WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.399 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are going 00:00:02.399 --> 00:00:06.360 to perform a bit of a psychological autopsy on 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:11.060 a concept that probably dominates, what, 70 % 00:00:11.060 --> 00:00:13.640 of your waking life? Oh, yeah. It's a word you 00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:16.519 have likely used maybe five times just today 00:00:16.519 --> 00:00:18.960 without actually thinking about what it means. 00:00:19.079 --> 00:00:21.140 It dictates your schedule, it often dictates 00:00:21.140 --> 00:00:23.800 your bank account balance, and... Let's be honest, 00:00:23.940 --> 00:00:26.300 for better or worse, it dictates a huge chunk 00:00:26.300 --> 00:00:29.719 of your self -worth. We are talking about the 00:00:29.719 --> 00:00:32.600 career. It is the absolute elephant in the room 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:34.759 of modern adulthood. It truly is. We organize 00:00:34.759 --> 00:00:36.799 our entire existence around it. We stress over 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:39.899 it. We, you know, we plan for it decades in advance. 00:00:40.100 --> 00:00:42.520 Right. Yet we rarely stop to actually pick it 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:45.210 up, turn it over and ask. What actually is this 00:00:45.210 --> 00:00:48.850 thing? Is it a ladder? Is it a trap? Is it a 00:00:48.850 --> 00:00:50.630 calling? What are we even talking about? Exactly. 00:00:50.630 --> 00:00:52.070 And that's the thing. If I stop someone on the 00:00:52.070 --> 00:00:54.770 street right now, someone rushing to get a coffee 00:00:54.770 --> 00:00:58.109 before a 9 .00 a .m. meeting and asked, what 00:00:58.109 --> 00:01:00.210 is a career? They'd probably look at me like 00:01:00.210 --> 00:01:03.549 I'm an idiot and say, it's my job. Or maybe it's 00:01:03.549 --> 00:01:06.459 what I do to pay the mortgage. But we have a 00:01:06.459 --> 00:01:08.859 massive stack of research here today, and it's 00:01:08.859 --> 00:01:11.400 spanning etymology, organizational psychology, 00:01:11.879 --> 00:01:15.060 Roman history, sociology. It's all in there. 00:01:15.239 --> 00:01:17.099 It's all in there. And it all suggests that a 00:01:17.099 --> 00:01:18.900 career is something radically different than 00:01:18.900 --> 00:01:22.840 just a job. It is a complex journey through learning, 00:01:23.079 --> 00:01:27.040 work, and, well, life. It is distinct. And the 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:30.120 mission for this deep dive is to deconstruct 00:01:30.120 --> 00:01:32.510 the modern career. We want to understand where 00:01:32.510 --> 00:01:34.609 the word actually comes from. And I promise you, 00:01:34.629 --> 00:01:36.670 the origin story is a lot more violent than you'd 00:01:36.670 --> 00:01:38.849 expect. Oh, I'm excited for that part. We want 00:01:38.849 --> 00:01:41.250 to look at how we choose these paths or maybe 00:01:41.250 --> 00:01:43.450 how we are forced into them, why we abandon them, 00:01:43.549 --> 00:01:46.310 and ultimately how we actually measure if a career 00:01:46.310 --> 00:01:49.790 is successful when the old yard sticks. The gold 00:01:49.790 --> 00:01:52.609 watch. The gold watch, the corner office. they've 00:01:52.609 --> 00:01:55.049 basically evaporated okay so i want to start 00:01:55.049 --> 00:01:57.209 with that violent origin story you tease in the 00:01:57.209 --> 00:01:59.370 pre -show notes because when i was reading through 00:01:59.370 --> 00:02:03.810 the etymological roots my jaw just it hit the 00:02:03.810 --> 00:02:06.329 floor right i think most of us when we visualize 00:02:06.329 --> 00:02:10.430 a career we see a ladder yeah it's steady it's 00:02:10.430 --> 00:02:12.689 vertical you climb one rung you stabilize you 00:02:12.689 --> 00:02:15.009 feel safe you climb the next yeah it's a very 00:02:15.009 --> 00:02:17.270 safe image as long as you don't look down it 00:02:17.270 --> 00:02:20.490 is it's orderly it's predictable but the word 00:02:20.490 --> 00:02:23.229 itself implies something totally different, something 00:02:23.229 --> 00:02:26.590 chaotic. It does. That latter metaphor is actually 00:02:26.590 --> 00:02:29.169 a very recent invention. It's mostly from the 00:02:29.169 --> 00:02:31.330 corporate structures of the mid -20th century, 00:02:31.550 --> 00:02:34.069 you know, the organization man era. Right. But 00:02:34.069 --> 00:02:36.409 if you dig into the linguistic roots, the word 00:02:36.409 --> 00:02:39.870 career comes from the Latin carus. Carus. And 00:02:39.870 --> 00:02:42.530 carus doesn't mean office or work or status. 00:02:42.729 --> 00:02:45.729 It means a chariot. A chariot, like Ben -Hur's 00:02:45.729 --> 00:02:49.000 style. A war machine. Exactly. Ben -Hur, gladiator, 00:02:49.020 --> 00:02:51.039 the Colosseum, that's the energy. And if you 00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:53.479 follow that thread into Middle French, you get 00:02:53.479 --> 00:02:56.259 the word catarrière. Catarrière, okay. Which 00:02:56.259 --> 00:02:59.439 meant a road, or more specifically, a race course. 00:02:59.759 --> 00:03:02.879 And then by the 1530s, the definition in common 00:03:02.879 --> 00:03:05.599 usage was a running at full speed. A running 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:07.520 at full speed? That feels frantic. It sounds 00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:10.819 exhausting. It is frantic. And that's the entire 00:03:10.819 --> 00:03:13.620 point. Originally, a career wasn't a structure 00:03:13.620 --> 00:03:16.460 you climbed safely. It was a track you raced 00:03:16.460 --> 00:03:20.379 on. It implies momentum, high speed, and a very 00:03:20.379 --> 00:03:23.319 specific trajectory for wheeled vehicles. So 00:03:23.319 --> 00:03:25.599 it's inherently dangerous. It's dangerous. It's 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:28.300 fast. It's all about forward motion, not the 00:03:28.300 --> 00:03:31.740 sort of careful vertical elevation. And historically, 00:03:31.879 --> 00:03:33.900 if you fell out of the chariot, you didn't just 00:03:33.900 --> 00:03:36.039 lose your job. You got run over. You got run 00:03:36.039 --> 00:03:38.030 over by everyone else who was still in it. the 00:03:38.030 --> 00:03:41.569 race. That completely recontextualizes the anxiety 00:03:41.569 --> 00:03:44.250 so many of us feel. Because if you think about 00:03:44.250 --> 00:03:47.210 how we talk about careers today, even now, we 00:03:47.210 --> 00:03:49.090 say things like my career is careening out of 00:03:49.090 --> 00:03:51.969 control or my career is really taking off. Hmm. 00:03:52.490 --> 00:03:54.629 Kinetic terms. They're kinetic terms. They still 00:03:54.629 --> 00:03:56.750 hold that old chariot energy. We haven't fully 00:03:56.750 --> 00:03:59.689 shaken it. Absolutely. And that's why the feeling 00:03:59.689 --> 00:04:03.270 of being stuck is so deeply painful to us. If 00:04:03.270 --> 00:04:05.370 you are on a ladder and you just stay up climbing, 00:04:05.490 --> 00:04:07.409 you're just standing still, you're safe. You 00:04:07.409 --> 00:04:09.590 can catch your breath. But if you are in a chariot 00:04:09.590 --> 00:04:14.310 race and you stop, you crash, the momentum is 00:04:14.310 --> 00:04:17.189 essential to the very definition. The lack of 00:04:17.189 --> 00:04:20.189 it is disaster. So when did we trade in the chariot 00:04:20.189 --> 00:04:22.810 for, you know, the LinkedIn profile? When did 00:04:22.810 --> 00:04:26.170 it become this course of professional life that 00:04:26.170 --> 00:04:30.029 feels so much more tame? That semantic shift 00:04:30.029 --> 00:04:32.750 is surprisingly recent. The online etymology 00:04:32.750 --> 00:04:35.149 dictionary pins the modern meaning course of 00:04:35.149 --> 00:04:38.509 one's public or professional life to around 1803. 