How Can I Best Leverage My Studies as Career Capital to Start my Working Life?

00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:03.440 | Hi, Cal.

00:00:05.920 | This is Drake here.

00:00:07.880 | First, I'd like to say I'm a big fan of your work

00:00:10.120 | and your books have helped me greatly.

00:00:12.520 | I wanted to ask a question regarding career capital.

00:00:16.200 | I've just finished my undergraduate studies

00:00:18.280 | and I'm looking to start my career.

00:00:20.800 | I've graduated with two degrees with a strong GPA

00:00:23.760 | and have done several research opportunities.

00:00:27.320 | In other words, I believe I have accrued

00:00:29.560 | a lot of career capital.

00:00:32.480 | How can I leverage what I've done in my studies

00:00:35.600 | as a student as career capital in order

00:00:39.200 | to start a satisfying career?

00:00:40.680 | Well, at your current age, the career capital that you have

00:00:49.680 | is basically relevant to unlocking particular jobs.

00:00:56.000 | So you have where you went to school, what you studied,

00:00:58.280 | what your grades are.

00:00:59.920 | For a lot of jobs, that's an important piece

00:01:02.520 | of career capital required to unlock that job,

00:01:05.320 | that you need good enough grades and a good enough program

00:01:08.200 | at a good enough school to even be interviewed for the job.

00:01:10.600 | This is basically the main investment

00:01:12.140 | you can do with capital you have acquired as a student, which

00:01:17.160 | is to say there's not a ton you can do with it yet.

00:01:19.960 | So it opens up more opportunities.

00:01:21.680 | That's great.

00:01:22.600 | So pick one.

00:01:23.720 | And it should be an opportunity, as we talk about a lot

00:01:26.040 | on the show, that is of interest to you.

00:01:29.440 | And more importantly, you see that as you--

00:01:31.680 | if and when you get better at this particular position,

00:01:34.240 | it will open up options in the future that really appeal to

00:01:37.640 | you, that you will have good opportunities in the future

00:01:41.200 | if and when you acquire career capital ongoing to make

00:01:44.880 | interesting investments.

00:01:45.880 | So if you're looking at becoming a lawyer at a big city firm,

00:01:49.560 | you actually maybe are going to have a limited number of options

00:01:53.200 | for actually investing career capital as you build it up,

00:01:55.640 | because that's a particular job in which the only thing you

00:01:58.280 | can really get in exchange for your career capital

00:02:00.360 | is more money.

00:02:01.440 | But you're actually very constrained about what

00:02:03.400 | your working life looks like as compared to, let's say,

00:02:07.280 | an entrepreneurial pursuit where if you build up

00:02:10.440 | a lot of career capital there, you

00:02:11.800 | have a huge number of options of what

00:02:13.440 | you want to do with your life, what you want your life

00:02:15.680 | to be like, et cetera.

00:02:16.680 | So right now, you're at the very beginning.

00:02:19.320 | You have good grades.

00:02:20.160 | Good.

00:02:20.660 | You have good degrees.

00:02:21.620 | Good.

00:02:22.240 | That opens up options.

00:02:23.240 | Choose an option.

00:02:24.480 | Now you're kind of starting over.

00:02:27.920 | The collections of capital have been cleared.

00:02:31.240 | And you need to start building the career capital

00:02:33.200 | specifically in that position with an eye

00:02:35.240 | towards investing it, metaphorically speaking,

00:02:37.160 | down the line to make your working life

00:02:39.600 | veer towards what resonates and away from what doesn't.

00:02:42.600 | So how do you do that?

00:02:43.640 | Well, when you have a new job, I usually

00:02:45.480 | come back and say there's a couple of things

00:02:47.320 | that are important right off the bat.

00:02:49.480 | Number one, perhaps most of all, be dependable.

00:02:53.440 | When you say you're going to do something, you do it.

00:02:55.680 | When someone gives you something, it gets done.

00:02:57.780 | If you're not going to get it done,

00:02:58.880 | when you say you're going to get it done, you let people know,

00:03:01.200 | hey, I know I said I'd have this done by Wednesday.

00:03:03.040 | It's taking longer than I thought.

00:03:04.200 | It's going to be Friday morning.

00:03:05.840 | And then you get it to them in that new time

00:03:07.900 | you said you're going to do it.

00:03:09.200 | You be the person that people trust.

00:03:11.080 | They're organized.

00:03:11.840 | They have their act together.

00:03:12.880 | They finish stuff.

00:03:13.560 | They say they're going to finish.

