting at some windmill they now wish they'd taken on instead.
In truth, I don't advocate anyone pursue a long and steady career, which is why I'm not partial to dispensing wisdom about following my "brilliant" path, nor am I one to suffer bitterness over the choices I've made. Every choice I made, I made because I felt it was time to move on and I was more fearful of creative stagnation than career stagnation. Simply put, I feel good when I feel creative, and when I don't, I go with no regrets.
Peinvention, as scary as it is, beats stagnation every time. The only thing you can be assured of in this world - in this era - is that your "beloved" or "hated" career will likely terminate much faster than you expect, forcing you into a new one (this one feels like my 5th).
Personally, I love that about this world. To me, the scariest thing in this world is the person who works the one track for 35 years and then retires - a disappearing notion. To me, that would hell on earth. I have always been distinctly aware that I only get one at-bat, so I plan on swinging at everything before I go.
Everybody needs a Plan B.
I am always plotting my escape from my current career, because the minute something become un-negotiable, you might as well cash it in. Because that's when your career starts owning you instead of you owning your life.
Reader Comments (2)
Dr. Barnett,
As a Career Coach for more than 30 years, I heartily endorse your response. Following one's "Occupassion" results in others benefiting from it whether it being a mechanic or a diplomat.
After leaving the Marine Corps I set out to learn more about what I had to offer the world. The Corps provided me the values that were left out out of my life when I was 5 and both my Dad and brother were killed in combat in Korea and my mother became mentally ill. I took the Corps values and turned them into my Core values and explored occupations that were guided by spending six months with my paternal Aunt who told me to "be where you are (Command Presence) and be interested in everything and let God's will be your light." The other approach was to try out occupations and not being afraid to fail. That path has not failed me ever. I am writing a book about each and every angel HE has put in my path.
Finding and doing what you do best is why you are on this earth. As I come to the end of my "remuneration career" after being on this earth for more than 66 years I am now considering a move that will have little financial remuneration but immense psychological income and satisfaction.
Find what you are good at and study every field possibly impacting that chosen area of specialization. Please don't grow up... cherish that inquisitive side of your inner child who seeks more and more information and make every effort to share what you learn. Learn to appreciate the "Angels in Your Path" we all have them and many of them go unappreciated... tell them or their family members how they blessed you and you will have further insights to what is in store for you.
God Bless You Thomas!
Semper Fidelis!
Great advice. I'd add two more points:
1. Read widely. Don't just read the best authors in your own field, have a couple other areas of interest (hobbies) and read the best authors there too.
2. Hang out with people smarter than you.