00:04:38.750 --> 00:04:40.850 1803, that's really not that long ago. Not at 00:04:40.850 --> 00:04:42.490 all in the grand scheme of things. We start to 00:04:42.490 --> 00:04:44.290 see it popping up in text referencing things 00:04:44.290 --> 00:04:47.610 like Goethe's literary career or a general business 00:04:47.610 --> 00:04:50.269 career. So really the way we use the word today 00:04:50.269 --> 00:04:52.329 in this sort of white -collar professional sense 00:04:52.329 --> 00:04:54.509 is only about 200 years old. Which coincides 00:04:54.509 --> 00:04:56.069 pretty neatly with the Industrial Revolution 00:04:56.069 --> 00:04:58.500 and the rise of the modern organization. workforce 00:04:58.500 --> 00:05:01.300 precisely the industrial revolution accelerated 00:05:01.300 --> 00:05:04.019 everything suddenly life wasn't just about seasons 00:05:04.019 --> 00:05:06.740 or harvest cycles it was about production speed 00:05:06.740 --> 00:05:09.980 output the clock became the new sun we needed 00:05:09.980 --> 00:05:12.279 a word to describe the long -term trajectory 00:05:12.279 --> 00:05:14.939 of a worker in this new industrialized economy 00:05:14.939 --> 00:05:18.459 so we borrowed the word for racecourse it was 00:05:18.459 --> 00:05:21.100 the perfect metaphor for the time that makes 00:05:21.100 --> 00:05:24.079 so much sense Okay, so let's try to pin down 00:05:24.079 --> 00:05:26.220 some definitions for a second. We have the chariot 00:05:26.220 --> 00:05:29.459 race origin, but how does a modern dictionary 00:05:29.459 --> 00:05:32.860 define it? The Oxford English Dictionary calls 00:05:32.860 --> 00:05:35.939 it a person's course or progress through life 00:05:35.939 --> 00:05:39.060 or a distinct portion of life. It's incredibly 00:05:39.060 --> 00:05:41.680 broad, isn't it? It's so broad. That sounds more 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:44.860 like a biography than a job description. My career 00:05:44.860 --> 00:05:47.220 as a teenager learning guitar is part of it. 00:05:47.449 --> 00:05:50.129 By definition, it is broad and that breadth is 00:05:50.129 --> 00:05:52.430 crucial. It acknowledges that a career isn't 00:05:52.430 --> 00:05:54.769 just the hours you are paid for. It's the container 00:05:54.769 --> 00:05:57.069 for the life you live. But then you have the 00:05:57.069 --> 00:05:59.170 organizational behavior researcher, the people 00:05:59.170 --> 00:06:00.970 who actually study this for a living. Exactly. 00:06:01.110 --> 00:06:03.850 The people who study how humans function in economies. 00:06:04.029 --> 00:06:06.449 And they have a much more specific and I think 00:06:06.449 --> 00:06:08.930 the much more useful definition. OK, what's that? 00:06:09.050 --> 00:06:12.050 They define it as a unique pattern of work related 00:06:12.050 --> 00:06:14.790 experiences, both inside and outside organizations 00:06:14.790 --> 00:06:18.009 over a total lifespan. Okay, both inside and 00:06:18.009 --> 00:06:20.250 outside. That's a key distinction. Let's break 00:06:20.250 --> 00:06:22.970 that down. It is the absolute game changer in 00:06:22.970 --> 00:06:25.050 how we should think about this. Inside is your 00:06:25.050 --> 00:06:26.649 nine to five at the bank. That's the obvious 00:06:26.649 --> 00:06:30.250 part. Right. But outside is your side hustle. 00:06:30.750 --> 00:06:33.389 Your volunteering, the classes you take at night, 00:06:33.509 --> 00:06:36.209 your periods of unemployment, your time spent 00:06:36.209 --> 00:06:39.350 raising children or caring for a parent. All 00:06:39.350 --> 00:06:41.810 of that is part of the career. So it's not just 00:06:41.810 --> 00:06:44.490 the time you spend at Company X from 2015 to 00:06:44.490 --> 00:06:47.670 2020. No, that's just one data point in a much 00:06:47.670 --> 00:06:50.250 larger pattern. So if I get laid off and I spend 00:06:50.250 --> 00:06:52.470 six months learning to bake sourdough bread and 00:06:52.470 --> 00:06:55.129 applying for jobs, that is not a gap in my career 00:06:55.129 --> 00:06:57.939 on my resume. No. That is the career. Exactly. 00:06:57.939 --> 00:07:01.160 It is part of the unique pattern. The old model, 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:04.279 the latter model, viewed unemployment as a void 00:07:04.279 --> 00:07:07.819 or a break in the career, a failure. A black 00:07:07.819 --> 00:07:10.339 mark. A black mark. Exactly. The modern model 00:07:10.339 --> 00:07:12.519 views it as just another phase of the race course. 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:15.100 It might be a pit stop or a flat tire, but you 00:07:15.100 --> 00:07:16.920 are still on the track. You're still moving forward 00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:19.139 just in a different way. That is a relief to 00:07:19.139 --> 00:07:22.230 hear. Honestly, because that gap on the resume 00:07:22.230 --> 00:07:25.889 is a source of so much anxiety for so many people. 00:07:26.110 --> 00:07:28.269 But then we also have these colloquial terms 00:07:28.269 --> 00:07:29.990 that kind of mess with our heads. We have terms 00:07:29.990 --> 00:07:32.449 like career woman, which implies that work is 00:07:32.449 --> 00:07:34.970 the central identity, maybe in opposition to 00:07:34.970 --> 00:07:37.250 traditional domestic roles. Right. And it's so 00:07:37.250 --> 00:07:40.610 telling that you rarely, if ever, hear the term 00:07:40.610 --> 00:07:43.689 career man. Ever. Because for men, historically, 00:07:44.009 --> 00:07:47.129 the career is assumed to be the default setting. 00:07:47.209 --> 00:07:50.750 It's just the man. career woman carries a specific 00:07:50.750 --> 00:07:53.589 sociological weight, a sense of making a choice 00:07:53.589 --> 00:07:55.850 against a norm. And then, of course, we use the 00:07:55.850 --> 00:07:57.889 word to describe these very specific sectors 00:07:57.889 --> 00:08:00.990 like a criminal career or a career in the building 00:08:00.990 --> 00:08:03.449 trade. A criminal career always sounds so oddly 00:08:03.449 --> 00:08:06.050 organized to me. It does. Like there is a pension 00:08:06.050 --> 00:08:08.370 plan for bank robbers if they hit their quarterly 00:08:08.370 --> 00:08:12.029 KPIs. One would hope so. But essentially what 00:08:12.029 --> 00:08:14.509 connects a criminal career to a medical career 00:08:14.509 --> 00:08:17.149 is simply that it implies a long term commitment 00:08:17.149 --> 00:08:19.790 and a process. of skill acquisition over time. 00:08:19.970 --> 00:08:22.569 So it's about the long view. It's always about 00:08:22.569 --> 00:08:25.370 the long view. We are looking at a concept that 00:08:25.370 --> 00:08:28.589 has gone from a race course to a lifelong pattern 00:08:28.589 --> 00:08:31.829 of experiences. So if the definition has shifted 00:08:31.829 --> 00:08:34.429 so dramatically, the structure of it must have 00:08:34.429 --> 00:08:36.769 shifted. Yeah. I want to move into the evolution 00:08:36.769 --> 00:08:38.929 of the career because you mentioned earlier that 00:08:38.929 --> 00:08:42.350 the latter is a relatively new idea. It is. What 00:08:42.350 --> 00:08:44.929 was the model before the modern era? If you were 00:08:44.929 --> 00:08:48.190 an ambitious person in, say, ancient Rome, what 00:08:48.190 --> 00:08:50.009 did your career even look like? Was that even 00:08:50.009 --> 00:08:52.710 a concept? It was, but it was incredibly rigid. 00:08:53.149 --> 00:08:55.929 The Romans had a concept called the cursus honorum. 00:08:55.950 --> 00:08:58.370 The cursus honorum. Sounds fancy. It translates 00:08:58.370 --> 00:09:01.250 to the course of honors. And this was the sequential, 00:09:01.470 --> 00:09:04.309 unchangeable order of public offices held by 00:09:04.309 --> 00:09:06.649 aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and 00:09:06.649 --> 00:09:08.889 the early empire. It was a conveyor belt. Conveyor 00:09:08.889 --> 00:09:11.149 belt. There's no skipping steps. Zero. You served 00:09:11.149 --> 00:09:13.210 as a military tribune. Then you became a quaestor. 00:09:13.309 --> 00:09:15.909 Then an aedile. Then a praetor. And then finally, 00:09:15.990 --> 00:09:17.850 if you were extremely lucky and very well connected, 00:09:18.029 --> 00:09:21.320 a consul. The talk job. And you couldn't just 00:09:21.320 --> 00:09:24.159 you couldn't hack the system. You couldn't be 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:26.820 a brilliant young upstart and jump straight to 00:09:26.820 --> 00:09:30.220 CEO or consul. Absolutely not. There were minimum 00:09:30.220 --> 00:09:32.879 age requirements for each and every step. There 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:35.039 were mandatory gaps between holding different 00:09:35.039 --> 00:09:37.899 offices. The whole system was designed to prevent 00:09:37.899 --> 00:09:41.480 rapid ascents to power. So it wasn't about finding 00:09:41.480 --> 00:09:43.980 your passion or disrupting the industry. Not 00:09:43.980 --> 00:09:46.399 even a little bit. It was about fulfilling a 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:50.220 predestined structural role in society. You didn't 00:09:50.220 --> 00:09:52.519 design the career. The career was designed for 00:09:52.519 --> 00:09:54.620 you and you just had to fit into the slot. That 00:09:54.620 --> 00:09:57.120 sounds incredibly stifling to us now with our 00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:00.059 emphasis on choice and individuality. But I have 00:10:00.059 --> 00:10:01.779 to imagine there was a certain comfort in that. 00:10:01.820 --> 00:10:03.440 You knew exactly what came next. There was no 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:05.519 ambiguity. There was immense security in it. 00:10:05.620 --> 00:10:08.480 Absolutely. And for centuries, for the average 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:11.259 person, not just the Roman elites, the career 00:10:11.259 --> 00:10:13.970 was even simpler. It was doing what your father 00:10:13.970 --> 00:10:16.350 did. Right. You're a blacksmith's son, so you're 00:10:16.350 --> 00:10:19.029 a blacksmith. Exactly. If your dad was a blacksmith, 00:10:19.110 --> 00:10:21.870 you were a blacksmith. The concept of choice, 00:10:22.049 --> 00:10:24.769 of picking your own path, is a profound luxury 00:10:24.769 --> 00:10:27.669 of the modern era. We forget how new that is. 00:10:27.809 --> 00:10:30.509 So what broke that chain? What was the catalyst? 