How to Enjoy Your 80,000+ Hours at Work

You will likely spend more than 80000 hours working over your career. Moreover, make sure you do something that you’ll love (or at least like). At the end of the day, it is a long haul.

I believe career satisfaction is career success. How satisfaction comes purpose, meaning, and fulfillment.

64 percent of Millennials would rather make $40K a year at a job they love than $100K a year at a job they think is boring.—Inc.com

Start planning your career journey in Grade 10!

Satisfaction happens when you can use your unique strengths and talents to achieve something you care about. Planning for that successful journey starts in grade 10. You are shaping (and limiting) your future outcomes by the courses you take in high school.

As an engineer, I believe in evidence-based decision-making. I want students to gain insights and ask the right questions. Whether they are thinking of entering the workforce, apprenticeship, or go to college/university. In my post, Powerful Career Advice for Your High School Student, I shared some of my stories. In this post, I’ll share some things I’ve learned about the career journey.

Tony Robbins has said that the quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions you ask. I couldn’t agree more. I think this is one of the most under-utilized psychological principles at our disposal. There are two types of questions:

1. questions you ask yourself
2. questions you ask other people

Choose wisely!

Throughout your career journey, you frame the debate by the questions you ask. Whether you see an event or opportunity as being positive or negative — whether you frame it as a destructive or a growth opportunity — is primarily based on the questions you ask yourself. So, choose wisely. Very, very wisely.

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. —Henry David Thoreau

When something isn’t going exactly as planned—we can choose to

• believe that the world is against us
• learn and add a new skill
• have the guts to try something new

This subtle shift will make all the difference in your career journey and your life.

What else I’ve learned about career planning

Taking extra years to complete college due to career uncertainty and changing majors was not nearly as costly for my generation. Today, it could mean an additional cost of $50,000 or more. US college students are taking on average six years to complete a four-year degree. So, choose wisely, not everyone can afford a do-over or two.

1.    Myths about career planning

• Choosing a career is simple
• Career planning is natural, do it once you’re set
• A career counsellor can tell you what occupation to pick
• Once you select a career, you’ll be stuck in it forever
• If your mother or father (or best friend, brother, uncle, neighbour, etc.) is happy in a particular field, you will be too

2.    Some facts and information

A career is not a specific job. You cannot plan your career for a job. Moreover, it is about building and applying your talent stack to achieve an outcome.

• 85% of the jobs that will be around in 2030—do not even exist now
• You target job will likely disappear before you get there—organizations as always adjusting and realigning to achieve their strategy (or just survive)
• All jobs will change over time
• Employers selection process are not very good rather than digging deep and higher the individual with the best chance of being successful
• Employers tend to hire the best-prepared candidate (employers only make a good hire about 50% of the time)

3.     About Careers

• 60% of us never find work in our preferred job/field
• Over 60% of employees are disengaged or actively disengaged from their current job
• Fewer than 20% of us work in our dream job
• 88% of students of college and university graduates expect to land a job in their major. However, fewer than 40% do

Most students see their degree as training versus acquiring an education with lots of transferable skills. Moreover, see the Hamilton Project an interactive resource for those who seek a better understanding of how their college major can be used. For example 10% of chemical engineering graduates work as chemical engineers. However, it is excellent foundational education to do many things from executives to physicians and surgeons.

Engineering provides many opportunities. At the end of the day, about a third of graduates practice engineering. In addition, about one-third of grads have careers in engineering related careers. Interestingly, one third have excellent careers doing something else.

