Why am I writing this blog?
Careers are curious things. They represent so many choices made along the way. They reveal the values you have chosen to live by and the ones you reject. They speak to the limitations and beliefs you have about yourself. I find my work as a coach very gratifying and meaningful as I get to the bottom of it all in order to help others uncover truths, regain their confidence or adopt a more constructive perspective. As I was going about my own career journey, I felt like an anthropologist observing the landscape. Why did this person act this way? How did this situation disintegrate? Why does the same behavior produce different outcomes for different people? Etc. Feeding these curiosities has consumed me and propelled me on a course of self-learnings, writing and resarch. I’m relentlessly turning over stones to find answers.
Over the years, through working in high performance (and therefore high stress) environments, I have noticed the “rules” of the game are changing. For example, people are talking about career issues differently now. Today, it’s easier to broach once “inappropriate” subjects such as the gender pay gap, gaslighting, or transcendental meditation. Even more, what we can expect out of a career is more expansive. It goes beyond skills, competencies, and pay and it ventures more towards meaning and fulfillment. After numerous consulting engagements and hundreds of hours of coaching, I have begun to notice some patterns and themes. My intention for this blog is to share these ideas beyond the participants of my training courses or the individuals I coach.
Today, it’s easier to broach once “inappropriate” subjects such as the gender pay gap, gaslighting, or transcendental meditation.
THE RULES OF the game ARE CHANGING
Who is the Modern Careerist?
One thing that emerged for me is an archetype I call the Modern Careerist - the type of person that thrives in today’s high perforamance workplaces. When we think about a careerist in its traditional sense, the unappealing image is someone who pursues their career at the expense of their personal relationships, health, and ethics. Think Patrick Batemen. Serial murders aside, his combo of a pinstripe suit, Rolex watch and Gucci loafers would be considered tacky and outdated ("Panicked Wall Street Bros Wonder: What Is Business-Casual???"); so is the person who pursues his career at all costs. Today, pursuing a career is as much about figuring out what you want to do as much as it is about then figuring out how does it fit in with everything else in your life. It’s about understanding how your internal resources like resilience and mindfulness are as valuable as assets as your educational credentials. It’s about knowing how the financial rewards enable a better life for you and are not an end of itself. It’s about being adept with the ways technology can make your life easier and minimizing the ways it can distract you. It’s about understanding that we all have limitations in terms of time, energy, and talents and deciding what’s the best way to channel them as opposed to just pursuing the path of least resistance. It’s about consciously choosing where in the Maslow pyramid you want to play.
The Modern Careerist looks at the big picture and deigns to ask, what is a life worth living? And what will it take to pursue it? The Modern Careerist is open to the realm of possibilities, however, she is not stagnant. As opposed to just daydreaming of how things could be, she dares to move forward even if the path is wrought with uncertainty and potential (albeit calculated) risks. Sometimes all this self-reflection can seem exhausting and appear indulgent to onlookers of the Modern Careerist’s journey, but modernity with its endless options and grueling schedules demands it if she is ever to maintain her sanity. The Modern Careerist does not have it all figured out. Rather, she moves through the world with self-awareness and accountability. The stakes are high as, in the words of Socrates, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”