This is a post that has a beginning but no end. I think one of the lessons I've taken away from the past year is the importance of taking calculated risks in your career. Looking back, I can think of 3 key moments that involved some fairly significant level of risk: 1. quitting my job at the bank without anything lined up. 2. taking a temp job as a 30+ yr old MBA grad, potentially permanently depressing my future earning capacity. 3. Holding off on taking an analyst position that was offered to me in the hopes of getting a manager role. (risk of coming up empty on both).
Looking back, there were also some significant risk mitigators. 1. Yes, I quit my job, but I was married and my wife had a high-paying job, so we weren't in danger of suffering financially. 2. Yes, I was taking a temp job, but I was also unemployed at the time, so making some money over making nothing seemed reasonable. 3. Yes, I was taking a risk at passing up an analyst position, but I figured I could get some analyst position elsewhere eventually, given my education and experience.
Summary: There were risks, but they weren't as big as they initially seemed, but even still, if I didn't take those risks, I wouldn't be where I am today. And where I am today is working for a company I like more than my old job. Working with people that I like more than my old job. Being able to see myself in this career longer than in my old job. Being more excited about the work content than my old job. Getting paid less than my old job, but also working proportionally less hours than my old job, which allows me to do other things in life that I value and enjoy. I'm much less stressed and much more happier than I was a year ago. I do not have the benefit of looking into the future and seeing how things all pan out. But early indications are that it's hard to say anything but just to admit that things worked out very well.
It's also very important to note that my agency in what transpired was minimal compared to God's agency and others' agency. Yet, it is still important to stress that we have a major part to play. We only have one life, so we better live it the best we can.
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I was looking back at an old e-mail from an old friend I received back when I was thinking of quitting my job in banking, and here's a summary of what he wrote back to me:
1. There's wisdom in refocusing your career earlier than later; the longer you wait, the more difficult it gets - and your soul dies in the process.
2. Don't minimize the importance of affinity, but don't overemphasize it either. Your personality affects what tendency you should likely avoid.
3. Don't do anything that creates an inner-deadness.
4. Be courageous. More often than not, our inability to make decisions has less to do with ignorance and more to do with fear.
5. Seek community input
6. Consider how much other lifestyle pre-decisions have factored into your vocational decision.
Looking back, this was one of many valuable advice I received in helping me process my thoughts.
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Just today, I was talking with a friend about how we're in our early 30s now, and we and a lot of our friends are at a stage in our lives where we face real challenging decisions, decisions that involve closing doors of opportunities, making real tradeoffs with consequences, making real sacrifices in career or family, etc. When we were high school, the biggest decision was what college to go to. In college, the biggest decision was which job to take. And in our early-mid 20s, the decisions was about going to grad school, or taking a better job, or moving to a new city. These choices always involved risk and they still exist for us in our 30s. But back then, it didn't seem risky. It always felt like you could just turn around if you wanted. But now, the consequences seem more permanent and the impact wider in scope. Now, the consequences are not just different alternatives of fabulous. Now, they involve starting over, taking steps back, closing certain doors, etc. Now, it's decisions like: do I take a step back in my career in support of my husband/wife? Do I take a step back in my career to take care of a child or two? Do I take a step back to take care of my parents for a period of time? If I start over in my career, am I throwing away everything I did over the last 10 years? Now, the risks seem more real.
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I wish I remember this better, but one of the key lessons from behavioral finance is the existence of loss aversion. The pain that most people feel about losing x is far greater than the joy they feel about gaining x. So this results in a severe risk aversion in many people that is somewhat irrational. And perhaps there is an opportunity to really benefit if we had the ability to see risks and their corresponding rewards more rationally.
This isn't a post to unequivocally encourage everyone to take more risks. But in general, assuming reasonable outcomes like low-risk/low-reward and high-risk/high-reward, if our tendency is to be much more risk adverse than we should be, then perhaps there's tremendous opportunity for those of us who can stomach more risk than we otherwise might have taken. And particularly for those of us who are younger and can absorb the potential downside outcomes that may occur.
Of course, another lesson of behavioral finance is the presence of confirmation bias. So where does this leave us?
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Behind Every Good Woman is a Good Man?
One thing I've really enjoyed and appreciated over the last several years is seeing how discussion on feminism has become more prominent, more nuanced, more mainstream, more complicated, more diverse, etc.
Last year, Anne Marie Slaughter, professor at Princeton, wrote an Atlantic Monthly piece called "Why Women Still Can't Have It All" that went viral.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/
Also last year, Marissa Meyer, a Google Executive, was appointed CEO of Yahoo! It was notable then, that she was hired while pregnant. Then she surprised everyone by returning to work 2 weeks after giving birth and more recently issuing a ban on telecommuting at her company. (She has said in a prior interview [paraphrased] "I don't think that I would consider myself a feminist. Certainly I believe in equal rights and feel women are just as capable as men in a lot of dimensions, but I don't have the militant drive that comes with that."
