Trap Three: You Can Apply to Jobs Related to Only Your Major
Being average just won’t earn you what it used to….everyone needs to find their unique value contribution that makes them stand out in their field of employment.
—Thomas L. Friedman
The belief that students can apply to only one type of industry, job, or position is a myth that limits available employment options. Such flawed thinking also runs counter to the evidence that 62 percent of recent college graduates are working in jobs that require a degree, yet only 27 percent of college graduates are working in a job specifically related to their major.101 Students need to realize that while an undergraduate degree is a prerequisite and relevant for the competitive workforce, a specific academic major is seldom a prerequisite and is in fact often irrelevant when it comes to applying to many employment positions. As John Downey, president of Blue Ridge Community College, wrote “we need to educate our youth on all of the careers available to them, inspire them to select a career cluster that will ignite their passion, and then show them the educational pathways required to get there.”102 This mental trap of only applying to jobs related to one specific field often prohibits students from declaring a major that are interested in and forces them to study a subject less than compelling. Is that really the type of environment we want to create? Do we want to have students studying something solely for the supposed payoff down the road? In today’s hypercompetitive marketplace, just how sure can you be that the one job you wanted will even be around in a few years? Global statistics illustrate just how challenging it is to find a good job.
Of the 7 billion people on Earth, there are 5 billion adults aged 15 and older. Two billion are not looking for work while 1.2 billion people are working. Thus, there is a potentially devastating global shortfall of about 1.8 billion good jobs.103 This also means that potential societal stress and instability lies within 1.8 billion—nearly a quarter of the world’s population. “It’s against this backdrop that the coming jobs war will be fought. And this new world war for good jobs will trump everything else. That’s because the lack of good jobs will become the root cause of almost all world problems that America and other countries will attempt to deal with through humanitarian aid, military force, and politics. The lack of good jobs will become the cause of hunger, extremism, out-of-control migration patterns, reckless environmental trends, widening trade imbalances, and on and on.”104
In the United States, the jobs war involves 15 million unemployed people and another 15 million underemployed. Neither, number, however, includes people who were working part-time because they couldn’t find a full-time job. It also doesn’t include people who want a job but haven’t looked for work in 4 weeks.105 With high unemployment and underemployment across the globe, graduates should expand, not limit, their employment options. While today’s job market makes it difficult to find employment, it is important to realize that some graduates do indeed find jobs. As Richard Bolles, author of What Color is Your Parachute? concluded, “Even in tough times there are jobs to be had, but applicants have to work far harder to get an employer’s attention and consider a broader range of employers.” As one insurance industry executive noted, “Insurance doesn’t have the sexy title next to it but those entering the industry have opportunities to have greater responsibility than ever before. We find great people in all different majors including history and anthropology.”106
According to one recent survey, 44 percent of recent college graduates apply to only between one and five jobs at a time.107 To properly consider a broader range of employers, it is important to apply to dozens of jobs simultaneously. Completing the academic requirements for the final semester of college, failing to prioritize the submission of job applications, and lacking information about what positions to apply for are just three of the many reasons that explain why students apply only to a few jobs at a time. Applying to a small number of positions severely limits options. It is important to remember, however, that you should apply for positions in which you are interested. Doing so can help generate a positive attitude during the interview. With 26 percent of employers turned off by an entry-level applicant’s bad attitude, your disinterest in the position will most likely be exposed during the interview.108 Maintaining a narrow view of employment opportunities is the third trap and discounts the chaos theory of career development, the pursuit of living with purpose, the concept of positive uncertainty, and the ability to create options through subtle maneuvers.
Chaos Theory of Careers
In The Chaos Theory of Careers: A New Perspective on Working in the Twenty-First Century (2011), Robert Pryor and Jim Bright identified three elements to explain how in today’s uncertain and unpredictable world the notion of applying to jobs related to one’s major becomes ever more questionable. First, the dynamics of today’s challenging economy include technological innovation, speed of communication, and the globalization of consumer markets to name a few. Second, given the emergence of new markets, employment positions, and types of work, research now indicates that changing careers is not only the norm, but is beneficial for career satisfaction. Finally, research indicates that serendipity often has an impact on vocational decisions and career development. Based on these three elements to explain today’s unpredictable world, the chaos theory of career development highlights four principles graduates from all majors could embrace when considering employment opportunities:
• It is useful and vocationally mature to be both certain and uncertain when making a career decision.
