Advice on a New Opportunity

A friend recently asked:  Do you think I would like this job?  Here’s my reply:

No, but I don’t think that is the right standard. I think the role is a stretch role for you -  something you haven’t done before, which will be a challenge for you.  In my experience, you don’t ‘like’ a role like that, but it becomes an invaluable experience which makes you better, and opens up even more roles and opportunities in the future.

In the early days of CircleUp (say - the first 6 years ;), my wife would often ask “but are you enjoying it?”  She’d see I was tired, stressed, not sleeping well and generally overwhelmed a large part of the time.  My honest answer was ‘no,’  but that didn’t seem complete.

I came up with a framework of a six month lag. I told her that when I looked back at the time six months ago from the perspective of today, I was enjoying it then. That stayed true for years.  

In the moment, life was overwhelming, but a look back of just a few months allowed me to see how the challenges and tumult of the experience were engaging, rewarding and fulfilling.  Whatever issues I had in the moment were resolved by then, and I could view the experience more dispassionately.  Without the uncertainty and doubt bearing down on me, I could appreciate the positive aspects of working on interesting, complex problems that were hard to solve.  

On a rolling six month look back, I ‘liked’ what I was doing for years, even if I was never enjoying the present during that period.  

So, two alternative questions to consider when looking at a new role:

• Do you believe this role will challenge and stretch you in a direction you want to go? Are the skills you will be learning here important to your long term ambitions?
• Are you ready for a period of delayed gratification? You will be investing in yourself in this role.  Building capacity is hard, you will feel challenged, frustrated and disappointed in yourself and your capabilities in this role (initially, at least).  That is required for growth. The hope is that after an initial period of challenge, you come out the other end with a new toolkit to build from either in that same pursuit or elsewhere in your career.

I believe a rewarding career will combine periods of ‘growth’ and ‘harvesting’ of skills.  You need sufficiently challenging roles to provide the growth, but too many years of the stress and anxiety in those positions will lead to burn out.  

On the other hand, it feels good to be capable.  But, too many years of stagnating in a role you are excellent at already will atrophy your skills.

The important skill is to know where you are on the growth-harvest spectrum in each position, and to mentally prepare for the experience accordingly.

A book I learned from in this area is Cal Newport's So Good They Can’t Ignore You, itself an extended exposition of a line from Steve Martin’s wonderful memoir Born Standing Up.  Both are terrific.