Do you.
When asked what final advice she had for the remaining seven American Idol contestants, Pop Diva and this week’s American Idol mentor Mariah Carey said: “Do you.” (In case you missed the show, that is a statement, not a question, with the emphasis on you.)
“Do you. And do a great job. And say a little prayer, and every things going to be alright.”
What sound career advice! In Darden’s Career Development program, we help students craft a story, perform during interviews, negotiate offers, and get off to a good start in their jobs. But in the end, in the job search process, and in the job, Mariah Carey is probably right: just do you. Do a great job. Say a little prayer. And everything has to be alright. Because in the end, all you can do is you.
The opposite of doing you is to be a pretender. Many people spend a great deal of their career as a pretender. They pretend to love the job, the benefits, the money, the trappings. But one day they realize they are trapped, and that they have been pretending. The job is boring, the commute is killing them, and the family is missing them. Many only wake up to this reality when the company wakes them up with a pink slip. Some are lucky enough to come to this realization on their own. Even luckier are the ones that realize they are pretending in the first part of their career.
Closer to home: I know students who take a summer job or first-year associate job because they think others think this is the job they should take. So from the first day, they pretend to like the job. They may even pretend they can do the job. But as each day goes by, they are confronted with the reality that others around them are better at the job than they are, or “like” the job more than they do. But they go on pretending, until one day their boss calls them into the office and lets them go because they just don’t seem to “fit” with the organization’s culture or because they just aren’t keeping pace with their peers in terms of performance. This reality is happening in Wall Street firms right now as recent graduate receive pink slips because of the softening financial sector.
So are you doing you, or are you pretending? Are you in business school because it will help you realize your passions, or because someone told you to go to business school? Are you taking a summer job in Investment Banking because you value the work and the experience, or because your friends are going into Investment Banking? Are you working a job right now in which fear that someone will discover you are pretending?
I enjoy working with all students, but I particularly enjoy working with students who come into my office in September of their First Year and are themselves—their career search is true to their calling, or their search is unashamedly to find their calling.
My advice: heed Mariah Carey’s advice: do you. Do you, and you won’t live in fear of being discovered a pretender.
