Uisa Kloep is a 26-year-old newly minted graduate with a master’s degree in fashion and sales management. Like many of her peers, she is bright, talented and enthusiastic about her new career. She’s also unemployed and feeling dejected about the job search she started five months ago
For people like Luisa, it can be hard to know whether they should just take any job or wait for the right one. But maybe it’s not either/or. Instead of searching for the dream job, ask yourself: What can I do in the near term that will help me over time find the job I’m going to be excited about, engaged in and good at?
Evaluate opportunities not based on whether they are “right” or “perfect” for your long-term goals but based on whether you’ll gain something now that will be useful later. Specifically, think about three criteria:
— EXPERIENCE: It’s tempting to set your sights on the “best” jobs or companies, but sometimes you can learn a lot in a role at any company. Ask yourself: What are you hoping to learn? What skills are you looking to gain? And don’t narrowly focus on the role you ultimately want. Think instead about the skills you’ll need to eventually fill those jobs. Similarly, if you want to run your own company someday, then consider an apprenticeship role at a startup. Being a jack-of-all-trades and learning what it takes to get a venture off the ground matters more than the prestige of the founders or whether the company actually makes it to the next funding round.
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— CREDIBILITY: Of course, there are industries — say, luxury fashion, consumer products or investment banking — where prestige matters. Luisa wanted to be a buyer, and only a buyer — until she realized that getting her foot in the door with any well-known retail or consumer brand could be her lucky break. She ultimately expanded her job search to include marketing and brand-management roles with the top brands throughout Europe. She also broadened her search to include packaged-food companies. Soon after doing so, she called me excitedly to tell me she had found over 50 additional job openings. If credibility is what you’re after, then seeking a position with a tried-and-true company that other people will recognize can be helpful.
— INCOME: Never underestimate the power of a paycheck. Do what it takes to duct-tape together an income while you search for the “right” job.
Chances are that your career is going to be a series of twists and turns and highs and lows, all of which make it interesting, challenging and ultimately rewarding. Your career success will lie as much in the mistakes you make — a terrible first job, or the dream role you landed only to realize it wasn’t for you — as it does in the right choices you make along the way. Look for opportunities that give you experience, credibility or income, and have faith that you’ll find the right job (or it will find you) along the way.
