Career Questions From The Seekers Abound…Answers Take Time…

It’s that time of year where the requests for help with jobs, internships, college choices come from parents and recent grads in droves. There aren’t more or less than previous years, but they seem to be a little different. Often requests came from people looking to enter the sports or media field, now they are from experienced young people who can’t seem to find the right salary or position, and I really try to take as many as possible as I also try to learn about what they are seeing, hearing and doing. However if we can figure out a time to talk or meet, I’m not into sugar coating…following your passion is important, finding a job that leads you to where you want to be…not the perfect job but a door opener…is what people need to understand. Some of that has to do with reframing skills, some with volunteering, some with having the courage to do uncomfortable things. Some times people don‘t want to hear it and seek others to tell them what they want to hear and that’s fine…I’d rather tell those looking what they need to hear.

Ironically somewhat, many of the inbound emails, texts, LinkedIn requests come from the parents who usually this time of year seem more worried than the graduates or the intern seekers. There are some who reach out on their own for sure, but my response to those parents doing the asking…ask your kid to do the work and reach out, I’m glad to talk to him or her or them and listen to what they want to or can do vs you. It’s their life, let’s help them and more often than not it is the start of a pretty good give and take as we figure out how or who can help them get a start.

It’s a business of relationships after all…of people and places not as much things. It’s a business of learning what skills you have and how they apply to what a need is, not the other way around. And it is a time where piecing it together works better than finding the whole enchilada in one place.

Now for sure I can relate to both the parent and the seeker, and I have great empathy for both, especially those who have out the time in to create their own narrative, to hustle into opportunities, and those who keep driving to see what’s next, and do it with a smile or with good questions. Those people I don’t worry about that much. It’s the ones who grab all the buzzwords…”aspire higher,” “follow your passion,” “don’t settle to start,” that drives me crazy.

Like I said I can relate, especially because sometimes I think we forget the best learning experiences, the ways we find out early on not just what we like but what we don’t like, and the friendships we build at the start, are not the biggest and the brightest jobs or internships, they are the ones where we took away learnings that last a lifetime.

For me, it was stops in and around my senior year and places now lost to time… SportsPhone the deli counter at Waldbaum’s (where I sliced off a piece of my finger on the Kosher slicer and didn’t even realize at first), Hoop du Jour…a long forgotten summer camp at Fordham run once summer by Coach Tom Penders, the New York Slapshots, one of the best little experiences anyone starting out could have ever had.  Read about the team here.

The point is that none of these steps were the biggest and the brightest or the easiest. But they were maybe some of the most fun jobs I ever had, and the relationships forged then still last to this day.

Now that’s not to say anyone should kick back and wait for what comes along. But if you are young today, why not try some fun or unique or challenging things starting out? Maybe it’s not perfect, maybe it doesn’t match the vision that someone placed in front of you, but maybe, just maybe you will get a spark of joy for a field that you will learn and grow in, and that’s what this formative time should be for. Hard work? Sure. Challenges? Certainly? Working for nothing? Nope, every hour earned should have a price with it.

Finding joy in what you do?

100 percent.

Take the time to try, take the time to let them try. Not foolishly or carelessly but with some purpose and some time. You really don’t know where it will lead sometimes, I certainly didn’t, but the try got the buy eventually, and the relationships and the experiences last a lifetime.

Want to ask more, drop me a line.

Enjoy what June can bring, and congrats to those coming into the work pool. The water will be choppy, but ask good pointed questions, find your mates and it will not swallow you up, it just needs to seek its level around you.