8.It's a Jungle Gym……

It’s a Jungle Gym, Not a Ladder Page 59: Through out my childhood, my parents emphasized the importance of pursuing a meaningful life. Dinner discussions often centered on social injustice and those fighting to make the world a better place. As a child, I never thought about what I wanted to be, but I thought a lot about what I wanted to do. As sappy as it sounds, I hoped to changed the world. My sister and brother both became doctors, and I always believed I would work at a nonprofit or in government. That was my dream. And while I don’t believing in mapping out each step of a career, I do believe it helps to have a long-term dream or goal. A long-term dream does not have to be realistic or even specific. It may reflect the desire to work in particular field or to travel throughout the world. Maybe the dream is to have professional autonomy or a certain amount of free time. Maybe it’s to create something lasting or win a coveted prize. Some goals require more traditional paths; anyone who aspires to become Supreme Court justice should probably start by attending law school. But even a vague goal can provide direction, a far-off guidepost to move toward. Page 62: Eric responded with perhaps the best piece of career advice that I have ever heard. He covered my spreadsheets with his hand and told me not to be an idiot(also a great piece of advice). Then he explained that only one criterion mattered when picking a job----fast growth. When companies grow quickly, there are more things to do than there are people to do them. When companies grow more slowly or stop growing, there is less to do and too many people to not be doing them. Politics and stagnation set in, and everyone falters. He told me, “If you’re offered a seat on rocket ship, you don’t ask what seat. You just get on.” I made up my mind that instant. Google was tiny and disorganized, but it was a rocket ship. And even more important to me, it was a rocket ship with a mission I believed in deeply. Over the years, I have repeated Eric’s advice to countless people, encouraging them to reduce their career spreadsheets to one column: potential for growth. Of course, not everyone has the opportunity or the desire to work in an industry like high tech. But within any field, there are jobs that have more potential for growth than others. Those in more established industries can look for the rocket ships within their companies---divisions or teams that are expanding. And in careers like teaching or medicine, the corollary is to seek out positions where there is high demand for those skills. For example, in my brother’s field of pediatric neurosurgery, there are some cities with too many physicians, while others have too few. My brother has always elected to work where his expertise would be in demand so he can have the greatest impact. Just as I believe everyone should have a long-term dream, I also believe everyone should have an eighteen-month plan. (I said eighteen months because two years seems too long and one year seems too short, but it does not have to be any exact amount of time.) Typically, my eighteen-month plan sets goals on two fronts. First and most important, I set targets for what my team can accomplish. Employees who concentrate on results and impact are the most valuable---like Lori, who wisely focused on solving Facebook’s recruiting problem before focusing on herself. This is not just thinking communally---the expected and often smart choice for a woman---but simply good business.