If I Were 22...

Apologies for the lack of consistency in posting again.  You may notice this blog is now written by Rachel O'Connell, instead of Rachel Rush, which will hopefully explain my recent absence.

This post is a little less HR related, and a lot more self-reflective, but I think it still has some career tidbits for you.  A few months ago, LinkedIn thought leaders and influencers across the platform wrote articles giving advice to their 22 year old selves.  I found it really interesting to see the advice these folks wished they had received sooner because that type of insight is only provided when we really learn things in life.  The occasional self reflection is important, and we all know that hindsight is 20/20.  While I’m not quite as far removed from 22 as some of the influencers on LinkedIn, there’s still some perspective I’ve gained – and who knows, perhaps one of you reading this will find value in it.

I prefer to work in 3’s, so if I could give advice to my 22 year old self, I would advise me to:

1. avoid student debt
2. begin with the end in mind
3. inventory my productivity

Let’s begin with avoiding student debt, as this is probably the most obvious of the three.  I’ve talked about this before because I think it’s a really important topic.  I’m part of the most indebted generation of all time.  My parents generously contributed to my undergraduate education allowing me to avoid loans, but I financed my attendance at business school.  Business school was a good choice for me – it gave me the business foundation I lacked from undergrad and my early work experience, allowed me to connect with some really intelligent and awesome people, and helped me grow up in ways I didn’t realize I needed to.  I would make the same choice today.  However, I would make different choices about how I paid for grad school.  Looking back, I would have potentially put it off for a couple more years until I had saved more money…I would have worked more during school…and I would have found cheaper housing.

Now, let’s talk about beginning with the end in mind.  I’ve always been somewhat goal-oriented, but I didn’t realize just how well goal setting worked for me until I was in graduate school.  If I set a realistic and reasonable goal, I can be and will be very prescriptive in how I pursue that goal.  Some people achieve success in different ways, but this is what works for me.  Now that I know this about myself, I think back to all of the career counseling I received when I was younger.  In high school, I was unsure what I wanted to do, and had advice coming at me from many angles.  Even as I started college, I was bombarded with people telling me where my strengths were, and the types of jobs that would make me happy or that I would be good at.  I partially followed their advice, and eventually found my way.  But I think there’s an easier way for young adults to make big decisions like “what they want to do with their lives” and that is to begin with the end in mind.  It’s hard to think so far ahead at 22, but having the most honest discussion with yourself that’s possible will make this large life decision a lot easier.

• If you could have your dream retirement, what would you be doing and where? 
• When/if you have children, how much flexibility do you think will be required in order to give them the childhood you would want for them? 
• Think about what other goals do you have such as where you want to live and whether you want to travel (to where and how often). 

The answers to all of these questions (in addition your strengths and passions) should guide your career decisions because if your career allows you to do the things in life the way you want to do them…you’re going to get the most satisfaction and happiness possible from your job, and ultimately life.

Lastly, let’s talk about why I would advise myself to “inventory my productivity”.  I struggled to put words to this concept for the past few years, and finally found what I was looking for on the blog of Thomas Stanley.  He says America’s workforce is on a continuum where you have hunter/gatherers at one end and cultivators at the other end.  He describes the concept using the example of educators.

“Educators/teachers/professors do not inventory, they do not cultivate.  So what if a professor gave 3,000 lectures?  He will not be paid again unless he gives the 3001st.  It is a minority of educators who ever publish/inventory their hard work in the form of books, study guides, workbooks, etc.” *

The idea is that today’s productivity or labor is directed into building springs of future income.  This is a concept that needs to be discussed in our schools and something that would have been nice to think about at 22 as I was beginning my career.

I have very few photos from age 22.
This was before camera phones & selfies.
Good Lord this girl has a lot to learn.

My boss always says people reflect about and make decisions in their life in three general categories:  family, career and money.  His idea is that at any point in time in one’s life, one of these categories is most important and that the order of importance changes throughout your life.  I try to and will continue to try to keep family off this blog, but hopefully this provided a little insight to all you 22-year olds (or your inner 22-year old) on a couple of my lessons learned around the other two.

*Quote taken from www.thomasjstanley.com.