00:10:30.610 --> 00:10:32.450 Was it just the Industrial Revolution? It was 00:10:32.450 --> 00:10:35.090 a combination of two main things, really. First, 00:10:35.309 --> 00:10:37.950 the explosion of specialized professions that 00:10:37.950 --> 00:10:40.429 came with industrialization and technology. And 00:10:40.429 --> 00:10:43.590 second... The democratization of education. Let's 00:10:43.590 --> 00:10:45.789 take those one by one. The specialized professions. 00:10:46.169 --> 00:10:48.049 Well, suddenly you didn't just have three options. 00:10:48.350 --> 00:10:51.730 Soldier, priest, farmer. You had thousands of 00:10:51.730 --> 00:10:54.370 specializations. Engineer, accountant, factory 00:10:54.370 --> 00:10:56.970 manager, telegraph operator, typesetter. The 00:10:56.970 --> 00:10:59.230 list just exploded. And with widespread literacy 00:10:59.230 --> 00:11:02.029 and public education. You had a workforce that 00:11:02.029 --> 00:11:04.870 was theoretically capable of moving between them. 00:11:04.909 --> 00:11:07.350 They could learn new skills. And this shift, 00:11:07.429 --> 00:11:09.809 this sudden explosion of choice, is actually 00:11:09.809 --> 00:11:12.429 what created the need for career counselors and 00:11:12.429 --> 00:11:14.580 career advisors. Right, of course. Because if 00:11:14.580 --> 00:11:16.960 there's only one road, you don't need a map or 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:20.000 a GPS. But if there are a thousand roads branching 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:22.480 off in every direction. You need a guide. You 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:24.899 need someone to help you read the map. Those 00:11:24.899 --> 00:11:27.179 roles didn't exist when the past was rigid because 00:11:27.179 --> 00:11:29.320 you didn't need advice. You just needed to do 00:11:29.320 --> 00:11:31.700 what you were told. And now it feels like we've 00:11:31.700 --> 00:11:34.970 accelerated past even that. We are in the era 00:11:34.970 --> 00:11:38.350 of what the notes call the hybrid identity. Yes. 00:11:38.370 --> 00:11:41.110 And looking at the source material from economist 00:11:41.110 --> 00:11:43.929 Richard Florida, he talks about this a lot, particularly 00:11:43.929 --> 00:11:47.429 when he discusses the creative class. So what 00:11:47.429 --> 00:11:50.309 is that hybrid identity? In the late 20th and 00:11:50.309 --> 00:11:52.870 early 21st centuries, we started seeing a big 00:11:52.870 --> 00:11:55.789 shift away from the singular noun. It used to 00:11:55.789 --> 00:11:59.250 be, I am a lawyer. I am a teacher. Full style. 00:11:59.309 --> 00:12:01.769 Her whole identity in one word. Exactly. But 00:12:01.769 --> 00:12:04.409 now professional identities have become hyphenated 00:12:04.409 --> 00:12:07.769 or hybridized. It became not just common, but 00:12:07.769 --> 00:12:10.529 almost expected to have dual or multiple careers, 00:12:10.649 --> 00:12:12.870 either one after another or sometimes at the 00:12:12.870 --> 00:12:15.070 same time. It's the classic I'm an actor waiter, 00:12:15.190 --> 00:12:17.409 but now it's more like I'm a data scientist, 00:12:17.590 --> 00:12:20.549 podcaster, beekeeper. Right. We are no longer 00:12:20.549 --> 00:12:23.070 just one thing. And that reflects a deep shift 00:12:23.070 --> 00:12:26.250 in the work ethic itself. I think. on some level 00:12:26.250 --> 00:12:28.850 we don't necessarily trust one single institution 00:12:28.850 --> 00:12:31.649 to hold our entire identity anymore we've seen 00:12:31.649 --> 00:12:33.250 what happens that's a really good point it's 00:12:33.250 --> 00:12:36.470 a form of diversification it's identity diversification 00:12:36.470 --> 00:12:39.799 as a hedge against instability If my data science 00:12:39.799 --> 00:12:43.100 job gets automated, I still have my podcast and 00:12:43.100 --> 00:12:46.440 my bees. That is a brilliant way to put it. But 00:12:46.440 --> 00:12:49.580 this brings us to the paradox of choice. If we 00:12:49.580 --> 00:12:52.100 have all these options, hyphens, slashes, thousands 00:12:52.100 --> 00:12:55.000 of distinct paths, how on earth do we actually 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:57.299 choose? When I'm sitting there staring at a job 00:12:57.299 --> 00:13:00.220 offer or a college application, what is actually 00:13:00.220 --> 00:13:02.629 happening in my brain? This is where we get deep 00:13:02.629 --> 00:13:04.809 into the psychology of choice. And there is a 00:13:04.809 --> 00:13:07.289 researcher named Belling who did some foundational 00:13:07.289 --> 00:13:10.190 work on this. He broke down how people decide 00:13:10.190 --> 00:13:13.210 to join a firm or pick a path into three specific 00:13:13.210 --> 00:13:16.049 theories. And I want you and everyone listening 00:13:16.049 --> 00:13:18.570 to think about which one of these you think you 00:13:18.570 --> 00:13:20.110 are. All right, I'm ready. Let's unpack these. 00:13:20.169 --> 00:13:22.570 Theory number one. Theory number one is the objective 00:13:22.570 --> 00:13:25.649 factor theory. This assumes that the applicant, 00:13:25.870 --> 00:13:29.289 so you, the listener, is a rational, logical 00:13:29.289 --> 00:13:33.279 being. A true homo economicus. A dangerous assumption 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:35.639 right off the bat. A very dangerous assumption. 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:38.419 But under this theory, you view the job choice 00:13:38.419 --> 00:13:40.820 like it's a spreadsheet. You are weighing the 00:13:40.820 --> 00:13:43.360 tangible benefits. What is the salary? What are 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:45.519 the health benefits? What's the commute? Where 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:48.139 is it located? What are the concrete opportunities 00:13:48.139 --> 00:13:50.220 for advancement? So you assign a score to each 00:13:50.220 --> 00:13:52.460 category. You do a cost benefit analysis. The 00:13:52.460 --> 00:13:54.620 math spins out an answer and you take the job. 00:13:54.940 --> 00:13:57.159 Precisely. It's a purely rational calculation. 00:13:57.580 --> 00:14:00.000 Collegial. Yeah. Spock would choose a career 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:02.480 this way. I think we all pretend to do this. 00:14:02.809 --> 00:14:04.610 We all make the pro con list. We make the spreadsheet. 00:14:04.789 --> 00:14:07.789 Yeah. But I have rarely seen anyone actually 00:14:07.789 --> 00:14:09.789 follow the math if their gut says otherwise. 00:14:10.029 --> 00:14:12.009 And that is the perfect lead in to theory number 00:14:12.009 --> 00:14:16.009 two, the subjective factor theory. OK. This one 00:14:16.009 --> 00:14:18.269 suggests that the decision making process is 00:14:18.269 --> 00:14:20.490 actually dominated by social and psychological 00:14:20.490 --> 00:14:23.769 factors. It's emotional. It's not about the money. 00:14:23.850 --> 00:14:26.370 It's about the status. So it's about what the 00:14:26.370 --> 00:14:29.149 job says about me. Exactly. What is the reputation 00:14:29.149 --> 00:14:31.970 of the organization? How will I feel? Telling 00:14:31.970 --> 00:14:33.669 people at my high school reunion that I work 00:14:33.669 --> 00:14:36.389 there, does the brand name confer a certain kind 00:14:36.389 --> 00:14:40.250 of prestige? This is the cool kid factor. You 00:14:40.250 --> 00:14:42.289 know, working for a famous tech company or a 00:14:42.289 --> 00:14:44.269 prestigious magazine because it makes you feel 00:14:44.269 --> 00:14:47.169 successful, even if the pay is lower or the hours 00:14:47.169 --> 00:14:49.169 are absolutely brutal. It's all about identity 00:14:49.169 --> 00:14:51.230 alignment. Am I the kind of person who works 00:14:51.230 --> 00:14:54.009 at this kind of place? The feeling is more important 00:14:54.009 --> 00:14:56.870 than the facts. That feels very real. And the 00:14:56.870 --> 00:14:58.649 third one. And then we have theory number three. 