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The Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before Starting My Career
Advice on how to think about your career, company politics, the value of working as an employee and building wealth
Dear Wang, it’s me, you from twelve years into the future. Congratulations! You are graduating from university and about to embark on the next significant part of your life — living and working in the actual world. I know you have a lot of questions for me, so let’s get to it!
What’s my first job?
You start off doing Business Analyst / Technical Support work. From there, you network your way into two of the top four professional services firms. You thought about doing an MBA but decided against it because most people that graduate with an MBA work for a consulting firm after and you decided that you ‘shortcut’ the process. Rather, you take the money and invest it in yourself in different ways (gym, books).
The more important question and the question that you likely wanted to ask is what work will you love? That is a significant question, because even I, future you, don’t know what I love doing. I only know that finding work that you love is not about finding your passion and then doing the work. Finding the work you love is about focusing on the work, getting…
