Exploratory Universatory

Sometime back I asked for career advice from a guy who had come as a guest lecturer at one of my classes at MIT. He is an MD MBA and has spent 10 years at Wall Street. Here are the excerpts from his reply:

Your note is very kind. As you know, there is really no “right” answer to this dilemma, but there is usually a “best” answer given the “data.”

A career as a … can be wonderful, but so can other careers. Few options, however, are perfect and most jobs have a downside, a view that you might support if you read the news on a daily basis.

The sad truth is that, yes, we probably need more … like yourself. But unless it is what you truly want to do, it is probably insufficient for most people to justify a lifelong career choice as a …. Just make sure that whatever you do, its because you believe it is right and sufficiently rewarding. You will probably agree that non-financial rewards can be more durable than financial ones.

Of course, only in retrospect can one know that a career path was proper. The people giving you both solicited and unsolicited advice may not have a full understanding of the world of options available to you. You will make the best decision you can and alter it as necessary. I tend to believe that families and friends are much better at picking spouses for children than they are at picking careers. Interestingly, people tend to blindly ignore them on the former and blindly listen to them with regard to the latter.  

Focus on what you enjoy, and what your are skilled at. If a career does not optimize these two metrics, it is likely to be less rewarding. By the way, on this aspect of career decisions, friends and family may have some appropriate insight.

Think about any role models you may have and what it is about them that you may wish to emulate. Think about what motivates you. Make lists.

Finally, I would wonder what regrets your advisors have about their own career choices or work environments. Most people have them. I would also wonder how their career choices have affected their professional and personal relationships (wife and children being most important with regard to the latter). The answers to these questions may also help you gauge how much credibility their recommendations should have for you, and it may also tell you a bit about why they are making such recommendations and where roadblocks could be hiding for you.