00:03:14.480 | That sounds basic, but it's one of the most important

00:03:17.160 | distinguishing things you can do in the first year or two

00:03:19.840 | of a new job.

00:03:20.880 | That is the foundation on which you're

00:03:22.500 | going to build the fastest possible path to a lot more

00:03:26.520 | career capital acquisition.

00:03:28.200 | Number two, do the work you do at a high level of quality.

00:03:33.280 | So I say I'm going to get this done.

00:03:34.760 | I'm going to get it done.

00:03:36.000 | I'm not just going to do it.

00:03:37.160 | I'm going to do it really well.

00:03:39.080 | The people who give me something to do are not going to worry.

00:03:42.560 | Is this fine?

00:03:43.160 | Do I have to go over it?

00:03:44.280 | Maybe it's not really going to be what I want.

00:03:45.640 | They trust that when you do something,

00:03:46.800 | it's going to be done really well.

00:03:48.480 | Now, this may take more time, but because of thing number

00:03:51.240 | one, you know how to get more time

00:03:53.280 | because you were very organized and things

00:03:54.980 | don't drop through the cracks.

00:03:56.220 | So you know now to say, instead of I'll

00:03:58.920 | get this done later today, you say

00:04:00.260 | I'll have it done in two days because you know

00:04:02.340 | it's going to take more time.

00:04:03.580 | Or you know you have three other things on your plate,

00:04:05.820 | and this is going to have to slot in.

00:04:07.660 | So you can give them realistic assessments

00:04:09.540 | of when it's going to get done and give yourself enough time

00:04:11.500 | to do it really well.

00:04:12.940 | You do those two things.

00:04:13.900 | You're dependable, and you deliver with quality.

00:04:16.300 | You do those two things for one to two years

00:04:19.420 | in almost any knowledge work style job,

00:04:21.800 | and the career capital is going to start

00:04:23.840 | being shoveled into your metaphorical bank vault here.

00:04:27.800 | Options are going to open up.

00:04:29.040 | You're going to get moved up the chain really quickly.

00:04:31.080 | People are going to want you on their teams.

00:04:33.040 | You're going to get put in charge

00:04:33.960 | of more interesting projects, bigger stake projects.

00:04:36.040 | You're going to take bigger swings for the company.

00:04:38.160 | All sorts of great things are going to happen.

00:04:40.120 | They're going to allow you in about six or seven years

00:04:42.400 | to have a lot of autonomy of your career,

00:04:44.040 | make some investments, and make your career something

00:04:46.240 | that's really cool.

00:04:47.440 | But in the first one or two years,

00:04:49.140 | that's how you get that whole path started.

00:04:51.320 | So what's going to support all of that, make that possible?

00:04:53.940 | You got to care about productivity.

00:04:55.980 | You got to care about it.

00:04:57.400 | You got to be organized.

00:04:59.180 | Where does information go?

00:05:00.440 | How do I keep track of it?

00:05:01.800 | What am I doing this week?

00:05:02.860 | How does that fit into my plan for this quarter?

00:05:04.780 | What am I doing today in my time block planning?

00:05:06.820 | Is there full capture going on in a shutdown routine?

00:05:09.300 | All of the different types of things I talk about here

00:05:11.520 | for organizing what's on your plate

00:05:13.420 | and making the most use of the time you have,

00:05:15.600 | if you can master that, that will enable you

00:05:18.420 | to then be dependable, that will enable you

00:05:20.400 | to then deliver with quality, and that will enable

00:05:22.560 | almost everything else good that comes.

00:05:25.420 | So I know it's not exciting what you have facing you

00:05:28.800 | for the next year or two, but it's really important.

00:05:32.520 | It is a time for geeking out about how you handle

00:05:36.740 | the mechanics of actually adding value to information,

00:05:40.340 | the basic function of knowledge work,

00:05:43.540 | geek out on productivity, have your act together,

00:05:46.500 | be dependable, do quality.

00:05:48.580 | That's gonna lead to cool places.

00:05:49.900 | And then all you have to do is remember

00:05:51.700 | that as that capital accrues, as it eventually will,

00:05:55.280 | that it does you no good unless you actually invest it.

00:05:58.020 | And so you have to have a good vision

00:05:59.620 | of what you want in your life, what resonates,

00:06:01.380 | what doesn't, what lifestyle appeals,

00:06:02.900 | what lifestyle doesn't, so that when you actually

00:06:05.500 | have some leverage, you can apply that leverage

00:06:07.980 | in a very intentional direction.

00:06:10.740 | (upbeat music)

00:06:13.320 | (upbeat music)

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How Can I Best Leverage My Studies as Career Capital to Start my Working Life?

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