A Quiet Revolution
Choosing a socially mindful career
The 9-to-5 exodus
My generation has started a quiet exodus from pursuing the 9-to-5 life post-university, starting a ‘career revolution’ in the 21st century. The cubicle has become a relic and the alternative has become the desirable: from taking a year off to travel, to starting a YouTube channel, or turn down offers from Fortune 500 companies to work for a tech start-up, and, most relevant to this discourse, pursue a career in social entrepreneurship. This shift in mindset is surely going to grow into the norm in upcoming years, and it’s tough to say what a typical career path may look like for a business student in 30 years. As of right now, I am still in the minority herd of millennials following, or attempting to follow, non-traditional career paths and look beyond big business.
This past semester, I took a fantastic pilot course at UBC called Social Enterprise- a course dedicated to discussing the trajectory of responsible business (which I quickly learned doesn’t have to be an oxymoron). As the most diverse, lifestyle-conscious, and technologically driven generation in history (White House Report 2014), we all came to the classroom from, quite literally, different corners of the Earth to discuss using business to solve social problems. Rewind 20 years ago, 10 years ago, even 5 years ago, and that sort of dialogue wouldn’t have been present in a large majority of business schools around the globe. The question I pose, and the question I’m sure many of my fellow classmates wonder, is how do we take that passion for leveraging our business acumen to solve these problems and translate it into actual tangible careers? And are those careers mutually exclusive from the “corporate world” we love to hate?
We can’t all be social entrepreneurs
In the first couple weeks of class, we had the ability to discuss our interests and goals for the future, often asking each other what we would pursue beyond the halls of our undergrad program. Of the many conversations I had, and hearing sound bites from the rest of the students, the phrase I kept picking up on was “I want to start my own social enterprise”; a sentiment that I share as well. The unyielding imagination and creativity my classmates want to put to use is fantastic, but it makes me wonder about what is actually feasible. The truth of the matter is; that social entrepreneurs alone cannot change the world. If all of us want to start organizations, who is left to put in the sweat equity to bring about change? Collaboration, knowledge, and hard work are what make the difference between joining the statistic of 90% of start-ups that fail (Forbes, 2015), and the 10%, which succeed. With a group of like-minded individuals, change comes from not necessarily everyone coming up with an idea, but from everyone willing to put in the hours and brain power to bring that idea to life. Albeit, a room full of bright 20-somethings who want to start businesses that advance society is a huge achievement. As someone who wants to be a social entrepreneur, what I’ve learned thus far is that may or may not be a reality after graduation, but it should be a result of truly falling in love with a problem I am willing to solve.
Focus and Collaborate
UBC is in the good company of the over 30 business schools who offer social entrepreneurship courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. Apparently, our generation has a genuine desire to enjoy our work, and do good on society as a result of that. 65 percent of us anticipate making a difference in the world, and over half of millennials would take a pay cut to the tune of up to 15 percent to work for a company aligns with their core values. The question I posed earlier, is how do we turn that into career choices that will shape the future of the business world. To stop the cycle of society viewing social issues as separate from the concerns of traditional business, the mentality shift also must come from the cubicle: Big 4 accounting firms, traditional investment houses such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, or worldwide brands like Coca Cola or Procter and Gamble also need to recognize their role. The truth is that you’d be hard pressed to find a person who couldn’t think of a problem they wanted to solve or issue they are passionate about; the disconnect arises when moving from acknowledgement to action, once that all too frequent aha! moment hits. Organizations such as the Acumen Fund and Echoing Green have been very active in discussing how no problems can be solved in isolation, and collaboration between the entire system is needed to realize change. The creativity it takes to come up with actionable solutions comes from not only my fellow revolutionaries in the classroom, but from the big business who attracts and has the most valuable resource in the world: highly qualified human capital.
Moving Forward
For me and my classmates, the end game may be to become a social entrepreneur, but the short game might go through the avenues of working for a socially-minded company, a start-up, in a marketing role, or for a not-for-profit before that happens. The focus it takes to find a gap, which we as BCom’s can fill with our skill-set, is a challenge against the enduring allure that the corporate world still holds for many. My hope going forward is the need to disrupt the status quo continues for business school students and new graduates alike. If we continue to demand a shift both in our business school curriculum and general mindset of what a career for a new grad should look like, I have no doubt that we can move socially-minded careers into the forefront. The future is unpredictable for my fellow classmates and I as to whether we will all launch a venture at some point, but I have no doubt that we will construct our careers with the lens of social purpose.