4.     About College/University Graduates

• After graduating 50% of grads report that they do not believe their choice of study was best for them
• 75% of grads changed significant at least once
• Only 27% of grads choose their major with intentional knowledge about themselves

5.     About College/University Students

• Most students are underprepared when selecting a major
• 80% of college/university students change their major, and for those who change they change three times on average
• 50% of students entering university/college are undecided — they have no good reason for the choice of study they decided to pursue
• Even students who say they have “decided” when entering university/college admit their major study was not based on any factual research or even self-reflection
• If you are emotionally engaged with learning was related to having a major of study close to one’s personality you’ll do better—in fact, a Canadian study of over 87,000 college/university students found that “congruent predictor” was found to be a better predictor of the GPA than their ACT score
• Those who know their strengths and weaknesses in these areas will be more likely to actively monitor their learning strategies and resources and assess their readiness for particular tasks and performances

6.     About High School Students

• Most students say they choose university/college based on influence from peers, family, false assumptions rather than through an understanding of their personal goals in life or values

Are there alternatives to career planning?

Yes, most people use them. You can do want someone else tells you to do, follow the path of least resistance or hope you get lucky. However, using this approach, you will likely join the 80% of folks who never work in their dream job with these approaches. Using your natural strengths and adding the skills and knowledge you need for expertise in a given domain is a great way to start—you dream job will emerge.

“People do not rise to the occasion. They sink to their highest level of preparation.”

What is the secret sauce for career satisfaction?

We all want to enjoy how we spend our working day, and enjoyment forms a part of that success. However, to me, the above stats are screaming that satisfaction and success come from doing what you want to do—having an opportunity to fully leverage our strengths. You will be more engaged and think more deeply about your job, just because you are better at it than most people and it comes naturally to you.

In 2014, Tim Ferriss set out to discover the secret sauce of success. He distilled his interviews of almost 200 world-class performers in his 2016 book, Tools of Titans. His interviewees included top athletes, entertainers, doctors, investors, entrepreneurs, authors, and researchers.

“The most successful among us are walking flaws who have maximized one or two strengths.” —Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss’ podcast provides in-depth interviews with these folks offer interesting insights.

Forty years early, Dr. Larry Cash interviewed and tested 370 very successful Canadians. He was seeking to find the ten common characteristics of success. His findings shocked him — they did not have a single thing in common with each other!

While knowledge, skills, and experience are necessary prerequisites for any job, Dr. Cash discovered that it is behaviour that most differentiates the level of career success achieved by otherwise similarly qualified people.

He created SuccessFinder with the specific intention of helping people maximize career success, including satisfaction (enjoyment).

What to do to get the most out of your 80000 hours?

Few people know their performance strengths and leverage their unique powers for success. Moreover, it is never too late to discover your strengths. However, it is best to find out what they are when you’re in Grade 10. Furthermore, becoming it is an excellent time to becomeintentional about achieving career satisfaction.

Can you discover what you could be happy and prosperous at (doing what I was meant to do with my life) by yourself?

A few can do it, likely the 20% of people who eventually land their dream job. However, most of us end up thinking ourselves through never-ending questions or take the path of least resistance.  We choose “what’s next” based on influence from peers, family, false assumptions rather than through an understanding of their personal goals in life or values.

What we need to understand our strengths, know where we can leverage our strengths can add value and then acquire the skills and knowledge to turn these strengths into a career.

Can you do this without the help of someone qualified to assist you? Highly unlikely.

We offer an assessment and consultation using SuccessFinder—equivalent to a series of psychometric test on a single platform—to provide you with the necessary insights. We capture your behavioural “DNA”—unique natural born abilities—to describe the intricate complexities that make you up as an individual and relate your strengths as predictors of career success.

Questions for Others

In my post, Parents Tips You Need to Know to Boost Your High Schooler's Career Success, I encourage all young people to learn to network with people who in areas that align with their strengths. I outline some specific questions you should ask as you network with people working in a field you wish to explore.

Instead of aiming at finding common ground as most people will advise, Tom Bilyeu says to aim for insightful — with bonus points for asking people questions that they’ll be excited to answer. Ask people you meet in the working world:

1. What’s something you find utterly fascinating?
2. What’s something about you that surprises people?
3. If you woke up tomorrow with $7.4 billion, after travelling, investing the money, and giving a bunch to your family, what would you do?

Their answers may help you paint your dream—enjoy your 80000 hours!

 All you need is a plan, the roadmap, and the courage to press on to your destination.”—Earl Nightingale.