00:14:59.240 --> 00:15:02.320 The critical contact theory. This one, when I 00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:05.159 read it in the notes, it sounded the most relatable 00:15:05.159 --> 00:15:09.000 to me, the most human. It often is. This theory 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:12.419 argues that your final decision is heavily, heavily 00:15:12.419 --> 00:15:14.899 influenced by your specific interactions with 00:15:14.899 --> 00:15:17.340 the organization during the hiring process. How 00:15:17.340 --> 00:15:19.559 they treat you. Exactly. Because you can't truly 00:15:19.559 --> 00:15:21.879 know what a job is like from the outside. You 00:15:21.879 --> 00:15:24.700 use these small micro interactions as a proxy 00:15:24.700 --> 00:15:27.039 for the entire culture. Was the recruiter nice 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:29.000 and responsive? Did they reply to your email 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:31.600 promptly? Was the receptionist rude when you 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:33.980 came in for the interview? I have absolutely 00:15:33.980 --> 00:15:36.440 turned down a job because the interviewer was 00:15:36.440 --> 00:15:39.779 15 minutes late and didn't apologize. And I just 00:15:39.779 --> 00:15:42.580 thought, if this is how they treat a guest, someone 00:15:42.580 --> 00:15:44.679 they're trying to impress, how on earth do they 00:15:44.679 --> 00:15:47.370 treat an actual employee? And that is critical 00:15:47.370 --> 00:15:50.629 contact theory in perfect action. Bieling notes 00:15:50.629 --> 00:15:53.190 that this is actually more valid for experienced 00:15:53.190 --> 00:15:56.350 professionals. Why is that? Well, when you're 00:15:56.350 --> 00:15:58.669 just starting out, you might put up with a rude 00:15:58.669 --> 00:16:01.009 interviewer because you just need a job. But 00:16:01.009 --> 00:16:04.509 when you have more options, more career capital, 00:16:04.690 --> 00:16:07.629 which we'll get to later, you start looking at 00:16:07.629 --> 00:16:10.570 how they treat you as a key indicator of the 00:16:10.570 --> 00:16:12.990 culture. You have the leverage to be picky about 00:16:12.990 --> 00:16:15.230 that. So we have the rational spreadsheet, the 00:16:15.230 --> 00:16:17.440 status seeker. And the vibe check. That's a great 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:19.539 way to summarize it. But here is where it gets 00:16:19.539 --> 00:16:22.259 really interesting. Or maybe a little bit depressing. 00:16:22.500 --> 00:16:24.860 These theories, all three of them, they operate 00:16:24.860 --> 00:16:27.279 under one massive assumption. And what's that? 00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:30.519 They all assume we have a choice. Correct. And 00:16:30.519 --> 00:16:33.399 that is the massive caveat we have to place on 00:16:33.399 --> 00:16:36.559 this entire discussion. These theories assume 00:16:36.559 --> 00:16:39.460 free will and a marketplace of abundance. But 00:16:39.460 --> 00:16:42.059 the reality for so many people is that scarcity 00:16:42.059 --> 00:16:45.110 plays a huge role. It's the dominant role. It 00:16:45.110 --> 00:16:47.629 can be. Many people, perhaps most people at some 00:16:47.629 --> 00:16:50.029 point in their lives, accept a career simply 00:16:50.029 --> 00:16:52.230 because that is the work that is available to 00:16:52.230 --> 00:16:54.529 them. They aren't weighing objective or subjective 00:16:54.529 --> 00:16:57.970 factors. They are weighing rent versus no rent. 00:16:58.129 --> 00:17:00.029 Food on the table versus no food on the table. 00:17:00.090 --> 00:17:02.850 The choice is made for you by necessity. Exactly. 00:17:02.950 --> 00:17:05.170 And that's a reality we can't ignore. And there's 00:17:05.170 --> 00:17:07.369 a cultural layer to this as well, right? The 00:17:07.369 --> 00:17:10.170 notes mention Ott Holland and some colleagues 00:17:10.170 --> 00:17:12.890 of theirs, and they look at how culture impacts 00:17:12.890 --> 00:17:15.579 this whole process. career choice. Yes. What 00:17:15.579 --> 00:17:17.579 did they find? They found that culture impacts 00:17:17.579 --> 00:17:20.500 career choice significantly, and they specifically 00:17:20.500 --> 00:17:22.940 looked at the spectrum of collectivism versus 00:17:22.940 --> 00:17:25.319 individualism. Okay, so a culture focused on 00:17:25.319 --> 00:17:27.380 the group versus a culture focused on the self. 00:17:28.119 --> 00:17:30.940 Precisely. In highly individualistic cultures 00:17:30.940 --> 00:17:34.299 like the U .S. or the U .K., the focus is often 00:17:34.299 --> 00:17:36.900 on questions like, what do I want? What matches 00:17:36.900 --> 00:17:39.079 my passion? What will make me feel fulfilled? 00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:42.220 The follow your bliss model. Right. But in more 00:17:42.220 --> 00:17:44.200 collectivist cultures, the decision is often 00:17:44.200 --> 00:17:46.220 framed very differently. The questions might 00:17:46.220 --> 00:17:48.880 be, what brings honor to my family? Or what does 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:51.680 my community need from me? Or what is the most 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:54.599 stable path to support my parents? So if you're 00:17:54.599 --> 00:17:56.980 listening to this and feeling this immense guilt 00:17:56.980 --> 00:18:00.519 that you aren't following your passion, you might 00:18:00.519 --> 00:18:02.819 just be operating under a different and equally 00:18:02.819 --> 00:18:05.519 valid cultural framework. Absolutely. The idea 00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:07.859 that passion is the only valid career driver 00:18:07.859 --> 00:18:10.579 is a very culturally specific and very recent. 00:18:11.019 --> 00:18:14.319 Idea. Duty is a valid career driver. Stability 00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:16.980 is a valid career driver. Community need is a 00:18:16.980 --> 00:18:18.819 valid career driver. That's a really important 00:18:18.819 --> 00:18:21.380 thing to name. So, OK, let's assume for a moment 00:18:21.380 --> 00:18:23.700 that you do have some agency, some degree of 00:18:23.700 --> 00:18:26.000 choice, and you are trying to navigate this. 00:18:26.099 --> 00:18:28.720 How should you choose? The source material references 00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:31.359 a list from U .S. News on practical considerations. 00:18:31.700 --> 00:18:33.420 It's a bit of a checklist for the modern worker. 00:18:33.640 --> 00:18:36.119 Yeah, and it's a good grounding exercise to pull 00:18:36.119 --> 00:18:38.690 you out of the abstract. They list things like 00:18:38.690 --> 00:18:40.930 your natural talents and your work style. Are 00:18:40.930 --> 00:18:43.089 you a deep focus introvert or a collaborative 00:18:43.089 --> 00:18:46.289 extrovert? Don't pick a job that requires eight 00:18:46.289 --> 00:18:48.789 hours of presenting if you hate public speaking. 00:18:48.970 --> 00:18:50.829 That seems obvious, but people do it all the 00:18:50.829 --> 00:18:54.109 time. They do. And it goes on to list specific 00:18:54.109 --> 00:18:57.210 needs. What kind of work -life balance do you 00:18:57.210 --> 00:18:59.789 truly need? Are you comfortable being in the 00:18:59.789 --> 00:19:02.960 public eye? And a big one. Stress tolerance. 00:19:03.460 --> 00:19:05.799 Oh, stress tolerance is the one I think everyone 00:19:05.799 --> 00:19:08.599 ignores. They see the high paying job, the fancy 00:19:08.599 --> 00:19:12.059 title, but they don't stop to ask, do I have 00:19:12.059 --> 00:19:14.299 the nervous system to handle this high pressure 00:19:14.299 --> 00:19:17.519 environment day in and day out? Exactly. And 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:19.819 of course, financial goals are on the list. But 00:19:19.819 --> 00:19:21.880 I really like the piece of advice they tag on 00:19:21.880 --> 00:19:24.000 to the end of that list. And it's so important. 