Mr. Hepburn, our high school counsellor, gave us all career advice at our mostly blue-collar high school, Edmonds. He had us all do an aptitude test to help him give us that guidance.
My test showed I liked to make up things and was good with communications. It suggested Journalism. On the other hand, academically, based on my marks, I was the kid who was really good at math.
Mr. Hepburn, was a very good-hearted fellow. He leaned on my academic strength where I really stood out and told me to go into engineering. Journalism and its associated fields seemed a bridge way to far from our neighbourhood. It was an outlier. He probably had the same challenge with other outliers in our class like Duane, Ted, Bob and Barry.
He never once said anything about the internet. Sure, the internet had not yet been invented, but still. A career that was out of his experience set was an unlikely path. He grew up in our neighbourhood and knew his audience. The people of our neighbourhood had hourly jobs in construction, at factories, in retail.
Mr. Hepburn, like most experts, had an amazing grasp of the obvious. If you are good at something, the counsellors in your life will tend to move you toward that ability. Similarly, each year the sports experts predict that last year’s champion will be the winner the next year. When most of the folks in our neighbourhood worked hourly jobs, their kids were expected to do the same. We all have evidence of our own recency biases.
What Mr. Hepburn, in all his good intentions, didn’t take into consideration is that many career choices for people don’t exist when they are in high school. Not his fault. His predictive experience was based on his personal experience which was in the past, while he was giving his counsel was for someone travelling to the future.
We need to consider what we are interested in and what we are good at and find a hybrid in those. Once you are pursuing some path, it will fork, bifurcate, provide other paths to follow. I don’t know many people these days who have maintained a straight and narrow career path.
My good school friend Duane was also an outlier. He started as an engineer, took a detour into bioengineering, then the Astronaut program, and then set up medical networks. He followed the advice Mr. Hepburn gave but took it so much farther than Mr. Hepburn would ever have imagined.
I did indeed start in math at university. Then I wondered what I would do with a degree in Math, other than teaching at a high school or university somewhere. I didn’t think that was right for me.
So I took a deep breath, and switched from Honours Math to Business. I got my degree and switched again, taking a Masters in Communications – then switched into advertising in New York City.
I don’t think Mr. Hepburn saw that for me either. It would, in his opinion, been a real long shot for a kid in our little neighbourhood – far from the cultural centres of the world – to end up on Madison Avenue. He directed us to more achievable goals that were within his vision. Who ever sees the outliers coming?
I can’t say that my path was a straight one. I couldn’t have forecast it either. It wasn’t my dream goal that I was always striving for. And I should have been a lot closer to being able to assess myself than Mr. Hepburn was. It was a case of being in the right place at the right time with the right attitude and abilities, then taking the risks when opportunities presented themselves. Was I always successful? No. Taking risks mean sometimes you fail.
I have spoken to many recent graduates who are feeling stilled in their careers. I encourage them to take bigger risks, stretch themselves – work internationally, change careers don’t just change companies. Reducing your income for a while but gaining personal grow and satisfaction is always worth it in the long run. Most egos have a hard time with accepting a lower salary, but no one considers how much salary was lost and delayed by going to university. A reduced salary is an investment. You have to believe in your long term potential and watch for opportunities. Then grab them.
The world is constantly changing and so are you. Be curious, always be curious, and get a rounded education that allows you to be adaptable for the changes in the future. You never know what will happen or when it will. The forks in the roads will rise up before you and opportunities you didn’t know existed may be just what you were looking for.
Everyone’s future has hurdles and disappointments. Persistence may be your most valuable trait, develop it.
Even if your Mr. Hepburn didn’t see it coming. Mr. Hepburn, himself, stayed teaching in our neighbourhood and became a beloved high school principal. That was fulfillment of his future vision for himself. It was easily visible.