Update 01/15/2017: Watch the full panel recording here.
At Drexel Startup Day on November 10, 2016, I’ll be answering the question: “At the Close School, we encourage our students to be aware that the job market is not the same as it once was. Prior to the age of 40, it is projected that graduates will have 8–10 different jobs with a high likely hood that self employment will be one of those jobs. How should these students prepare themselves to enter this new job market?”
Reality Check
Here’s the reality: Something like 51% of Americans want to be self-employed, but only 7 or 8% of us actually jump off the cliff. It really can feel that scary not knowing where your next pay check is coming from, and how you’re going to find your next client.
Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone. There are people that are creative, initiate projects and build things but enjoy the security and structure of working within someone else’s organization. That is totally okay. Being entrepreneurial does not have to mean that you own your own company, or you are full-time working for yourself.
You’re not going to know how you feel working for other people until you do that, and, again, the reality is that having the experience working for others will benefit you in multiple ways to:
- Transfer your academic learnings into business & industry skills while learning the ways of the working world.
- Build your initial financial security out of college, and learn how to build your base financial portfolio.
- Learn from managers, leaders and company owners about what works and what doesn’t work in running a business.
Whichever way you go, there is no failure. There are just learning lessons.
Learners are Leaders.
The number one skill you need to thrive in this economy is the ability to teach yourself things.
Learning early-on in your career has to be a top priority. Even with a foundational education, I have always had to teach myself things and experiment on my own. The world, the economy and technology are changing quickly, and you cannot let yourself get stale. I had the fortune of a solid education in Systems & Information Engineering. So while I can speak about database design and object oriented programming, I still had to teach myself the basics of every new computer language that has come out since 2007.
Continuous learning has to happen for everything you do moving forward outside of the academic institution. With access to lesson plans and tutorials on the internet, you have no excuse. Within a company, you’re going to have to teach yourself how to manage conflict, and advocate for a raise. When running your own company, you’ll have to teach yourself everything you don’t know: accounting, taxes, marketing, advertising, business development and commercialization strategies. Maybe you’re like me, and you’ll have to learn how to manage yourself.
If you can’t teach yourself, you can’t be self-employed. I’m in my 3rd year of business, and I’m learning a lot. My Dad has been a self employed Land Surveyor and Civil Engineer for 35 years, and he is still learning. My Mom, too; she had to teach herself e-commerce so that her retail business could transition into this Millenia. They’ve both lasted as self-employed small business owners because they kept on learning.
Everything else you need to know going into the workforce is summed up into this quote.
“We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly,” — Ben Franklin, The Way to Wealth
Be Proactive About Your Future and Get to Work
“We are taxed twice as much by our idleness…”
When you are willing to teach yourself new things, you’re demonstrating your proactive nature. The best way to get a job these days is through networking with the people you know, and getting warm introductions to your ideal employers. Yes, browse job boards to find out who is hiring, but spend your time getting an introduction rather than applying through the website.
You cannot wait for opportunities to come to you so you must create them. Being proactive also means learning to identify opportunities. The best businesses are those that can continue to identify problems and craft solutions for their customers. You need to learn to analyze problems, build plans and put them into action.
If you do not feel strong in this area, take a practical skills class while you’re still in school. I took undergraduate and graduate classes in both engineering and business schools. Close School has an Entrepreneurship Bootcamp class. You may also consider classes in the E-School: Engineering Design Lab, Project Management for All and Introduction to Project Management.
Be Willing to do All the Work
“…three times as much by our pride…”
Everyone had to start somewhere, and somewhere is usually the bottom. You will have to do work that may feel beneath you. Rather than focus on what you think you could be doing, set 3 learning objectives for each job. Focus on those objectives.
This is also the first test of your resilience as an entrepreneur. When you’re on your own, you have to “be willing to paint walls”. Business will ebb and flow; you’ll never have linear growth. You have to be willing to do what you can to make ends meet. If that means walking dogs, babysitting kids or working a register at Target, you have to be willing to do all the work.
Here’s a different scenario: Early on in my career, I lived in San Francisco and worked for a company that built software for audiologists. I felt so uncool, particularly because Google, Twitter and Facebook were emerging, and I could not get myself a job at any of those places. I had serious pride issues, but that job has become a fundamental cornerstone for my career: I spent 10 months designing and building a healthcare billing system. The technology was old, the data was confusing and overwhelming, and the people had the most awful job of typing in medical codes all day.
In that role, I learned about corporate technology waste and how poor communication between team members can compromise a company’s ability to collect revenue. This has become the foundation for what I offer to my clients.
Keep Your Eyes and Ears Open, and Act Smart
“… and four times as much by our folly.”
I’m finishing up my 3rd year as an entrepreneur, and I have made a lot of MISTAKES. Whether you are employed or self-employed, you have to have good sense to course adjust. You need the fortitude to admit something is not working, and the bravery to move on to the next thing.
Yes, you will have 8 or 9 jobs, and that’s a-okay. I’m 33, I have had 6 full-time jobs, and was self-employed two different times in my life (now being the second).
- You’ll leave a job because the economy isn’t doing well, and you know you’ll be laid off soon.
- You’ll leave a job because you’re questioning yourself in your mid-twenties, and so you have to do something drastically different to make sure you’re being true to yourself.
- You’ll forego working so you can commit to your own ideas, and you’ll end up broke.
- You’ll leave a job because you rushed into taking it, the commute is terrible, and the work is depressing.
- You’ll get fired.
- You’ll force yourself to stay at a job because you need to have 2 full years of experience, but then the stress of staying in an environment that is not right for you makes you crack
- You’ll start another business, and you’ll move on.
In the end, the opposite of “folly” means you have to be practical, use good sense, treat self-employment seriously, and use your intelligence. When you leave school, experiment with different business ideas and projects while you have the security of a paycheck from your full time job.
Understand that it can be really difficult to find a role that you love, with a team that feels truly collaborative, and a company whose mission is something that you feel good about. Have the good sense to course adjust, and have the fortitude to admit something is not working so you can move on to the next thing.
Lucky for you, the older Millenials, the Generation X-ers and Generation Y-ers hiring you are going to understand that work and careers are fundamentally changing before our eyes. Switching jobs will be okay. Anyone that tells you different has not awakened to the presentand future of work.
For more career considerations, check out these articles:
If you’ve found this article helpful, please click the green heart below to recommend it to your friends here on Medium. I also love hearing from you on Twitter — @lindsayt