00:19:24.200 --> 00:19:26.220 It's basically you don't have to stick with a 00:19:26.220 --> 00:19:28.599 line of work forever. Make the best decision 00:19:28.599 --> 00:19:31.099 for who you are today. That is the crucial takeaway, 00:19:31.259 --> 00:19:34.380 isn't it? The pressure that we put on 22 -year 00:19:34.380 --> 00:19:36.819 -olds to choose the perfect career that will 00:19:36.819 --> 00:19:40.799 last them for 40 years is paralyzing and completely 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:43.640 unrealistic. It's an impossible task. The modern 00:19:43.640 --> 00:19:46.140 advice is to pick a path that feels right for 00:19:46.140 --> 00:19:48.960 who you are now, knowing that future you can 00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:51.839 and likely will change your mind. The career 00:19:51.839 --> 00:19:54.420 is a series of sprints, not one long marathon 00:19:54.420 --> 00:19:56.640 on a single track. And speaking of future you 00:19:56.640 --> 00:20:00.349 changing their mind, let's pivot. Pun. Absolutely 00:20:00.349 --> 00:20:04.029 intended to the concept of changing careers because 00:20:04.029 --> 00:20:06.829 the data on this is wild. It's truly staggering. 00:20:06.869 --> 00:20:09.109 So the U .S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has this 00:20:09.109 --> 00:20:11.190 long running study, a massive one called the 00:20:11.190 --> 00:20:13.710 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. They've 00:20:13.710 --> 00:20:15.430 been tracking people from youth into adulthood 00:20:15.430 --> 00:20:18.230 for decades. They found that individuals between 00:20:18.230 --> 00:20:20.809 the ages of 18 and 38 will hold more than 10 00:20:20.809 --> 00:20:24.130 jobs. 10 jobs by age 38. That is, on average, 00:20:24.230 --> 00:20:26.730 a new job every two years. Every two years. The 00:20:26.730 --> 00:20:29.130 days of getting the gold watch for 40 years of 00:20:29.130 --> 00:20:31.450 loyal service at one plant are effectively dead. 00:20:31.569 --> 00:20:33.890 It's a fossil. They are. I mean, my grandfather 00:20:33.890 --> 00:20:36.769 worked at one company his entire life. My father 00:20:36.769 --> 00:20:39.769 worked at maybe three. I've worked at... More 00:20:39.769 --> 00:20:42.789 than that, the pace of change is just accelerating. 00:20:42.789 --> 00:20:46.210 It is. And what's even more fascinating or maybe 00:20:46.210 --> 00:20:49.509 alarming, depending on your perspective, is the 00:20:49.509 --> 00:20:51.970 amount of time we spend looking for the next 00:20:51.970 --> 00:20:55.329 thing, even when we have a thing. Time .com reported 00:20:55.329 --> 00:20:59.109 that as of 2008, one out of three employed people 00:20:59.109 --> 00:21:02.069 spends about one hour per day searching for another 00:21:02.069 --> 00:21:05.150 position. Wait, one out of three? And that's 00:21:05.150 --> 00:21:07.130 employed people? Employed people. So while they're 00:21:07.130 --> 00:21:10.339 at work. On company time, being paid for their 00:21:10.339 --> 00:21:12.920 current career, a third of them are dedicating 00:21:12.920 --> 00:21:16.200 significant mental energy and time to leaving 00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:18.640 that career. That is a huge amount of underlying 00:21:18.640 --> 00:21:20.680 churn. It's like quiet quitting before we had 00:21:20.680 --> 00:21:23.059 a catchy name for it. It's loud looking. Loud 00:21:23.059 --> 00:21:25.039 looking. I like that. So why are we leaving? 00:21:25.119 --> 00:21:27.039 What are the push factors that are driving this 00:21:27.039 --> 00:21:29.799 constant churn? Well, a survey by a firm called 00:21:29.799 --> 00:21:32.059 Wright Management gives us a really clear breakdown. 00:21:32.200 --> 00:21:34.220 And the number one reason, by a pretty wide margin, 00:21:34.400 --> 00:21:37.799 it's not boredom. It's not pay. It's downsizing 00:21:37.799 --> 00:21:40.900 or restructuring. Fifty four percent of people 00:21:40.900 --> 00:21:44.200 change careers because the organization changed 00:21:44.200 --> 00:21:46.880 around them or flat out removed them. Wow. So 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:49.640 more than half the time it is not a choice. Not 00:21:49.640 --> 00:21:51.880 at all. It's the chariot wheel falling off because 00:21:51.880 --> 00:21:54.319 the track collapsed. It's an external force that 00:21:54.319 --> 00:21:56.720 you have little to no control over. That's a 00:21:56.720 --> 00:21:59.400 crucial point. We talk about career management 00:21:59.400 --> 00:22:02.319 as this act of personal agency. But for half 00:22:02.319 --> 00:22:05.180 the people. The big pivot is something that happens 00:22:05.180 --> 00:22:07.700 to them, not something they choose. Precisely. 00:22:07.700 --> 00:22:10.539 But when it is a choice, the reasons are incredibly 00:22:10.539 --> 00:22:13.200 telling about what we value at work. Okay, so 00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:15.839 what are the top voluntary reasons? Number one 00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:18.559 is the desire for new challenges or new opportunities. 00:22:18.680 --> 00:22:21.420 That's at 30%. People get bored. They want to 00:22:21.420 --> 00:22:23.460 learn and grow. That makes sense. But look at 00:22:23.460 --> 00:22:26.569 the next two. 25 % say ineffective leadership 00:22:26.569 --> 00:22:29.470 and 22 % say they have a poor relationship with 00:22:29.470 --> 00:22:31.950 their direct manager. People leave bosses, not 00:22:31.950 --> 00:22:33.869 jobs. We hear that all the time. And there it 00:22:33.869 --> 00:22:36.170 is. The data backs it up completely. It really 00:22:36.170 --> 00:22:38.670 does. Combine those two and you have a huge chunk 00:22:38.670 --> 00:22:40.690 of people leaving because of the people in charge. 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:43.480 What else is on that list? Also high on the list, 00:22:43.700 --> 00:22:46.680 work -life balance at 21 % and lack of recognition 00:22:46.680 --> 00:22:50.119 also at 21%. And what's interesting is what's 00:22:50.119 --> 00:22:52.920 lower down, financial instability of the organization 00:22:52.920 --> 00:22:56.380 is only at 13%. That's fascinating. So people 00:22:56.380 --> 00:22:58.579 will stick with a sinking ship if they like the 00:22:58.579 --> 00:23:00.720 captain and feel appreciated. But they'll jump 00:23:00.720 --> 00:23:03.000 right off a perfectly sturdy, profitable ship 00:23:03.000 --> 00:23:05.539 if the captain is a tyrant who doesn't respect 00:23:05.539 --> 00:23:08.539 their time. That is a really profound insight 00:23:08.539 --> 00:23:11.440 into human nature, isn't it? Yes. We value relational 00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:14.380 safety and psychological well -being, sometimes 00:23:14.380 --> 00:23:16.819 even more than structural or financial safety. 00:23:17.059 --> 00:23:19.579 It also highlights the fact that changing occupations 00:23:19.579 --> 00:23:22.099 is now considered an expected normal part of 00:23:22.099 --> 00:23:25.039 career management. Both people and labor markets 00:23:25.039 --> 00:23:27.500 change over a lifetime. Right. Your values change. 00:23:27.700 --> 00:23:30.200 The skills you have at 25 might be obsolete by 00:23:30.200 --> 00:23:31.980 the time you're 35, or you might just not care 00:23:31.980 --> 00:23:33.980 about the same things anymore. You might prioritize 00:23:33.980 --> 00:23:36.599 adventure in your 20s and stability in your 40s. 00:23:36.599 --> 00:23:39.440 Exactly. The career has to be flexible enough 00:23:39.440 --> 00:23:41.690 to accommodate the fact that a human being is 00:23:41.690 --> 00:23:44.910 not a static object you evolve so your work has 00:23:44.910 --> 00:23:49.349 to evolve with you so okay we've established 00:23:49.349 --> 00:23:52.190 that careers are fluid they're often short term 00:23:52.190 --> 00:23:55.109 they're driven by this mix of necessity and desire 00:23:55.109 --> 00:23:59.170 this leads us to the hardest most philosophical 00:23:59.170 --> 00:24:03.880 question of all how do we define success Because 00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:06.700 if I'm changing jobs every two years, I'm probably 00:24:06.700 --> 00:24:09.400 not climbing that linear ladder to the CEO spot. 00:24:09.660 --> 00:24:11.920 So what does winning even look like anymore? 00:24:13.210 --> 00:24:15.769 where the biggest and most important shift in 00:24:15.769 --> 00:24:17.710 career theory has happened in the last 50 years. 