Follow your passion, if they’re hiring.
I love this bit of careers advice from Jimmy Carr, delivered in his trademark laconic style – on DOAC podcast I think, though in any case that interview is massively worth a listen.
He attributed it to Chris Rock; and, yes, after a quick Google, Chris Rock in 2019:
“… You can be anything you're good at, as long as they're hiring. And even then it helps to know someone.”
If only I’d heard it years ago, though I probably did in some form or other and didn’t pay attention. But then again, it’s good advice for any age. And just as ‘knowing someone’ can help you get that first foot in the door, having a wide network of friends, acquaintances and contacts can help you find new direction and make change later in life.
This is a point Henry Oliver makes in Second Act, his new book on ‘What late bloomers can tell you about success and reinvention.’ When you need to make a change, the people likely to make the most difference are not relatives or partners or close friends, but the ‘weak ties’ – your more distant contacts, passing acquaintances, friends of friends.
‘We get our jobs through the weaker ties in our network, not the strongest. Interestingly, someone you have ten mutual connections with is twice as likely to get you a job as someone with only one mutual connection – but someone with twenty-five connections is useless … When you need to make a change, you will do so through people you do not know very well.
The reason is simple: information. You and your strong ties already know each other, and have other strong ties in common. Weak ties are able to provide much more new information, connect and match you with opportunities otherwise unknown to you, compared to another strong tie. You, too, are new information for your weak ties. And the good news is that you have many, many more weak ties than strong ties.’
Those we have less connection with are involved in different social and work groups, as opposed to our close ties with whom we share so much. Our close ties connect us within our existing environment, be it work or social, and can even act (consciously or not) as a disincentive to make change. Why rock the boat; why risk what you have?
To move into into a different field, to pursue new interests, it’s those contacts on the fringes of our circle who can act as pathfinders and provide valuable stepping stones towards a new destination.
We probably all know this in the back of our minds, but it’s easy to overlook in the day to day – and not continue to expand one’s work and social network in a meaningful way.
In the characteristically stern words of the great Samuel Johnson (also quoted by Oliver): ‘Many complain of neglect who never tried to attract regard.’ Or in today’s language – no one’s coming to find you.
[I had promised myself not to get dismayed or write about the election, but despair nearly got the better of me. At the last moment, managed to swerve to the above; really just a note to self but hopefully, just possibly, maybe, may strike a useful chord with you, Dear Reader].
I agree that no one’s coming to find you. The only way to cope with loneliness is to be out there reinforcing old connections and making new ones.
Indeed so, though a bit blunt. A reminder to self really. Your comment much appreciated.