This Monday, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In was released. Before the book, before her HBS speech, before her Barnard speech, there was her TED talk in 2010, which I remember watching when it first came out. (below)
Last year, Anne Marie Slaughter, professor at Princeton, wrote an Atlantic Monthly piece called "Why Women Still Can't Have It All" that went viral.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/
Also last year, Marissa Meyer, a Google Executive, was appointed CEO of Yahoo! It was notable then, that she was hired while pregnant. Then she surprised everyone by returning to work 2 weeks after giving birth and more recently issuing a ban on telecommuting at her company. (She has said in a prior interview [paraphrased] "I don't think that I would consider myself a feminist. Certainly I believe in equal rights and feel women are just as capable as men in a lot of dimensions, but I don't have the militant drive that comes with that."
This Monday, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In was released. Before the book, before her HBS speech, before her Barnard speech, there was her TED talk in 2010, which I remember watching when it first came out. (below)
Most recently, former Lehman Brothers CFO, Erin Callan, came out with a NY Times op ed piece, "Is There Life After Work", warning women of the potential sacrifices they face for "leaning in" without really thinking about it.
She considers herself a feminist because she's allowing women to have real freedom. If you want to become the next CEO, go for it, but know the costs. But you shouldn't feel marginalized for accepting those costs. If you want to be a stay-at-home-mom, that's great too, and you shouldn't feel marginalized for that decision either. It's your choice. As is any combination of work-life balance in between.
In her book [disclosure: which I've only skimmed so far], Sandberg defends Meyer's decision to return to work early from maternity leave. And Slaughter defended Meyer's other controversial decision to eliminate telecommuting in another Atlantic Monthly article, "Mayer's Job is to be CEO - Not to Make Life Easier For Working Moms"
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All this is a tangential preamble. What really struck me about Sandberg's talk was her suggestion that to achieve equality in the workplace, you really needed equality at home. She talks about how stay-at-home-dads are ostracized, sometimes ridiculed, and have no support, and how that's a real problem and barrier for WOMEN succeeding. (I got a glimmer of this when I was a SAHD for several months - looking back an invaluable experience for me; or costly experience depending on how you look at it!) The way I interpret this is that we'll never really have equality in the workplace unless we see a massive shift of men taking on more responsibility in the home, whether that be just doing more chores, or working part time, or being full-time stay-at-home-dads. There is an implicit acknowledgment that women (like men) want it all but can't have it all. We're not going to see 50% of leadership positions go to women just by encouraging women to work hard and stay in the game, b/c there are too many sacrifices. Anyway, I found this point extremely insightful.
One of my college friends, who's now a pastor in DC wrote tangentially about this idea on his blog soon after the first Slaughter article came out called "__men can't have it all"
Peter was not primarily making a point about feminism. He was actually making a point about genuine Biblical masculinity. He was making a point about how God calls men to be excellent at being fathers, beyond the bare minimum, beyond the traditional stereotypes. But the side effect of this will be improved opportunities for women in the workplace.
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So, in a strange way, one of the nuanced goals of feminism may be to improve working conditions for MEN. Giving more paternity leave for example, to encourage and support men who want to stay at home. Would any man reject this? I wouldn't!
Also, another nuanced goal of feminism may be not so much to encourage women to reach for the top (though it should and must), but more so to encourage all (men and women) to reject ridiculously demanding work conditions at the top, so that we can all have some semblance of work-life balance, thereby creating the atmosphere where men and women can succeed at work while feeling like they haven't given up on the hope of "having it all".
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Reputation
Forcing myself to churn these out. This is a brief, fragmented post about reputation.
The only important quotation I know off the top of my head about the importance of reputation is from Othello. In junior year of high school, we were forced to memorize this short phrase: "Who steals my purse steals trash; tis something, nothing; t'was mine t'is his has has been slaves to thousands; but he who filches from me my good name; robs me of that which not enriches him; but makes me poor indeed." It's amazing I still remember this, though I remember nothing about the context and very little about the story. All I remember is that Iago is the bad guy. So anyway, I thought this would be a good, though potentially grossly out-of-context (I don't know), way to introduce the importance of reputation.
But then, I googled something like "reputation quotations", and one of the ones that kept coming up was "Character is more important than reputation." And I thought, "Oh, that's very true!" Everyone, and especially Christians, should be less concerned with how others perceive us and more concerned with who we truly are, before God, before ourselves. Yet, hopefully, these two should not be widely divergent. Meaning, good character should eventually result in a good reputation. If we are Christians, but we have awful reputations, then perhaps there is an opportunity to do some self-reflection to consider whether we are truly reflecting Godly characteristics.
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My dad recently gave me this short advice: When you're an entry level worker, all you need to do is work hard and you will do well. But later on, it's not enough to just work hard to get ahead. As you rise up in the company, it's also about who you know. If you are aligned with good people above you, you can rise with them.
************
I think one of the reasons I got this new job was that I basically did an internship in my temp role, demonstrating who I am and what I can do. The people around me know I'm capable of doing the work. They also know that I can pass the airline test. "Would I want to be stuck in an airline with this guy on a business trip for several hours?" In fact, I actually carpooled with a few people and was stuck in traffic for several hours on a business trip, so this was more than just a theoretical test that I passed.