00:24:17.849 --> 00:24:20.710 We have to draw a very clear line between objective 00:24:20.710 --> 00:24:23.549 success and subjective success. OK, break that 00:24:23.549 --> 00:24:25.369 down for us. What's the difference? Objective 00:24:25.369 --> 00:24:28.250 success is all the verifiable facts. It's the 00:24:28.250 --> 00:24:30.509 stuff you can put on a census form or your LinkedIn 00:24:30.509 --> 00:24:33.269 profile. It's your earnings, either in absolute 00:24:33.269 --> 00:24:35.650 terms or relative to where you started. It's 00:24:35.650 --> 00:24:37.890 your status, your job title, the number of promotions 00:24:37.890 --> 00:24:40.130 you've had. So it's the external markers, the 00:24:40.130 --> 00:24:41.970 things your parents can brag about to their friends. 00:24:42.509 --> 00:24:44.549 LinkedIn metrics. Exactly. It's what society 00:24:44.549 --> 00:24:47.089 can see and measure from the outside. But subjective 00:24:47.089 --> 00:24:49.029 success is completely internal. It's your own 00:24:49.029 --> 00:24:51.730 private feelings about your work. Like job satisfaction. 00:24:52.130 --> 00:24:55.329 Job satisfaction, a work -life balance, a sense 00:24:55.329 --> 00:24:57.569 of personal achievement, a feeling of purpose. 00:24:58.450 --> 00:25:01.410 Is your work consistent with your own values? 00:25:01.869 --> 00:25:04.170 Do you actually like the person you have to be 00:25:04.170 --> 00:25:06.670 when you are at work? And the source material 00:25:06.670 --> 00:25:09.630 suggests that the weight, the importance, has 00:25:09.630 --> 00:25:12.559 shifted dramatically from the Objective to the 00:25:12.559 --> 00:25:15.539 subjective. Historically, yes, absolutely. In 00:25:15.539 --> 00:25:18.039 the 1950s and 60s, we had what the researcher 00:25:18.039 --> 00:25:20.660 Donald Super called the linear career stage model. 00:25:20.900 --> 00:25:23.559 In that world, the definition of success was 00:25:23.559 --> 00:25:25.900 owned and controlled by the organization. You 00:25:25.900 --> 00:25:28.099 worked for one firm, maybe two your whole life. 00:25:28.299 --> 00:25:30.920 Success meant moving up the hierarchy. If you 00:25:30.920 --> 00:25:33.359 got promoted, you were successful. If you stall, 00:25:33.500 --> 00:25:35.980 you failed. End of story. That was the organization 00:25:35.980 --> 00:25:38.480 man era. Your identity was the company's identity. 00:25:38.740 --> 00:25:41.710 Right. But because jobs for life are largely 00:25:41.710 --> 00:25:44.509 gone, thanks to the sheer speed of economic and 00:25:44.509 --> 00:25:47.069 technological change, the organization can no 00:25:47.069 --> 00:25:49.210 longer promise you that ladder. They can't guarantee 00:25:49.210 --> 00:25:51.549 you a path to the top. So because the company 00:25:51.549 --> 00:25:53.650 can't promise me a title anymore. The responsibility 00:25:53.650 --> 00:25:56.390 for career management and for defining what success 00:25:56.390 --> 00:25:59.630 even means has reverted back to the individual. 00:26:00.230 --> 00:26:02.890 So because the company can't promise me a C -suite 00:26:02.890 --> 00:26:05.690 office, I have to promise myself happiness instead. 00:26:05.910 --> 00:26:09.109 In a way, yes. We have to prioritize subjective 00:26:09.109 --> 00:26:12.109 criteria because the objective ones are too volatile 00:26:12.109 --> 00:26:15.029 and largely out of our control. But there is 00:26:15.029 --> 00:26:18.049 a huge trap here, a modern digital trap. And 00:26:18.049 --> 00:26:20.210 what's that? It's the comparison trap. Oh, I 00:26:20.210 --> 00:26:22.500 know this trap well. Instagram and LinkedIn are 00:26:22.500 --> 00:26:25.400 basically built on this trap. Exactly. A person's 00:26:25.400 --> 00:26:27.960 assessment of their own success is so heavily 00:26:27.960 --> 00:26:31.559 influenced by social comparisons. You might feel 00:26:31.559 --> 00:26:33.819 great about your subjective success. You love 00:26:33.819 --> 00:26:36.039 your work. You have time for your kids. You sleep 00:26:36.039 --> 00:26:38.500 eight hours a night. You feel balanced and happy. 00:26:38.640 --> 00:26:41.000 Until you log on and see that a friend from college 00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:42.900 just made partner at a law firm and bought a 00:26:42.900 --> 00:26:45.799 boat. And suddenly your subjective success feels 00:26:45.799 --> 00:26:48.420 small and inadequate because you're measuring 00:26:48.420 --> 00:26:50.680 it against their objective success. That. That 00:26:50.680 --> 00:26:53.900 is deadly. Comparison is the thief of career 00:26:53.900 --> 00:26:56.819 satisfaction. It's a game you can't win because 00:26:56.819 --> 00:26:59.220 there's always someone with a bigger boat. Always. 00:26:59.259 --> 00:27:02.859 So how do we armor ourselves against that? The 00:27:02.859 --> 00:27:05.500 expert notes mention a concept that I find incredibly 00:27:05.500 --> 00:27:08.880 useful. It's called career capital. I think this 00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:10.779 is a really powerful framework for listeners 00:27:10.779 --> 00:27:14.440 to visualize their own net worth beyond just 00:27:14.440 --> 00:27:17.099 money. OK, I like that. Career capital. Let's 00:27:17.099 --> 00:27:19.220 break it down. Yes. This comes from a group of 00:27:19.220 --> 00:27:21.700 researchers, Arnold and colleagues, and they 00:27:21.700 --> 00:27:24.559 argue that success isn't just one thing. It's 00:27:24.559 --> 00:27:26.960 a portfolio of four different types of capital 00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:29.880 that you build over time. A portfolio. OK, let's 00:27:29.880 --> 00:27:31.720 go through the four types. This feels like the 00:27:31.720 --> 00:27:33.960 blinkest nugget of the episode. Right. First 00:27:33.960 --> 00:27:36.079 is economic capital. That's the obvious one. 00:27:36.099 --> 00:27:37.920 It's your money, your assets, your financial 00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:40.579 resources. This gives you a safety net and allows 00:27:40.579 --> 00:27:43.039 you to access other resources like more education 00:27:43.039 --> 00:27:45.680 or starting a business. Simple enough. Money. 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:48.849 Next. Second is human capital. This is what you 00:27:48.849 --> 00:27:50.710 can do. It's your skills, your knowledge, your 00:27:50.710 --> 00:27:53.049 experiences, your qualifications. And the key 00:27:53.049 --> 00:27:55.710 here is that even if you lose your job and your 00:27:55.710 --> 00:27:58.309 salary, your economic capital, you keep your 00:27:58.309 --> 00:28:00.490 human capital. Right. They can take away the 00:28:00.490 --> 00:28:02.509 paycheck, but they can't take away the knowledge. 00:28:02.869 --> 00:28:05.670 It's the goose that lays the golden egg. Exactly. 00:28:05.750 --> 00:28:09.859 It's portable. Third is social capital. This 00:28:09.859 --> 00:28:12.740 is who you know. It's the depth and the breadth 00:28:12.740 --> 00:28:15.140 of your professional and personal network. Can 00:28:15.140 --> 00:28:17.099 you pick up the phone and get an introduction? 00:28:17.420 --> 00:28:20.119 Do people in your industry trust you and vouch 00:28:20.119 --> 00:28:23.019 for you? That's huge. And the fourth one. The 00:28:23.019 --> 00:28:26.140 fourth is cultural capital. Now, this one's a 00:28:26.140 --> 00:28:29.140 bit more subtle, but it's incredibly important. 00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:33.380 It's knowing how to be. How to be? It's the attitudes, 00:28:33.619 --> 00:28:36.240 the general know -how, the ability to operate 00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:38.839 effectively in a specific context. It's knowing 00:28:38.839 --> 00:28:41.279 which fork to use at the client dinner or how 00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:43.720 to navigate office politics without making enemies 00:28:43.720 --> 00:28:46.640 or understanding the unspoken rules and jargon 00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:49.339 of an industry. That is fascinating because you 00:28:49.339 --> 00:28:51.359 can have incredibly high human capital. You could 00:28:51.359 --> 00:28:53.880 be a genius coder. But if you have low cultural 00:28:53.880 --> 00:28:55.619 capital and you don't know how to interact with 00:28:55.619 --> 00:28:57.640 the team or present your ideas in a meeting, 00:28:57.819 --> 00:29:00.680 you might fail. Exactly. Or the reverse. You 00:29:00.680 --> 00:29:02.940 might have very high social capital, you know, 00:29:02.940 --> 00:29:05.660 everyone. But if you have low human capital, 00:29:05.759 --> 00:29:09.819 no actual skills, then eventually you'll be exposed 00:29:09.819 --> 00:29:12.579 as just being a good networker. So true career 00:29:12.579 --> 00:29:15.720 success, a resilient career. involves building 00:29:15.720 --> 00:29:18.460 a balanced portfolio of all four. Precisely. 