The Intentional Career

How Most People Get Their First Jobs 

Having taught at a university for nearly 10 years, I’ve seen some patterns with how people find their first job out of college:

• Apply – look at companies hiring, apply to various positions, and land a job
• Friend/family – go work somewhere where they have an “in”, land a job
• Continue – they’ve done an internship or work their part time in school, then continue
• Create – some people start a business and successfully (or unsuccessfully) scale it
• Other – go onto a higher college degree, join the military/clergy, or become a full-time parent

With the exception of some very targeted degrees (e.g., nursing, medicine), the career path for most people is zigzagged in that they find their first job and pivot continually. Sound like you?

I’ve done it a bit differently. I have been intentional with every choice:

I studied advertising in college and worked in advertising. I always wanted to use this background to eventually lead a marketing team. So I went to school and got an MBA in marketing, worked for 5 years in a marketing/strategy role, and now lead a marketing team.

Intentional? Yes.

Here’s how to do it.

Avoiding Convenience 

The most important job is the first job you take after you graduate. It typically becomes very difficult to pivot after that, unless you’re willing to work again as an entry-level worker, because the label of your first job is on your resume, is the “language” you speak, and is the foundation of your network (e.g if you’re an engineer out of college, most of your network will also be other engineers).

When choosing a job don’t apply for or take a job out of convenience! Just because it’s “easy money/security” to take a job at a certain company you should really consider your long-term plan before throwing your application into the ring. Write down what role you want to have 20 years from now and plot the course. To help with this, LinkedIn has a neat feature called Career Explorer where you can map the career path for different roles.

I know what you’re thinking – there’s no way to know what I want to be in 20 years! Technology could change, my interests may change, or would if I get the opportunity of a lifetime?

My response: Still make a plan.

It’s like saying you’re going to buy a home without making plans to save for it, hoping the money for a downpayment will just appear. It could appear, but best to plan to save in case it doesn’t.

I also know what you’re thinking next: out of school I need money! I’ve got bills! I’ve got to take the first opportunity I get.

My response: Nope. Stick to your plan.

If you are intentional with your job search it should only lead to opportunities that are right for your long-term path. I had a classmate who wanted to work in marketing, but upon graduating he took a sales job. A year later he was miserable and wasn’t getting any traction applying for entry-level jobs because he was now in sales. He works in sales still and has made the best of it, but he would likely be happier had he stuck out his early job search for a marketing role.

Your first job is so important, and you need to be intentional with where it will lead. Consider setting up a personal board of directors to keep you honest in your path.

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Progress in Your Current Role

It’s so important to leverage your current job to set up your next job. This means developing real skills that will transfer to your next promotion or opportunity. I would put an emphasis on hard skills that are resume-worthy (e.g., learned XYZ tool) instead of soft skills (e.g., worked on a cross-functional team) since it’s the hard skills that are generally required to progress to higher roles in the first place.

Another key to progress is letting your specific career aspirations known to your boss/team so that they can help you get exactly where you want to go. You need to vocalize these often. Don’t just expect that others will know what you want. They can’t read your mind, and if you don’t verbalize your aspirations, they won’t know how to assist you:

Here’s three examples of common career aspirations:

I want to work internationally. Let your company know this is important to you. Raise your hand for every international opportunity. Most companies, even if they don’t have an international HQ, sell products/services internationally so look to help there. Learn about currency exchange, manufacturing, shipping, tariffs, etc. Most companies that I have advised see opportunity in international growth, and if you’re the person who knows about this you’ll get international experiences.

I want to manage a team. Let your boss know, and take it upon yourself to get management experience. Ask for an intern, raise your hand to manage a consultant, or reach out to a local university to have a student group do a project for your company. I personally find university student groups the easiest starting path for up-and-coming managers since there is no cost, setting up a project is easy and adds value, and gives real management experience. If you want to do this, just reach out to professors at your local university (side note: you can also reach out to Jason if you’d like a BYU team).

I want to be a CEO. This is the easiest one. My best advice to aspirational CEOs is to start your own company. That’s how 99% of CEOs come to be. Now if you want to climb the corporate ladder and one day be a CEO of a major corporation, I would choose your industry and talk to current CEOs on what type of roles and experience you’ll need to get. For example, in consumer packaged goods, nearly all CEOs come from brand management, so if you wanted to lead that type of company you should pursue brand management.

Did you notice a theme in the first two? You need to let people know! Let your boss know. Let the hiring manager know in your interview. This sets you up for opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise come. Being intentional in letting others know and doing activities that lead to progress is how you’ll ultimately land your dream role.

Conclusion

An intentional career can be fulfilling since there’s a clear path and progress. The hardest part is starting down the right path, which starts with your first job, is continued through avoiding convenience, and is ultimately fulfilled by being intentional in your current role.