Career Advice For My Undergraduate Self
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
This question brings out a lot of anxiety for many including my younger self.
To help others in their own career exploration, I reflected on the three most important lessons I would tell my undergraduate self. In 2011–2015, I was an undergraduate at the University of North Texas for Radio, Television, and Film. I planned to work on a film or television set despite being far from media hubs like LA, Atlanta, or New York.
1. Talk to more people about what they do.
When I was an undergraduate student, I assumed that my experience alone would get me a job. I was wrong. Networking is by far the most important thing you can do in your career, but the term “networking” carries a lot of baggage. Networking is better understood as talking to people about what they do without the intention of getting a job.
Informational interviews are low-stakes ways to connect with working professionals and learn from their successes and failures. Interviewees provide a personal experience that helps guide you to where you want to be. Without networking, navigating your career becomes almost impossible.
Informational interviewee's experience act as a roadmap to help find where you want to go.
2. The job you want now may not exist in the future, or the job you didn’t know you want may exist in the future.
There’s a misnomer that once you choose a career, that’s the career you’ll be in the rest of your life. Careers and industries change, that’s part of life. People pivot and technology transforms society.
I’m an SEO analyst, and the field of SEO is fairly new. I had no idea what SEO was when I was in my undergraduate. If you told me I’d be an SEO analyst, I’d be confused and laugh at you.
You have to keep an open mind overall. Don’t get too attached to a career or let it define you. You and you yourself alone define your career path.
3. Let your career pay for your passions. Work to live, not live to work.
This piece of advice may sound controversial, but I’ve seen people become burned out and they can’t enjoy their passions because it becomes work.
Jobs, where the mindset is “pay doesn’t matter much, I would work for free” are ripe with exploitation. Whether it’s filmmaking or academia, people with passions are exploited for their labor by others. It’s okay to have a desk job that lets you afford your passions.
I’d rather have improved mental health and be able to spend time with my children at the end of the day.
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My website: www.collinsryan.com
