Good At Business: February Edition - "Love at First Byte"
This month, we're all about finding your career soulmate.
Does anyone actually believe in soulmates?
I don’t.
Perhaps I am too pragmatic. Whenever I hear someone calling their high school sweetheart their soulmate I just think “what are the odds that your literal soulmate also happened to live within 10 miles of you and go to the same high school as you? Seems oddly convenient.”
But anyway, don’t let me rain on your happy little love parade. If you believe Greg from next door is your soulmate and you two are happy, then that is all that matters. I just think that humans have an uncanny ability to settle. We settle all the time - in relationships, in friendships, and yes, in our careers.
But here’s the thing - we don’t have to settle.
Now, I won’t go into whether settling for Greg was the right move. That’s for you and your couple’s therapist to decide.
But I am here to tell you that you definitely don’t have to settle for a career that doesn’t fit you perfectly.
The reality is that we spend so much of our life at work, its arguably more important to find a career soulmate - a job that you don’t dread getting out of bed in the morning to do - than to figure out why Greg gets on your nerves so much.
So let’s dive into how I sifted through some terrible jobs to find my career soulmate, and some tips on how you can do the same.
February Main Course: Finding Love in All the Right Places 💘
The perfect job is somewhere that I can be myself.
As evidenced by the long rant about soulmates in the introduction to this month’s newsletter, I have a lot of feelings. And I share those feelings whenever I can. And when it comes to work, I want to feel like I can be the truest form of myself possible.
So let me outline some roles I have had that weren’t my career soulmate.
I also discussed this in a recent Instagram post - check it out!
My ability to be myself, ranked by industry:
🛢️ Oil and Gas, 3/10
I worked as a Junior Data Scientist for a pretty cool company in Oil and Gas (O&G) for about a year, and while the company itself was super fun and my boss embraced my true self, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the overall industry just wasn’t for me. Any place that still embraces “casual Fridays” in 2024 where we celebrate being allowed to wear *gasp* jeans is just not for me. I prefer wearing sweatpants anyway.
🤑 Marketing, 5/10
I worked as a data analyst for a marketing consulting company for all of 8 months. I hated it. For an industry full of creatives, I still felt like there were a bunch of unspoken rules I had to adhere to. Maybe this had more to do with being a consultant, but I felt like I had to swallow my opinions to tell the client what they want to hear at all times. And if you’re statistically-minded like me, questioning the “science” of attribution, incrementality, and lift won’t get you very far.
🏡 Real Estate, 8/10
I worked as a product analyst handling real estate data, and it was pretty much a free for all as long as we were making money. The high rating doesn’t mean I necessarily agree with this, but that is the reality. For better or for worse.
🎮 Gaming, 10/10
The first industry where I feel like I can be fully myself. I can dye my hair pink and wear a Halloween costume to meetings in July. I think a lot of us are running from a past of being stuffed in lockers and wondering why we would ever study a sadistic language like C++, so acceptance is the baseline expectation. I feel like I’ve found my people. Now I just need to figure out how to convince them to leave the house 🤔
So what does this mean for you?
Dissecting why I was unhappy in each of those roles was cathartic and enlightening. I didn’t actually realize my unhappiness had to do with me feeling like I had to be somebody else until I looked at the big picture across multiple roles.
So I am giving you permission to sit down and write down everything you’ve ever hated about those roles that just didn’t fit you well.
Here are some things to get you started that I have noticed make folks really happy at work:
Ability to be yourself.
Feeling like you have autonomy to influence change.
Alignment between your career and your morals and values.
Having very little responsibility and can just chill and watch TV.
The last one is only a half joke, because whatever your path to happiness ends up being, embrace it and be honest with yourself. Then you can set a path forward to finding a career that aligns with what makes you truly happy.
The Ethical Edge
Where we focus on the 90% ethical (and 10% unethical) ways you can be Good At Business
Here at GAB, we’re all about non-conventional approaches to the non-conventional twists and turns of the tech world. In this section you will find some Ethical Pro Tips (LPTs) and Unethical Pro Tips (ULPTs) to help you be Really Good At Business.
Ethical Pro Tips (LPTs)
Be Honest: Just like in actual relationships, finding happiness at work requires honesty. Now, I am not advocating for you sending your boss a brutally honest email with 10 reasons why they suck. What I am advocating for is that you sit down and have a very serious conversation with yourself - be honest about what you want your life to look like in 1 year and in 5 years. If you aren’t where you want to be, or on a path to get there, honestly assessing that is the first step.
Ask for Help: Honestly assessing when you’re at your best is sometimes hard. Ask your partner (Greg, here’s your chance to be useful) what they’ve noticed about who you are when you’re at your best. If you don’t have a partner, ask your friends or an old coworker. Sometimes an outside perspective can help us see the world differently and illuminate things we would have otherwise missed.
Do the Work: Finding your career soulmate is not going to be easy. Some folks might stumble into this inadvertently (just like the high school sweethearts we discussed above) but most of us will have to be purposeful about our search for happiness. This will not be done overnight, and you likely won’t get it right on the first try. I thought I had my dream job as a chemist way back in 2015, and come to find out, I hated it. Expect some trial and error as you really put in the work and focus on yourself.
Unethical Pro Tips (ULPTs)
Embrace Chaos: I used to say things like “I hate drama” and “I can’t stand political work environments” but you know what? Despite not inherently liking those things at first, I have found that I excel in moments of high drama. Like an episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, I thrive in situations where shit is hitting the proverbial fan. I know that this isn’t good for me in the long run, but I am embracing my chaotic side while I still have the energy to do so. Pretending to be a “cool girl” is so 2023. I am not cool - I am chaos incarnate.
Advice Corner
For this month’s advice corner I am taking a page (literally) from Matt Hearnden’s and my own book “How to Land A Job in Gaming.”
This book is focused on how each of us found our careers in gaming, full of tips and tricks to excel in crafting a resume and standing out during the interview process.
We also have a 4 page workbook at the end to help you prepare for a job interview. The workbook is actually applicable to many industries, so I am attaching one page here to help you get started.
Movie Recommendation: Arrival
Arrival is a sci-fi film focusing on the efforts of linguist Louise Banks to communicate with extraterrestrials, who have landed on Earth. Twelve spaceships – spread across the planet – hover above the ground, and countries are scrambling to figure out whether these aliens are friends or foes. Linguist Louise Banks and physicist Ian Donnelly are recruited by the American government to make contact with the beings in the ship hovering over a Montana field.
The stakes are dangerously high, as these two attempt to bridge a linguistical divide between two alien races. Miscommunication between humans and aliens and between humans and humans can potentially have disastrous consequences for the planet and the entire human race.
Why I Liked It
Time travel paradox. Romantic and terrifying. Existential and enlightening.