From the number of phone calls and messages I received after publishing the previous post, it seems like I’ve underestimated the amount of uncertainty that’s been floating around. It’s not a lingering shadow as much as it is an impenetrable pall of gloom that’s been cast over the lives of people.
So because of the general feeling around the air, I’m going to remain on this topic for a few posts.
My first job over a decade ago was for an American multinational company serving the oil and gas industry in Dubai. The economic crisis hit shortly after we got employed, and one day I walked into the office to discover that many members of the staff had been laid off. There was a period of restructuring that resulted in a lot of downtime, that an ex-colleague of mine started smoking only because he was so bored out of his mind and wanted to do something.
There’s something that happens to you when your very first job experience looks like this…you learn that everything you’ve been told about the world of work is a lie. You know that idea of being hired right out of university, climbing the corporate ladder, and retiring after putting in 40 years?
You might as well start riding unicorns over rainbows.
So here are a few things I’ve personally learned about jobs and careers.
Whatever line of work you’re in, diversify your network
It’s very easy to only have friends from work, especially if your company culture is actually a good one.
But wherever you are, diversify your network, because you never know what could happen to not just your company, but the entire industry. I learnt this in 2016, when the oil prices went down and ADNOC laid off thousands of people.
A similar thing happened to the UAE banking industry the following year.
And I’m sure a google search will bring to the surface similar trends in Kenya – I’m just using examples I’m familiar with because I could see what happened to my friends at that time.
Not only did they lose their jobs, but their friends within the industry had lost their jobs as well, so it was hard to find someone to help you find an opportunity considering they were looking for one themselves.
The importance of diversifying your network is further reinforced in the work by Granovetter titled, “The Strength of Weak Ties,” where weak ties are those people you have met or are connected to somehow, but do not currently know you really well. But because they move around different social circles, you might find them more valuable than strong ties, as they give you access to different types of information and opportunities.
Generalize your skillset
Nowadays, I find it really hard to define what exactly I do, but I’ve distilled my skillset to very, very basic elements: I read, I write, and I learn.
To provide context, this is how I describe it to people when they ask;
– If you ever need someone to read 15 reports and summarize them into 1 page to answer a specific question, you call me.
– If you ever need someone to turn a CSV file into a report you can understand, you call me.
Basically, my skillset revolves around reading esoteric papers, writing content with a research element to it (grants, proposals, conference papers, etc), and summarizing data into figures and graphs that tell stories; skills I’ve built while doing my PhD.
Of course, I get asked a lot about why I didn’t stay in academia, and why I didn’t get into oil and gas given it’s a new field in Kenya, but the reasons are basic:
– The academic system of education in Kenya is so inefficient and bureaucratic, I’m not surprised there’s brain drain of PhD-holders within the country.
– I can’t deal with bureaucracy, and I can’t deal with being restricted to a specific field (returning to point #1). The applications of what I do vary a lot, and I’ve worked across industries from education, agriculture, sustainable energy and back to education again.
I know some may disagree with this ‘Jack-of-all-trades’ approach, and my only comment is, just do what works for you. If being an expert in one field works for you and helps you make a living, then go ahead, but I feel I’m still in the exploring phase of life, so…
Measure progress in terms of the number of times you get rejected
Unfortunately, we are the result of an educational system that’s wired us to measure progress in terms of the number of times we succeed. But if you continue winning, then chances are high you’re not trying hard enough, and you’re not challenging yourself. So it’s up to you to continuously set the bar higher, and try things that stretch you and lie just beyond your comfort zone because that’s how you learn…by actually doing hard things. Which means you will get rejected, so you might as well measure progress in those terms.
As I’ve written before, as hard as it is, treat every rejection with grace. Thank them for giving you a datapoint to learn from, and for giving you the gift of space and time to work on a different pursuit.
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