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Everette Fortner's Blog

Sugarland's Career Advice

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Monday, hard to wake up
Fill my coffee cup, I'm out the door
Yeah, the freeway's standing still today
It's gonna make me late, and thats for sure
I'm running out of gas and out of time
Never gonna make it there by nine

Chorus:
There's gotta be something more
Gotta be more than this
I need a little less hard time
I need a little more bliss
I'm gonna take my chances
Taking a chance I might
Find what I'm looking for
There's gotta be something more

Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland rocked the JPJ Arena last night.  She performed as the opening act for Keith Urban, but she more than warmed up the crowd.  While I’m dancing in row 109 waiving my phone to “Something More,” I realized she might just be talking about MBA careers.  We espouse a “matching model” of career search—first understanding one’s self, then finding a career that matches one’s life themes.  I’ve already spoken to several Second Year Darden students who spent the summer waking up on Mondays like Sugarland sings, “There’s gotta be something more, gotta be more than this.”   Perhaps these Second Years took jobs that they should not have, for reasons they should not have.  I hope they didn’t get carried away in that horde of students who head to high-paying MBA jobs just because they were the easy ones to pursue.

Five years and there's no doubt
That I'm burnt out, I've had enough
So now boss man, here's my two weeks
I'll make it short and sweet, so listen up
I could work my life away, but why?
I got things to do before die


A mistake made in the summer internship search is easily reversible.  I urge those students who were less than satisfied with their summer, who felt no passion for what they were doing, to re-enter the search.  Don’t settle.  Don’t wake up five years from now and feel burned out, regretting five years of your life.  So many Second Years spend about five minutes in the job search in September, realize how little they like the enormous amount of work a job search entails, and then accept their unacceptable summer offer out of resignation.

Some believe in destiny, and some believe in fate
I believe that happiness is something we create
You best believe that I'm not gonna wait
'Cause there's gotta be something more

Sugarland even sang about the Locus of Control instrument that we do in career class.  Locus of Control refers to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events that affect them, and was developed in 1954 by Julian B. Rotter.  I’ll have to go with Nettle’s “I believe that happiness is something we create” philosophy.  It’s easy to let the First Year or Second Year job search “happen to you,” rather than controlling the process and the outcome.

There's gotta be something more
Gotta be more than this
I need a little less hard time
I need a little more bliss
I'm gonna take my chances
Taking a chance I might
Find what I'm looking for
There's gotta be something more

So, take the extra time and effort now, while you’re in school, to find that “something more”.  Take a few chances in this search—get out of your comfort zone, and get off your buns, dig deep and find what you’re looking for, not what just comes your way.

 


Very good song and great advice you gave relating it to the students and their future careers. Great post, thanks!
Posted by: Work at Home( Visit ) at 10/8/2009 11:57 PM


Great article - very detailed and interesting .
Posted by: ugg boots sale( Visit ) at 11/19/2009 1:43 AM


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Everette Fortner - Director, Career Development Center
Everette Fortner
Executive Director for Corporate Relations and Career Development
Darden School of Business

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2009 Archives

Sugarland's Career Advice

The Ethics of Offers

Multi-task or Multi-fail?

Tell Your Story

A No Jerk Policy

How to Turn That Informal Internship into an Offer (and Other Next Steps)!

Design Sensibility Is the Answer to Your Next Career Question

Breakthrough Career Advice (No, really this time!)

Breakthrough Career Development Advice

You Are What You Do

Getting Started

Sprint to the Finish Line, and then Re-set

Are You Client Ready

These Times, They Are Interesting

Looking For a Summer Job? Create One

“It’s Off to Work We Go”

GOAL Is Working, But It NEEDS YOU!


2008 Archives

Companies Love You

First Impressions Matter

You Missed Your Chance

Tailgate Ends Career

Elevate Others

Storytelling

Hitting the Ground Running

Reflections on a meeting with the CMO of Frito-Lay and the Dean

Go West, Young Man

Insights into a Career in Private Equity

Meaningful Summer Work (and thoughts on next year's job search)

Alums That Care

Create Your Summer Resume Bullet Points

Darden CDC in Second Life

Mariah Carey’s Career Advice on American Idol

Build It and They Will Come

Bee Movie Guide to Career Development--Part 1

Preparing for Next Year’s Consulting Interviews—Start Now!

Re-Inventing the Recruiting Calendar

Are You Making an Impact?

Lessons from Losing

How to Say No

I'm Really Scared (and you must be too!)

My Daughter's Paradise Paper

I Just Sold 300 Hot Dogs, and it Might Help your Interview

Be Sure to Re-Energize

A New CDC Website?(1)

It Takes a Team (to get a Job)

Using Technology in your Career Search

Networking Against All Odd: An International Success Story

Feedback on Fall Interviews

Career Lessons from Traveling with our Dean

The Case for Working in India

Traveling for Call Backs

Networking with the Big Wigs

We All Need Feedback

Networking: A Means to an End?

Corporate Sponsor Briefings -- Take Advantage

Entering the Market

Another Blog?

A New CDC Website?


2007 Archives

Networking Against All Odds: An International Success Story