One of the great benefits of my temp job was that it introduced me to many people within the company because my job required me to interact with a lot of different people. When the position opened up, I initially didn't think I was qualified for the position. But, I was pleasantly surprised when 3 different people, all from different groups, suggested that I apply for it. That gave me the encouragement to pursue it, even though on paper, there may have been more qualified candidates applying for the position. I think I was able to get the job because I was a decent known quantity, while all the other candidates were decent, but unknown quantities.
************
What am I trying to say? I learned that we all have a reputation at work, whether we are conscious of it or not. If you do good work consistently, you develop a good reputation, even with those with whom you rarely work. Temp jobs or internships provide a great opportunity to demonstrate your ability but also establish a reputation. The important thing at work is to do your job well, treat others with respect, bring a good attitude, etc. and hopefully things work out. But, eventually, it'll be important to be savvy about how a good reputation can translate into future opportunities. This is where networking and some personal brand management probably helps (being smart without getting self-absorbed).
************
During my annual assessment in my prior banking job, my general feedback was that I'm good to work with, I follow directions well, I produce good work, but I need to speak up more and contribute more. Often I'm silent or quiet in meetings, and it gives off the impression that I don't care or that I'm holding something back. In my defense, that was sort of accurate! The main reasons I was quiet was: 1. Strategic: I didn't know what to contribute because I was such a fish out of water, so I was following the rule of "Better to stay quiet and be thought a fool, than to speak up and remove all doubt". 2. Decoy: I absolutely hated my job, so I sort of just kept my head down and tried to suffer through the day so I could get home.
But despite those circumstances, I do know that my natural tendency is to be reserved and quiet, so it's a challenge for me to be more expressive and engaging in my future role, so that I can avoid developing that kind of reputation in an environment where I have fewer excuses.
The only important quotation I know off the top of my head about the importance of reputation is from Othello. In junior year of high school, we were forced to memorize this short phrase: "Who steals my purse steals trash; tis something, nothing; t'was mine t'is his has has been slaves to thousands; but he who filches from me my good name; robs me of that which not enriches him; but makes me poor indeed." It's amazing I still remember this, though I remember nothing about the context and very little about the story. All I remember is that Iago is the bad guy. So anyway, I thought this would be a good, though potentially grossly out-of-context (I don't know), way to introduce the importance of reputation.
But then, I googled something like "reputation quotations", and one of the ones that kept coming up was "Character is more important than reputation." And I thought, "Oh, that's very true!" Everyone, and especially Christians, should be less concerned with how others perceive us and more concerned with who we truly are, before God, before ourselves. Yet, hopefully, these two should not be widely divergent. Meaning, good character should eventually result in a good reputation. If we are Christians, but we have awful reputations, then perhaps there is an opportunity to do some self-reflection to consider whether we are truly reflecting Godly characteristics.
************
My dad recently gave me this short advice: When you're an entry level worker, all you need to do is work hard and you will do well. But later on, it's not enough to just work hard to get ahead. As you rise up in the company, it's also about who you know. If you are aligned with good people above you, you can rise with them.
************
I think one of the reasons I got this new job was that I basically did an internship in my temp role, demonstrating who I am and what I can do. The people around me know I'm capable of doing the work. They also know that I can pass the airline test. "Would I want to be stuck in an airline with this guy on a business trip for several hours?" In fact, I actually carpooled with a few people and was stuck in traffic for several hours on a business trip, so this was more than just a theoretical test that I passed.
One of the great benefits of my temp job was that it introduced me to many people within the company because my job required me to interact with a lot of different people. When the position opened up, I initially didn't think I was qualified for the position. But, I was pleasantly surprised when 3 different people, all from different groups, suggested that I apply for it. That gave me the encouragement to pursue it, even though on paper, there may have been more qualified candidates applying for the position. I think I was able to get the job because I was a decent known quantity, while all the other candidates were decent, but unknown quantities.
************
What am I trying to say? I learned that we all have a reputation at work, whether we are conscious of it or not. If you do good work consistently, you develop a good reputation, even with those with whom you rarely work. Temp jobs or internships provide a great opportunity to demonstrate your ability but also establish a reputation. The important thing at work is to do your job well, treat others with respect, bring a good attitude, etc. and hopefully things work out. But, eventually, it'll be important to be savvy about how a good reputation can translate into future opportunities. This is where networking and some personal brand management probably helps (being smart without getting self-absorbed).
************
During my annual assessment in my prior banking job, my general feedback was that I'm good to work with, I follow directions well, I produce good work, but I need to speak up more and contribute more. Often I'm silent or quiet in meetings, and it gives off the impression that I don't care or that I'm holding something back. In my defense, that was sort of accurate! The main reasons I was quiet was: 1. Strategic: I didn't know what to contribute because I was such a fish out of water, so I was following the rule of "Better to stay quiet and be thought a fool, than to speak up and remove all doubt". 2. Decoy: I absolutely hated my job, so I sort of just kept my head down and tried to suffer through the day so I could get home.
But despite those circumstances, I do know that my natural tendency is to be reserved and quiet, so it's a challenge for me to be more expressive and engaging in my future role, so that I can avoid developing that kind of reputation in an environment where I have fewer excuses.
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