• Too much order and stability is actually quite hazardous to adaptation.
• Changing one’s mind after having made a choice is an adaptive trait for the future and not necessarily a sign of incompetence or stalling.
• Complexity need not be feared but rather embraced with humility and openness to its inherent possibilities.
Chaos theory requires students to reflect upon their experiences in order to better understand their skills and identify lessons learned along the way. This process of intentional reflection helps students increase their self-awareness, promotes individual responsibility and self-reliance, and endorses the transformative process that one can undergo. The chaos theory of career development encourages individuals to search for work that provides an embodied experience of aliveness. It also provides individuals with an opportunity to surrender individual self-identify and self-importance in favor of developing a multitude of potential careers through being open to chance events, to serendipity, and to luck readiness (being prepared for next opportunity). “Chaos theory provides individuals with a mechanism for hope and optimism, even in the face of challenging life events.”109 In other words, the chaos theory of career development offers individuals a blank slate upon which to transform their current self to their possible self, but this ability to transform your current self to your possible self requires positive uncertainty.
Positive uncertainty is compatible with the new science and beliefs of today’s society and incompatible with yesterday’s decision dogma. It involves ambiguity and paradox because the future is full of ambiguity and paradox. In the future, it will help to realize that one does not know some things, cannot always see what is coming, and frequently will not be able to control it. “Being positive and uncertain allows one to be able to act when one is not certain about what one is doing.” To deal with complexity, change, and chance, H.B. Gelatt identified four major paradoxes that students need to understand to help them move forward in their career decision making process:
• Be focused and flexible about what you want.
• Be aware and wary about what you know.
• Be objective and optimistic about what you believe.
• Be practical and magical about what you do.
All too often graduates believe they have only a few employment options. As one observer noted, “Your self-imposed limitations on how to make money are often just that: self-imposed. Seek out other routes to your destination.”110 There are numerous resources to help students determine other routes and destinations. LinkedIn is one example. The online program has collected substantial evidence of other routes people have taken and provides a free valuable resource to learn what opportunities exist for potential career paths. When reviewing profiles, it is common to find that the current position or industry of a LinkedIn member is different from previous positions they held. For example, one profile might be that of someone holding the title of Vice President in the higher education industry, but upon review the same person was a Director at a nonprofit organization dedicated to cancer research 10 years earlier. In a recent research project, LinkedIn identified over 60 professionals as Influencers to learn firsthand how they managed their careers. According to LinkedIn, “what became clear was the likelihood of change and transition that occurs during a person’s career as they continue down their professional path.”111
Living with Purpose
In addition to relying on the chaos theory of career development, another way recent college graduates can widen their scope of employment is by identifying opportunities that match their life purpose. Graduates can find employment that directly supports their life purpose or they can work for a company that is aligned with their beliefs. Since the majority of Americans are unhappy, disengaged, or disinterested in their job, the Millennials’ focus on purpose might bring a refreshing change to the American workforce. In Deloitte’s global survey of Millennials, over 75 percent believe that businesses are focused on their own agenda rather than helping to improve society. Millennials are demanding more. “The message is clear: when looking at their career goals, today’s Millennials are just as interested in how a business develops its people and how it contributes to society as they are in its products and profits.”112 Millennials want to work for organizations with purpose. For 6 in 10 Millennials, a “sense of purpose” is part of the reason they chose to work for their current employers. Among Millennials who are relatively high users of social networking tools, there appears to be even greater focus on business purpose; 77 percent of this group report their company’s purpose was part of the reason they chose to work there, compared with just 46 percent of those who are the “least connected.”113
When it comes to an individual’s work, there are a variety of ways to find meaning. The often told story of the rebuilding of St. Paul’s Cathedral illustrates a case in point. In the late 1660s, Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned to re-design St. Paul’s Cathedral after the Great Fire of London destroyed it. According to legend, one day Wren visited the construction site and asked three workers what they were doing. The first worker replied, “I am cutting a piece of stone,” while the second worker responded “I’m earning five shillings two pence a day.” The third worker provided a completely different view and said he was “building a magnificent cathedral to the glory of God.” Each of the stone masons found purpose in his work. One found purpose in the task of cutting stone. Another found purpose in earning money. And the third found his purpose in his small contribution to the larger task of building a cathedral. Finding meaningful work is about the why as well as about the what. Some people derive meaning from a job that allows them to provide for their families and pursue non-work activities they enjoy. “People with a craftsmanship orientation take pride in performing the job well. Those with a service orientation find purpose in the ideology or belief system behind their work. Still others extract meaning from the sense of kinship they experience with coworkers.”
