Career Top Tips

I was at a product development conference over a decade ago and was hugely impressed by the keynote.  He did essentially my job but at a much higher level, and had been doing it for 20+ years, and still had so much energy.  I was on the verge of burnout at year 4.  I went up to him after his talk to get some advice and he told me: "You should like your job, but never love your job".  He said that if you are passionate about your job, that passion burns out quickly and you will spend so much time and energy on your job that you will not have any more energy for your friends, family and hobbies.  That idea implanted solidly in my brain and I have had a different attitude towards my job ever since.  

I really like my current job, boss, and coworkers. I also really like the vibe of my current company.  But I could do a different job, and I could do it somewhere else.  I LOVE the things I do outside of work.  

The easiest way to figure this out is to ask yourself one simple question: 

Do my parents have lots of money AND are willing to heavily subsidize my lifestyle post-college?

Yes?  Congrats, you can choose literally any career you want!  Love that for you 🥰

No?  Unless its been your life-long dream to draft legal documents that allow a giant chemical manufacturer to acquire another chemical manufacturer, your dream career is now a hobby you pursue on the weekends. Here are the options available to you, a person who does not come from generational wealth but who wants to live a comfortable lifestyle:  

• Business: Accountant, Actuary, Management Consultant, Investment Banker, any lucrative-industry product, project, operations, or finance roles, etc.

• Law: Anything but Immigration, Environmental, or any government law position

• Engineering: Anything but Environmental or Industrial

• Medicine: Specialized Doctor or CRNA

That's it! It is possible to make lots of money in other job categories, but it will be much harder.   As far as industry, tech is the obvious first choice but everyone wants that, so there is way more competition. Your safest bet is to go for the most boring or most horrible industry you can think of, because those industries pay the best.

Also important to remember that you will rarely become truly wealthy by being an employee.  Owning something (multi-family properties, small businesses) is how most newly rich people become rich.

Finally, if working a 9-5 isn't for you, I think it was Aristotle who said "You can marry more money in 5 minutes than you can make in a lifetime."  Rooting for you!

Let's say you stay at a company for 10 years. Your starting salary is $50k and they give you a 3% raise every year. In those 10 years you are promoted twice and get one 10% raise and one 15% raise. Your salary at the end of 10 years will be $78k and your total earnings will be $614k.

Now let's say you change companies every 4 years. Doing my own research to see what's the average among my friends I'm going to say a 25% raise is achievable.  So assuming a 3% raise every year plus those 2 jumps at a 25% increase, your salary at the end of 10 years is $96k, and your total earnings are $684k.  

You are missing out on $70k in earnings by staying put.  Even if you never make another move, and continue to get standard cost of living 3% raises, this will have an impact of over $1M by the time you retire, so early gains are especially important.  

There are some instances where it makes sense to stay longer, like if you have 2 toddlers and your company offers flexibility, and great benefits, and pays you a very good wage.  Or, if you had a string of horrible bosses and you finally have a good one, I get why you would want to stay as long as possible.  But I would make a few jumps to beef up your base salary first before  a long stretch. 

I spent most of my career in Oil & Gas, which is a cyclical industry so layoffs are inevitable.  Even so, I used to think layoffs reflected badly on you in some way.  Then my coworker Paul got laid off.  Because of my job I get to know hundreds if not thousands of people at the various giant companies I work for.  Paul was literally the best person on my entire campus. Incredibly knowledgeable, friendly, helpful, and most shockingly, an excellent engineering manager whose entire team respected him and wanted to work hard for him. I cannot stress how unusual this is, especially at an oil and gas company where the vibes are ATROCIOUS.  Paul had to lay off his entire team and then at the end of the day he was laid off as well. 

Paul being laid off made me realize it truly has nothing to do with you.  It's about business decisions several levels up and sometimes even your direct manager has no idea.  If Paul can get laid off, absolutely anyone can get laid off.  The day I got laid off, so did 3 people who I personally knew to be excellent at their jobs.  And because I liked my job but didn't love my job, I was sad for about 30 minutes and after that had the absolute best time for the next year and a half. 

The best part is, everyone I knew at my last company who got laid off in my round went on to get even better jobs with substantial pay increases.  

If you decide to put in your 2 weeks notice, make sure you do the following:

• Clear all background checks and drug tests for your new position

• Be prepared to be walked out the day you give notice

• Back up your contacts

• Remove all personal info from your computer

• Understand when your current insurance ends and your new insurance begins

• Download copies of all your performance reviews

• Spend all of the money in your FSA (use it or lose it - your last day of employment is the last day you have to spend that money)

• Add your personal email to all of your work-related investment accounts, stock plans and health insurance sites

• Check in with someone who has recently quit to see if they had any logistical issues 

Here's a good intro to the STAR tracker:

https://capd.mit.edu/resources/the-star-method-for-behavioral-interviews/

 Make sure you have a tracker that you are updating once a quarter and that you practice your responses. The time to prepare for an interview is not the day before your interview, it's year round.