00:29:18.460 --> 00:29:20.619 And I love that framework because it gives you 00:29:20.619 --> 00:29:23.079 different buckets to fill. Maybe this year isn't 00:29:23.079 --> 00:29:25.460 about maximizing your economic capital. Maybe 00:29:25.460 --> 00:29:27.779 you take a pay cut for a new role. But you are 00:29:27.779 --> 00:29:31.480 massively increasing your human or social capital 00:29:31.480 --> 00:29:34.420 by learning new skills and meeting new people. 00:29:34.579 --> 00:29:36.759 It turns you into an active investor in your 00:29:36.759 --> 00:29:38.920 own life, not just a passive earner. Exactly. 00:29:39.119 --> 00:29:40.940 Now, there's one more point on success I want 00:29:40.940 --> 00:29:43.490 to touch on, and it's about timing. We have some 00:29:43.490 --> 00:29:45.490 notes here from Arthur C. Brooks regarding when 00:29:45.490 --> 00:29:47.470 we actually peak in our careers. Yes, and this 00:29:47.470 --> 00:29:49.549 is a really important reality check for everyone. 00:29:49.990 --> 00:29:52.029 Professional success, at least the objective 00:29:52.029 --> 00:29:54.849 kind, tends to peak at different times for different 00:29:54.849 --> 00:29:57.490 fields. So it's not a universal timeline. Not 00:29:57.490 --> 00:29:59.890 at all. In fields that rely heavily on what's 00:29:59.890 --> 00:30:02.670 called fluid intelligence problem solving, abstract 00:30:02.670 --> 00:30:05.569 reasoning like theoretical physics or pure mathematics, 00:30:05.950 --> 00:30:09.750 the peak often comes very early. The big aha 00:30:09.750 --> 00:30:12.950 moments tend to happen in your 20s or early 30s. 00:30:12.990 --> 00:30:16.430 Young genius archetype. Wonderkind. Right. But 00:30:16.430 --> 00:30:18.930 in fields that rely on crystallized intelligence, 00:30:19.170 --> 00:30:22.309 synthesized wisdom, accumulated knowledge like 00:30:22.309 --> 00:30:25.410 teaching, history, or management, success often 00:30:25.410 --> 00:30:28.710 peaks much later in life, in your 50s or 60s. 00:30:28.750 --> 00:30:31.680 So the warning here is... Don't panic if you 00:30:31.680 --> 00:30:33.900 haven't invented a new branch of physics by the 00:30:33.900 --> 00:30:36.380 time you're 25. Unless you're a theoretical physicist, 00:30:36.559 --> 00:30:39.099 then maybe panic a little. But for most of us, 00:30:39.119 --> 00:30:41.559 our best work might still be decades away. And 00:30:41.559 --> 00:30:43.279 what's the flip side of that? The flip side is 00:30:43.279 --> 00:30:45.799 a warning for the early peakers. Brooks warns 00:30:45.799 --> 00:30:47.819 that early success can breed deep disappointment 00:30:47.819 --> 00:30:50.700 if your entire self -worth is tied to that initial 00:30:50.700 --> 00:30:53.319 achievement. You have to be ready to evolve to 00:30:53.319 --> 00:30:55.599 become a teacher or a mentor. You have to be 00:30:55.599 --> 00:30:58.079 ready for a long second act. That's great advice. 00:30:58.359 --> 00:31:00.500 So we've covered the history. the psychology, 00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:03.480 the definitions of success. Now, I want to get 00:31:03.480 --> 00:31:05.140 really practical for a bit. Let's talk about 00:31:05.140 --> 00:31:08.359 the infrastructure around careers, the support 00:31:08.359 --> 00:31:11.299 systems, the role of education, and the terminology 00:31:11.299 --> 00:31:13.119 we use. Let's do it. Let's start with the big 00:31:13.119 --> 00:31:16.799 one. The ROI of education. Is the degree worth 00:31:16.799 --> 00:31:21.200 the debt? The data is. It's nuanced. Generally, 00:31:21.220 --> 00:31:23.880 yes, education pays off. Some key research shows 00:31:23.880 --> 00:31:25.920 that adding just one year of schooling beyond 00:31:25.920 --> 00:31:28.680 high school increases a worker's wages by an 00:31:28.680 --> 00:31:32.460 average of 17 .8 percent. 17 .8 percent for one 00:31:32.460 --> 00:31:34.799 year. That's a massive return on investment for 00:31:34.799 --> 00:31:36.740 that first year of college or trade school. It's 00:31:36.740 --> 00:31:40.289 huge. But and this is a big. But there's a plateau. 00:31:40.490 --> 00:31:43.230 A point of diminishing returns. Exactly. The 00:31:43.230 --> 00:31:45.390 same research shows that additional years beyond 00:31:45.390 --> 00:31:48.289 nine or ten years of total schooling, so getting 00:31:48.289 --> 00:31:50.869 into very advanced post -grad territory like 00:31:50.869 --> 00:31:54.049 multiple master's degrees or a Ph .D., have little 00:31:54.049 --> 00:31:56.710 to no effect on the average worker's wages. Obviously, 00:31:56.710 --> 00:31:58.589 that varies by field, right? Yeah. You need the 00:31:58.589 --> 00:32:00.549 years to be a surgeon or a tenured professor. 00:32:00.910 --> 00:32:03.609 Of course. There are exceptions. But for the 00:32:03.609 --> 00:32:05.630 general population, the biggest bang for your 00:32:05.630 --> 00:32:08.329 buck is in those first few years of post -secondary 00:32:08.329 --> 00:32:11.410 education. And the cost is the other side of 00:32:11.410 --> 00:32:13.450 that whole equation. That's the part that's changed 00:32:13.450 --> 00:32:16.289 so much. Right. The career you choose must pay 00:32:16.289 --> 00:32:18.630 well enough to offset the cost of the education 00:32:18.630 --> 00:32:21.170 required to enter it. And this is the modern 00:32:21.170 --> 00:32:24.369 crisis of student debt in a nutshell. We are 00:32:24.369 --> 00:32:27.049 seeing people acquire massive educational debt 00:32:27.049 --> 00:32:30.140 for careers. particularly in the helping professions 00:32:30.140 --> 00:32:33.099 or the arts, that historically do not generate 00:32:33.099 --> 00:32:35.619 the economic capital to service that debt. The 00:32:35.619 --> 00:32:38.160 structural problem. So how do we learn to navigate 00:32:38.160 --> 00:32:40.880 this incredibly complex system? We aren't born 00:32:40.880 --> 00:32:43.180 knowing how to manage a career. No, we're not. 00:32:43.299 --> 00:32:45.039 And that's where the whole field of career support 00:32:45.039 --> 00:32:47.819 comes in. There's a framework that's often used 00:32:47.819 --> 00:32:51.839 in career education called the DOTS model. DOTS. 00:32:52.420 --> 00:32:55.500 What does that stand for? It stands for decision 00:32:55.500 --> 00:32:57.980 learning. which is learning how to actually make 00:32:57.980 --> 00:33:01.079 choices. Opportunity awareness, knowing what 00:33:01.079 --> 00:33:04.420 jobs and paths actually exist out there. Transition 00:33:04.420 --> 00:33:06.299 learning, knowing how to move from school to 00:33:06.299 --> 00:33:08.940 work or from job to job. And self -awareness, 00:33:09.119 --> 00:33:11.539 knowing who you are, what you value, what you're 00:33:11.539 --> 00:33:15.019 good at. D -O -T -S. I feel like most high schools 00:33:15.019 --> 00:33:18.000 and colleges focus almost entirely on the O, 00:33:18.079 --> 00:33:20.859 opportunity awareness. 100%. You know, here's 00:33:20.859 --> 00:33:24.000 a job fair with 100 booths. They just throw opportunities 00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:27.319 at you. but they totally ignore the D and the 00:33:27.319 --> 00:33:29.480 S, the decision learning and the self -awareness 00:33:29.480 --> 00:33:32.279 parts. And that is a very common and very valid 00:33:32.279 --> 00:33:35.299 criticism. We inundate students with what's called 00:33:35.299 --> 00:33:38.119 labor market information or LMI. Nursing is a 00:33:38.119 --> 00:33:40.960 growing field. Tech is hot right now, but we 00:33:40.960 --> 00:33:42.819 don't give them the tools to assess if they would 00:33:42.819 --> 00:33:44.940 actually like being a nurse or working in tech. 00:33:45.160 --> 00:33:46.940 We teach them what to choose from, but not how 00:33:46.940 --> 00:33:49.380 to choose. Perfectly said. We also have that 00:33:49.380 --> 00:33:51.940 list of support types here in the notes. You've 00:33:51.940 --> 00:33:54.579 got information, assessments, counseling, and 00:33:54.579 --> 00:33:56.809 education. education. The assessments are interesting. 00:33:56.950 --> 00:33:58.730 The Myers -Briggs, the strong interest inventory. 00:33:58.950 --> 00:34:01.210 Yeah, and they can be useful tools. They can 00:34:01.210 --> 00:34:03.990 be quantitative or qualitative. They try to match 00:34:03.990 --> 00:34:06.470 your personality and your values to certain careers. 00:34:06.990 --> 00:34:10.250 But again, they are just tools. They're suggestions, 00:34:10.449 --> 00:34:13.650 not prophecies. Right. A test can tell you that 00:34:13.650 --> 00:34:15.809 you have the right traits to be a good architect, 00:34:16.050 --> 00:34:18.510 but it can't tell you if you'll enjoy the day 00:34:18.510 --> 00:34:21.250 -to -day reality of arguing with clients and 00:34:21.250 --> 00:34:24.090 navigating zoning laws. Exactly. It's one piece 00:34:24.090 --> 00:34:25.559 of the puzzle, not the other. whole picture. 