Careers and the "Target" Idea
Satisfaction via options related to your "ideal" vs. random unrelated job alternatives?
Target Thinking and Your Plan
One of my friends and former employees (Joe Rogers) used to say, “If you don’t have a plan you’ll end up working someone else’s plan.” As an example, one of my high school students once said he wanted to be an architect. His friend came into class all excited one afternoon and said they were hiring workers at a chicken processing plant in Gainesville, Georgia for $10.50/hour. Victor promptly dropped out of school to persue the new opportunity!
Now, let's consider the idea of a target and a career you can be happy with.
There is a bullseye -- your ideal job. In Victor’s case, it would have been “architect”. This bullseye is your dream career. It may be a longshot that involves many challenges, a lot of education or training, good luck or breaks, contacts, expense, and an elite skill level.
Dreams can be highly motivating and lead to incredible success and contributions to society. We should have hopes and dreams with our careers. We should try to do something with our work that we are interested in, think is important, makes us fufilled, etc. — especially when we are starting out. There will be another post about picking this dream in the near future.
Everyone wants to hit the ideal dream bullseye, but we don't always get 100% of what we want -- do we? However, if you will think about the rings of a target you can still be incredibly successful in many careers that are closely related to your ideal and may actually be stepping stones to that eventual ideal if things work out.
The Main Point About the Concept of the Target
You may have several “ideal” careers in mind at this point in your life. You would, then, have one, two or three bulleyes on one, two, or three different targets. The key is to open your mind to careers that are closely related to your ideal careers and, at least, end up on one of your targets.
Maybe you will be on a lesser-points outside ring, but you will be on one of your targets.
You won’t end up working your entire life in an area that you really weren’t interested in. Victor had an ideal career and job in mind, but he didn’t just give up on his ideal. He ended up on a completely different target.
Much of the interest and purpose behind your ideal career can be satisfied by working in a related career or job.
You might just gain enough related experience, build enough of a skill portfolio, create enough contacts through networking, build a big enough nest egg to finance your education, or finally get a “break” to reach your ideal — or very close to it.
How Might This Work?
First, draw yourself some nice big targets (one per page, even) with a center and 2 outer rings in each. You may be getting ready to invest 2-to-8 years and $100000-to-$500000 in your education — so don’t you think you can “waste” a sheet of paper and an hour or two? (Don’t forget what Joe Rogers said!)(Don’t forget Victor!)
Second, write the names of your dream ideal careers in the bullseyes. Go ahead. Do it! No one else has to see it. Dream. So many are afraid to take this step, but you owe it to yourself — especially if you are young and are just starting out. (You can shred these later if you don’t want anyone to see them.)
Third, brainstorm about jobs that are similar to your ideal in many ways.
Note that my experience with high schoolers (including some extremely intelligent and talented ones) is that people aren’t really very good at this. They are “all or nothing” — like Med School or “blank”. Like NFL Quarterback or “it’s over”.
Note that this is not the same as multiple “ideal” bullseyes. You already took care of that with the multiple targets — although you are 100% OK if you just have one target with one bullseye ideal career.
Fourth, start putting some plans in place that will give you some options that will land you on the same target(s) as your ideal career(s). Your ideal, of course. Add plans for “outer ring” careers or jobs as well as the ideal — supplemental related backup careers that are higher odds and may still provide 80% to 90% of the intrinsic satisfaction. “Outer ring” careers that may position you on the path toward the ideal.
Help with “Third” Above
Since brainstorming for alternatives in the outer bands is such a challenge to many, here are some ideas about what you might write in the outer bands of a given target:
Same industry but "lesser" role -- like Physicians Assistant instead of MD or high school basketball coach instead of NBA player.
Same function but different industry or with a competitor -- like CFO in the computer business vs. CFO in real estate.
Entry job that can get your foot in the door to eventually be discovered -- like audio production engineer, web designer, or backup singer vs. solo artist in the music business.
Employee vs. entrepreneur -- like hotel or property management vs. owning a hotel, office building, or rental properties (at least until you learn the business and save some money).
With any of the above, you are still involved with the "thing you love". You are positioning yourself for the "ideal" if an opportunity presents itself.
Healthcare Example
So, if you are really interested in helping people be healthy, for example, you could be very happy and make major contributions being a Biomedical Engineer even if you didn't get accepted to Medical School.
You could be the best RN in a large hospital and help even more people than if you were a surgeon.
You could be an ophthalmologist instead of a neurosurgeon.
You could be the CEO of a hospital instead of an MD. You could provide health insurance.
You could design hospitals. You could be the person who makes sure the electricity, air conditioning/filtering, or building structure is 100%.
You could be the IT person who keeps the computer systems running for the entire hospital.
You could design, sell, service, update, train doctors, and calibrate LASIK machines or surgical robots. The list of cool medical devices and technologies this applies to is almost endless.
Get it?
Summary
Best wishes with your career! I hope this is of some use and I sincerely hope that you will invest in yourself to consider this “methodology”. I truly believe that you can find more satisfaction in your career this way than if you go “all or nothing” with your idea and end up on a completely unrelated target if your “ideal” isn’t panning out at some point.