{"id":5238,"date":"2021-05-01T13:34:21","date_gmt":"2021-05-01T17:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/?p=5238"},"modified":"2024-04-19T22:02:54","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T02:02:54","slug":"when-my-career-caught-the-mail-truck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/when-my-career-caught-the-mail-truck\/","title":{"rendered":"When My Career Caught the Mail Truck"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Intro: One of my friends told me that at 33, married with a baby, she’s doing some soul searching. She thought at some point that she\u2019d be set and have figured out her career, but she’s realized that things never settle and it\u2019s all journey. This makes her a little sad and confused. Here’s my response<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Willy Wonka: “Don\u2019t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wanted.”<\/p>

Charlie Bucket: “What happened?”<\/p>

Willy Wonka: “He lived happily ever after.”<\/p>Charlie and the Chocolate Factory<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I used to think that there was a way to win the game of life. I thought there was a general scheme to the world and if I just worked hard enough, things would work out awesomely. This worked for a while. If I worked hard at school, I would get into a great college. If I worked hard in college I would get a great job. I thought this is the way that life worked too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

That’s the way the world looks when you’re young. Everything is defined and there are clear goals. A few years ago, one of my favorite mentees, a young and chipper Duke grad, was looking for career advice. She asked me questions like, \u201cWhat was the most important factor in your success?\u201d and \u201cWhat’s the most effective way to rise up in this organization?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After I answered her questions, I said, \u201cThese are really great questions but they\u2019re not the right questions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re asking what I\u2019ve done to be successful. You should be thinking about what you want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of what I told her, I always thought there was something magical about technology companies. It’s not just me that thinks this way. There’s even a British newspaper that refers to Google as The Chocolate Factory<\/a> because the company seems so much like Willy Wonka’s. I thought that when I got the job as Head of Banking for AWS, I would reach a state of nirvana and finally be happy with life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t get me wrong\u2014Amazon is a great company. There’s nothing better than a quarterly town hall led by Jeff Bezos where he talks about Amazon’s drone strategy or shows off the new Amazon Go store. Working there was one of my life goals, but once I got there I felt like the dog who had caught the mail truck. I looked around and said, “Is that all there is? Just a company?” When I talk to my friends make Managing Director at a bank or Partner at a law firm they have a similar feeling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I should have realized that being part of a company or organization doesn’t change who you are. During my first week at Yale, I was in the courtyard of Silliman College(1)<\/sup><\/a>Silliman College is one of Yale’s 14 residential colleges. These are like dorms on steroids.<\/span><\/span>