One evening earlier this week, after a day consisting of a short run on the treadmill, a great day of company and student meetings at Darden (9 hours worth!), and an evening of attending my 15-year old daughters JV basketball game (her name is Christine--a 9th grader at Western Albemarle High School), (Christine asked me to take a look at her homework assignment. What should have been a brief look at Freshman paper has ended up costing me lots of time this week because what she said in her paper made me think a lot about my career decisions and yours.
The assignment was to write a paper on her “own personal Garden of Eden” and to describe “paradise” as she sees it using imagery, illustrations, allegories, etc.
As a parent, that I was asked to comment was cool on two levels: 1) it’s nice to be needed by your own kids (mine are fiercely independent—I wonder where they get that); and 2) it nice to have a glimpse into my daughter’s life without having to break into her Facebook page (I haven’t done that yet, but…).
I’m not sure what I expected. She’s certainly not a “Material Girl” (remember Madonna?), but I think I expected more “things” as part of her paradise. What I read, though, was about a place that makes her smile: a place of beauty (beaches, marshes, endless fields), a place of activities (horseback riding, kayaking, sunning on the beach), and a place of “good” (no diseases, no bad people).
Perhaps it’s kind of warped that I relate this to careers, but I did: to mine, and to yours.
With regard to mine, I thought back on some career decisions I had made. One was made for the money and the convenience of staying put geographically. That one did not last very long. I had established criteria upon which to base my decision (my own life themes if you will), and this job met very few of the criteria, and really scored a zero on the most important ones.
On the other hand, my decision to come to Darden five years ago met more of my themes—my personal paradise if you will. I get to work with intellectually challenging colleagues, I get to touch the lives of some incredible rising stars, I stay connected to a business world that I find exciting and rewarding, and I live and raise my family in a place that is easy to call home.
I met with a Second Year Darden student yesterday whom I had not spent much time with before yesterday. She was bright, and energetic, and interesting, and ambitious, and talented. She’s beginning to second guess herself, because she has not yet landed a full-time position. She’s even considering taking a job that really fits none of her themes. I hope I convinced her not to. Some company is going to be so fortunate to hire someone of her capability and personality, and she needs to hold out until the right one comes along. Perhaps she needs to re-write her “career” paradise paper and keep her search focused on that.
So, what’s your paradise? Is this first job out of Darden a step closer to it? Cause if it is not, maybe you should pull out that list of life themes, and keep searching.