Some useful thoughts for first-job seekers (and their parents/teachers/mates)
Traditionally, you chose a career and it was what you spent all or a large part of your working life doing.
Changing careers was a big deal. Not for the faint hearted, and usually the result of a ‘road to Damascus' realisation that you were in the wrong job.
But starting out in the world of work today is very different.
The safe career of five years ago is dead in the water in 2026.
Jobs are being replaced by fashion, technology, AI, or by workers in lower income countries.
So what are youngsters supposed to do at the end of their education and the beginning of their working life.
I’ve discussed this with a number of people; young career starters and their parents, and the outcome is analogous to the move from traditional ‘Big Design Up Front’ project management to more agile practices! But trying to plan 60 years of your life when you are in your late teens/early twenties is gambling on a lot of uncertainties.
Perhaps it is better to plan your working life like an ‘Agile’ project management ‘scrum master’!
- Identify the MAJOR things you want, or don’t want, long term - things like:
-whether or not you hope to have children.
-the sort of environment you want to work in, for example indoor or outdoor.
-the sector that floats your boat, e.g. profit making, not for profit, public sector.
-perhaps the country or climate you want to be based in.
-whether you want to work with your hands or your brain.
-whether you aspire to being a manager of people or wish to be an individual contributor.
-whether you aspire to fame and fortune or are happier with a quiet life.
These are your ‘requirements’ or ‘user stories’ in Agilespeak.
- Now work on your first ‘sprint’ - Look for a job that is going to ‘float your boat’ in the short term. The ‘timebox’ is up to you, but aim for a period that is easily graspable for you - 4 or 5 years is probably about right for most people. Once you are in that job, your ‘minimum viable products’ are threefold:
~ your financial living requirements. Enough to keep you
~ your enjoyment
~ and some investment. This investment is in your long term future (pension contributions/savings), your short term future (learning useful skills by doing this job and if possible educating yourself for your next ‘sprint’.
For some of us this will be a job that we enjoy NOW, whilst we are young, but NOT something we want to do for a long time.
It really helps to have some sort of visualisation to help you stay on the straight-and- narrow…I’ve seen people use a custom screensaver or wallpaper on their computer or smartphone. This becomes your Agile ‘kanban’.
During your sprint, it is important to constantly reflect on what you are actually achieving, what you still want to achieve at this stage of your life and anything that is getting in the way - these are your ‘scrums’. It will help to discuss these with someone to get a different perspective.
- When you are happy that your first sprint is coming to an end, do some soul searching; what have you learned about yourself? How different are you now to the way you were when you started? Are there now people who you need to consider in the future? What do you want to achieve in your next sprint, and how long is the timebox for it?
In Agilespeak this is your sprint retrospective
Life is full of ‘Life Events’. These are the significant things that happen, some planned, some totally random- falling in love, winning the lottery, becoming a parent, being made redundant, dealing with a major illness or being a victim of crime, for example. These events generally blow all plans out of the water. One of the great things about living your working life in sprints, is that it is often easier to amend a 4 year plan than a 60 year plan.
- Rinse and repeat this process for the rest of your happy life!