00:34:25.940 --> 00:34:28.059 OK, before we wrap up and bring this all home, 00:34:28.139 --> 00:34:30.800 I want to do a quick round on terminology because 00:34:30.800 --> 00:34:33.860 career is the big overarching word. But we have 00:34:33.860 --> 00:34:36.159 all these colorful color terms that describe 00:34:36.159 --> 00:34:39.239 the specific tribes we fall into. The caste system 00:34:39.239 --> 00:34:41.179 of work. Kind of. So I'm going to throw a color 00:34:41.179 --> 00:34:43.579 at you and you give me the snapshot of what it 00:34:43.579 --> 00:34:46.400 means. Let's do it. Blue collar. Manual labor. 00:34:46.599 --> 00:34:49.849 The working class. Historically, this meant factory 00:34:49.849 --> 00:34:52.730 or industrial work, but now it covers a huge 00:34:52.730 --> 00:34:55.309 range of highly skilled trades electricians, 00:34:55.309 --> 00:34:58.449 plumbers, mechanics. And it's often mistakenly 00:34:58.449 --> 00:35:01.750 viewed as unskilled. But you try fixing a high 00:35:01.750 --> 00:35:04.409 voltage power line and then tell me it's unskilled. 00:35:04.469 --> 00:35:06.989 Point taken. Okay, white collar. Office work. 00:35:08.639 --> 00:35:10.619 administrative, managerial, professional jobs. 00:35:11.139 --> 00:35:13.639 This was the suit and tie crowd historically, 00:35:14.039 --> 00:35:16.179 though now it's probably more like a Patagonia 00:35:16.179 --> 00:35:18.579 vest crowd. This is also the sector that's feeling 00:35:18.579 --> 00:35:20.920 the most heat from AI right now. Good point. 00:35:21.019 --> 00:35:24.699 Next up, pink collar. This refers to the service 00:35:24.699 --> 00:35:27.579 and care -oriented work, fields like nursing, 00:35:27.800 --> 00:35:30.940 teaching, secretarial work, childcare. It's called 00:35:30.940 --> 00:35:33.019 pink collar because these fields were historically 00:35:33.019 --> 00:35:36.250 dominated by women. The color coding is obviously 00:35:36.250 --> 00:35:38.809 outdated and a bit problematic, but the sector 00:35:38.809 --> 00:35:41.110 itself is absolutely essential to the economy. 00:35:41.230 --> 00:35:43.349 Absolutely. How about a newer one? Green collar. 00:35:43.469 --> 00:35:46.269 This is the environmental sector. Jobs in renewable 00:35:46.269 --> 00:35:49.110 energy, conservation, sustainability, green tech. 00:35:49.289 --> 00:35:51.590 It's a rapidly growing and incredibly important 00:35:51.590 --> 00:35:54.329 part of the future economy. Next, gold collar. 00:35:54.510 --> 00:35:57.010 This refers to highly skilled knowledge workers, 00:35:57.190 --> 00:35:59.650 people like doctors, lawyers, specialized scientists, 00:35:59.909 --> 00:36:02.389 top tier engineers. These are people whose high 00:36:02.389 --> 00:36:05.010 human capital commands a massive premium in the 00:36:05.010 --> 00:36:07.699 market. Okay, no collar. I like this one. This 00:36:07.699 --> 00:36:10.079 is for the artists, the free spirits, the passion 00:36:10.079 --> 00:36:12.519 followers. It often includes the gig economy 00:36:12.519 --> 00:36:15.179 workers who kind of reject the traditional nine 00:36:15.179 --> 00:36:17.579 to five structure entirely in favor of freedom 00:36:17.579 --> 00:36:20.800 and flexibility. And finally, a term that isn't 00:36:20.800 --> 00:36:23.440 a color, but it feels incredibly important for 00:36:23.440 --> 00:36:27.079 our current moment, the precariat. Yes. This 00:36:27.079 --> 00:36:29.679 is a modern sociological term, and it's a blend 00:36:29.679 --> 00:36:33.019 of the words precarious and proletariat. Precarious 00:36:33.019 --> 00:36:36.000 proletariat. Right. It refers to a growing class 00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:38.039 of people who are living a precarious existence 00:36:38.039 --> 00:36:40.659 without any job security. They might be working 00:36:40.659 --> 00:36:42.980 three different gig economy jobs, but they have 00:36:42.980 --> 00:36:45.980 no benefits, no contract security, no paid time 00:36:45.980 --> 00:36:48.519 off, and absolutely no predictability in their 00:36:48.519 --> 00:36:51.360 income. It's the dark side of the so -called 00:36:51.360 --> 00:36:54.559 flexible economy. That is a really sobering note 00:36:54.559 --> 00:36:57.219 to end that list on. It's a stark reminder that 00:36:57.219 --> 00:36:58.840 while we're sitting here talking about choice 00:36:58.840 --> 00:37:01.840 and self -actualization for a huge and growing 00:37:01.840 --> 00:37:04.480 chunk of the population, the career is just a 00:37:04.480 --> 00:37:07.380 desperate survival mechanism. It is. And we must 00:37:07.380 --> 00:37:09.699 never lose sight of that privilege gap when we 00:37:09.699 --> 00:37:11.940 have these conversations. So let's try to bring 00:37:11.940 --> 00:37:13.860 this all home. Let's synthesize this journey. 00:37:14.059 --> 00:37:17.019 We started with the chariot race, all about speed. 00:37:17.670 --> 00:37:20.789 danger, and relentless momentum. We move through 00:37:20.789 --> 00:37:23.670 the rigid Roman cursus honorum and the predictable 00:37:23.670 --> 00:37:27.909 corporate ladders of the 1950s. And now we find 00:37:27.909 --> 00:37:30.730 ourselves here in the era of the hyphenated, 00:37:30.730 --> 00:37:34.190 hybrid, sometimes precarious career. The biggest 00:37:34.190 --> 00:37:36.530 takeaway for me when you lay it all out like 00:37:36.530 --> 00:37:39.389 that is the fundamental shift in agency. The 00:37:39.389 --> 00:37:41.590 old stability is gone. The company will not take 00:37:41.590 --> 00:37:44.670 care of you. The job for life is a myth. Which 00:37:44.670 --> 00:37:47.179 sounds scary. It sounds terrifying, but the flip 00:37:47.179 --> 00:37:49.440 side is that individual agency has increased 00:37:49.440 --> 00:37:51.880 exponentially. You are the architect now. You 00:37:51.880 --> 00:37:54.219 have to be. And that means you also get to define 00:37:54.219 --> 00:37:56.440 the terms of success. And that definition of 00:37:56.440 --> 00:37:59.460 success has moved from the company's hands, the 00:37:59.460 --> 00:38:01.280 corner office, the title, the objective markers, 00:38:01.500 --> 00:38:04.199 to your hands. Subjective success. Are you happy? 00:38:04.320 --> 00:38:06.320 Does this work fit the life you actually want 00:38:06.320 --> 00:38:09.159 to live? Exactly. The power and the burden of 00:38:09.159 --> 00:38:11.739 definition is now on you. I want to leave our 00:38:11.739 --> 00:38:14.019 listeners with a final provocative thought to 00:38:14.019 --> 00:38:16.340 chew on this week. We talked about that career 00:38:16.340 --> 00:38:19.139 capital portfolio, the four buckets, social, 00:38:19.340 --> 00:38:23.199 human, economic, and cultural. I want you to 00:38:23.199 --> 00:38:26.539 take a quick, honest, mental inventory. A capital 00:38:26.539 --> 00:38:28.639 audit, if you will. A capital audit, exactly. 00:38:29.039 --> 00:38:31.719 If your industry was completely disrupted tomorrow, 00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:35.780 if AI made your job obsolete, or if your company 00:38:35.780 --> 00:38:39.099 just folded overnight, which of those capitals 00:38:39.099 --> 00:38:41.179 do you actually have in the bank? It's a vital 00:38:41.179 --> 00:38:44.179 question. Do you have a ton of skills? High human 00:38:44.179 --> 00:38:46.760 capital, but you've neglected your network, so 00:38:46.760 --> 00:38:48.679 you have no social capital. Do you have a lot 00:38:48.679 --> 00:38:51.760 of money saved up? Economic capital, but no cultural 00:38:51.760 --> 00:38:53.940 know -how to pivot into a new industry. It's 00:38:53.940 --> 00:38:56.559 a vital audit to perform to see where you are 00:38:56.559 --> 00:38:58.559 vulnerable and where you are strong. It's your 00:38:58.559 --> 00:39:00.789 personal balance sheet. And ultimately, I want 00:39:00.789 --> 00:39:02.869 you to go back to that original Latin root, the 00:39:02.869 --> 00:39:05.309 chariot, the charis. It's moving fast. The track 00:39:05.309 --> 00:39:08.110 is bumpy. The wheels are wobbling. The question 00:39:08.110 --> 00:39:10.690 is, are you holding the reins and driving that 00:39:10.690 --> 00:39:12.849 chariot where you want it to go? Or are you just 00:39:12.849 --> 00:39:14.769 being dragged along the track behind it? Drive 00:39:14.769 --> 00:39:17.369 the chariot. Don't be dragged. Thanks for listening 00:39:17.369 --> 00:39:19.610 to The Deep Dive. We'll catch you on the next 00:39:19.610 --> 00:39:19.789 one.