This sense of connection or purpose to work can help drive happiness. The same is true with a college major. If you choose a major you enjoy, studying chances are you will enjoy the work. You will find purpose in your research, classroom conversations, and reading. Enjoying work, whether at a job, volunteering for a community project, or studying for a final examination in your major, provides you with the motivation, energy, and attention that frequently translates into success. Career success is dependent upon achieving a high level of performance in any field. To perform at a high level for an extended period of time, it helps to be happy. “When people work with a positive mindset, performance on productivity, creativity, and engagement improves.”114 While often viewed as a result of success research demonstrates that people who maintain happiness perform better in the face of challenge. In other words, being happy allows one to perform at high levels required to succeed. If you have declared a major that makes you unhappy it will be difficult to achieve a peak level of performance. Before you declare a major that makes you perform less than your best; think twice and remember that there are many roads that lead your destination, so you should reconsider and travel the path that brings you the most happiness.
Create Options
C.S. Lewis once wrote “Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.” Achieving career success will also require one to let go at some point to move forward. Unlike the traditional corporate ladder metaphor, however, there is another way to create options for your life and career as you let go of the monkey bar to move forward. In her book Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, Sheryl Sandberg borrows a career development metaphor of the jungle gym from Fortune magazine editor Pattie Sellers. According to Sandberg, “a jungle gym scramble is the best description of my career since I could never have connected the dots from where I started to where I am today.”115 The jungle gym metaphor offers a different approach to career development than the traditional corporate ladder for a variety of reasons:
• Movement: The jungle gym allows you to move up, down, and sideways, whereas the ladder only allows you to move up and down. Having the flexibility of a jungle gym is an absolute necessity in today’s challenge job market.
• Collaboration: The jungle gym allows you to work with others, while the ladder only offers you the opportunity to walk over someone to get to the next step.
• Foundation: The jungle gym has a wide base and therefore allows for a stronger foundation compared with the ladder that has two legs and is subject to wind, shifts in weight, or unpaved surfaces.
• Achievement: The jungle gym allows more than one person to sit at the top, while the ladder has room for only one person.
Creating options via the jungle gym is especially relevant for college graduates who possess high expectations that their degree will result in an immediate dream job following graduation. The pursuit of a “dream job” is “a recipe for disappointment.”116 To build their path around, over, and through their career jungle gym, college graduates need to expand their employment options. There are many positions in large organizations where students from any major could thrive that do not necessarily spring to mind during the job search. Finding your next career option takes work. As author Thomas L. Friedman reminded the graduates from Williams College in June 2005, learning to create options is critical to translating one’s dream into reality: “Do what you really love to do and if you don’t know quite what that is yet, well, keep searching, because if you find it, you’ll bring that something extra to your work.” That something extra, noted Friedman, can help make someone “an untouchable radiologist, an untouchable engineer, or an untouchable teacher.”117
Becoming an untouchable anything will depend you’re your ability to create options throughout your career. In the chaos theory of career development, it is important to realize that you cannot control the trajectory of your career. Despite your best wishes and desire to control your career, there are simply too many external factors beyond your control that will shape job options. Global economic trends, the advent of new technologies, severe weather events, geopolitical instability, and political elections all play a part in your career development. “So don’t commit the hubris of thinking that you can determine your professional glide path.”118 You can, however, take a proactive approach, remain positive amidst the uncertainty and increase your probability of success by approaching your career as a continuous process that has to be actively managed. “At each step in your career, you need to ask yourself: What can I do next that will maximize my options in the future?”119 Mariana Zanetti emphasized the necessity of creating options in her book The MBA Bubble. Zanetti explicitly stated “an evident and crushing reality is that wealth is the result of creating a source of income other than your salary.”120 One way to create a source of income other than your salary would be to engage in subtle maneuvers.
