Fresh Graduates - Managing Your Career - Myth Two

This article first appeared some 5 - 6 years ago. So, some of the details may no longer be accurate. However, the essence of the article, I am certain still remains.

Myth Two: “I must work in the area I studied. If not I wasted those years of studying.”

How did this come about?

In the days of 30 – 40 years ago, career planning is done on what you can do best. Well, that isn’t necessarily wrong. The only challenge is that what you do best isn’t what you like most.

Also, back then going to school is not considered learning and development. Going to school is a vocational training. You studied a trade 4 – 5 years and then off you go to work. That is where the notion that you did what you studied. It does not matter whether you studied at a trade school or university. The end product is the same, to get a job.

Now, people go to school for self-fulfillment. To learn, to expand knowledge and horizons. In fact, if you mention such words to your elders, they might look at you rather strangely and think there is something wrong with you. Because, at the end of that look, they will undoubtedly ask you, “So, what are you going to do (to be read as work)?”

Personally, going to school allows me to learn to see things differently and see how things are connected. Knowing that, allows me to be better at work, no matter what I do.

First, let’s dispel the Myth. There are a lot of people out there who started with one thing and ended with another.

Take Mr Surachet Chaipatamanont. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Director of Aseambankers Malaysia Berhad and Head of Corporate Investment Banking of Maybank. If the Bosses at Maybank would have relied on his academic background, he would not have even gotten a job as an executive at Maybank. Yet, he is the CEO of Maybank’s subsidiary. He first graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. Get this. What is an Electrical Engineer doing in a bank (sounds familiar!).

Fortunately he saw his calling to the financial industry. He then went back to school and studied Master of Science, Operations Research in Finance.

And this guy, I am sure you know him, Chef Wan. He started as an accountant, now he is a celebrated chef and a TV host.

All of them are happier and made more money compared to if they did what they studied. What they did is simply recognizing that they can become better doing what they like doing.

Closer to home, both my wife and I studied something else, and we both ended up doing something else. My wife was a Civil Engineer and she now owns and runs a Kindergarten and also a kindergarten teacher. She also teaches other kindergarten teachers on how to become better kindergarten teachers. (Although many of her relatives and her bosses objected to her leaving her civil engineering.)

As for me, I studied English Literature. Most people we meet still think that we both have wasted our studies by becoming something else. Yet, we are happier doing what we are doing now.

So, the fact is, there is no strong correlation that you did what you studied. Many have broken the chain, and I am sure you can too.

How did we do it?

Humility and willingness to learn, develop and change. In the book “The Millionaire Mind” by Thomas J. Stanley, it is mentioned that academic excellence is not as important as honesty and good positive attitude to achieve success.

There is nothing to gain by you waving arrogantly that piece of paper that says you are a graduate. You can be proud, but not arrogant. In my 20 years of working, I have met many graduates who are too proud for their own good. And I must admit, I was one of them too, 20 years ago. That is why I know.

So, you studied the wrong thing. It could have been lack of information, bad information or sheer bad luck. It does not matter. What matters is what you are going to do about it.

With your university background, you should have the skills to acquire more skills. Going to university is like learning how to read. The actual learning is after you graduate from university

There are many learning opportunities in many fields out there. One of them is, Securities Commission with their Capital Market Graduate Training Scheme (CMGTS) invites graduates from other fields to join in their one year program with two main objectives; (1) Provide opportunity for those non-financial background to learn and be a part of the industry; and (2) For these graduates to take the opportunity to prove to the industry they are as good as any financial graduates.

I know many of these non-financial graduates who took this opportunity and are doing very well. Some of them have managed to move jobs 2 – 3 times, and of course increase their income significantly, simply because they have a sense of humility, and a willingness to learn, develop and change.

Research has shown that, when you do what you like, you are happier and you perform better. Many years ago, I learned that, what you do is not important, but how you do it. If you do it with eagerness, joy and a smile on your face, you will perform and people will recognize and start offering you other jobs.

Do some research. I am sure you did some in university. Surf the internet. Use it to mine information, as much as possible. Also, meet and talk to people from various industries and background, especially in the areas you are interested in. Meeting and talking these people would greatly increase your chance to get a job. This is where humility comes in.

The important thing is that, you have a lot, look beyond and from a different perspective. See things differently. Things have changed. We should too.