Engage in Subtle Maneuvers
The flawed mental trap of believing that employers only care about your major or GPA fails to recognize the power of engaging in subtle maneuvers. This approach allows you to do something small at nights and on the weekends that slowly builds value over time. Such an approach, however, demands that you maximize how effectively and efficiently you use your time. Remember that everyone has the same amount of time that you do. Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to anyone who ever accomplished a goal, lived a life of purpose, or challenged the status quo. When you are pressed for time, recall the words of Franz Kafka to his finance: “Time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible, then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.”121 During the day Kafka worked his brotberuf, literally “bread job,” a job done only to pay the bills, at an insurance company and then he would pursue his passion of writing at night and during the weekend. This subtle maneuver approach has been utilized by many successful people.
Pulitzer Prize winning poet Wallace Stevens, an American Modernist poet, engaged in subtle maneuvers. After a brief career in law, Stevens joined the home office of The Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company in 1916. With a love of writing poetry dating back to his undergraduate days at Harvard University, Stevens started to write at nights and on weekends. By 1934, he had been named Vice President of the company. Stevens’s first book of poetry, Harmonium, was published in 1923. He would go on to produce additional works throughout the 1920s and into the 1940s. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his Collected Poems in 1955. After he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1955, he was offered a faculty position at Harvard but declined since it would have required him to give up his vice presidency of The Hartford.122 William Faulkner wrote As I Lay Dying in the afternoons before clocking in on the night shift as a supervisor at a university power plant. He found the nocturnal schedule easy enough to manage. After sleeping for a few hours in the morning, he would write during the afternoon and then visit his mother on the way to work. He would often nap due to the undemanding nature of his work. The novelist Henry Green was independently wealthy and did not need to work. Since he liked the structure of an office job, he went into his family’s manufacturing business every day. Joseph Heller thrived in magazine advertising by day and wrote Catch-22 in the evenings, sitting at the kitchen table in his Manhattan apartment. According to Heller, “I spent two or three hours a night on it for eight years…I gave up once and started watching television with my wife. Television drove me back to Catch-22.”123 The American composer Charles Ives never let music get too far from his mind. After graduating from Yale in 1898, he secured a position in New York as a $15-a-week clerk with the Mutual Life Insurance Company.124 Though already an accomplished and talented organist as well as composer, he was looking to create beyond the conservative musical establishment of his day. So staying in a steady job made sense. As Ives put it, “if a composer has a nice wife and some nice children, how can he let them starve on his dissonances?”125
As aspiring author once wrote to Irish playwright Oscar Wilde asking for advice on how to have a success career as a writer. In his response, Wilde told him not to rely on earning a living from writing and declared “the best work in literature is always done by those who do not depend on it for their daily bread.”126 The Onion published an essay entitled “Find The Thing You’re Most Passionate About, Then Do It On Nights And Weekends For The Rest Of Your Life.”127 Although satirical in nature, the piece fails to recognize the abundance of evidence to suggest that is indeed the very way many successful people have achieved greatness. Mason Currey’s book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work examines dozens of creative people and concludes that most of them engaged in subtle maneuvers in order to pursue meaningful creative work while also earning a living.128 “The book makes one thing abundantly clear: There’s no such thing as the way to create good work, but all greats have their way.”129
Robert Frost was changing light bulb filaments in a Massachusetts factory when he sold his first poem, “My Butterfly: An Elegy” in 1894. Kurt Vonnegut managed a Saab dealership on Cape Cod after he’d published his first novel Player Piano. Charlotte Brontë worked as a poorly paid governess that had to pay her employers out of her own pocket for using their facilities to wash her clothes. Poet William Carlos Williams was a career pediatrician in New Jersey, working long hours caring for patients and penning phrases on the back of prescription slips. Musician Philip Glass worked as a plumber, furniture mover, and taxi driver. Such jobs were integral to his artistic process. According to Glass, “I was careful to take a job that couldn’t have any possible meaning for me.” He never earned a living from his music until he was 42.130 How did these individuals accomplish so much while working a day job? As one observer noted, “you find out a way to get more done when you’re really busy. You just learn how to fit it in.”131