How did you get to where you are now?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I was thinking about trying to push my son to be good at things and to beat out the competition (I know that sounds bad but bear with me) whether it be in sports or academics because so often in life, it is a competition.

But then I began to think, I really havent “beaten the others” in my job either. Sure I tested in and passed where others failed but for most of my career or in other jobs, I got the job because of a combination of luck (right place, right time) or being “all they had”. I cant say I’ve ever gotten a certain job or promotion because I say, beat out 10 other well qualified applicants. Same as sports when I was a kid. I got to play because they needed players. I never “made the team”.

Now I have had times when I went in for second interviews but was cut in the final selection.

So how about you? Did you get your job or position because you;

  1. Lucked into it and simply stayed on, proved yourself competent and then moved up.

or

  1. You beat out others for your position.

And then the other category which should not be ignored

  1. Got your job thru family connections but still proved yourself.
2

Not that I made it very far but I got my position somewhat by default. 3 or 4 guys were selected before me but failed to perform. When they decided to give me a shot I stepped up to the challenege and performed at a high level staying in the position for the final 22 years of my career.

3

#1

While I wouldn’t do it for free, I’m also lucky that I happen to like what I do.

4

I was a volunteer at my job, and then I was able to be hired. I got the volunteer position (and the job) through an adult education job skills course.

5

Honestly I’ve done both. In my first professional job out of college I had a low level customer service position, kept my ear to the ground for something better, proved myself over a long period of time and ended up with increasingly desirable and better paying positions.

OTOH, after I graduated law school, my first job was one that I couldn’t have even been considered for without being in the top 10% of my class, having other achievements that were inherently competitive (making law review, being selected to work in the clinic) and then to get the job I won a writing competition among the top candidates.

the thing is, pushing yourself for other people never works out - people who do that end up burned out, embittered, and regretful about everything in their lives. When you want something really bad you have to be willing to work for it. But obsession with “being the best” at every damn thing under the sun is paralyzing in the long term and is a one-way ticket to lifelong misery. IMHO there’s nothing better than being perfectly ordinary in all areas of your life except those where you feel internally motivated to do more.

6

Whether sports inspire/shape a sense of competitiveness in your son is sorta based on how competitive a given team is and how competitive your son is. Far more importantly, a sports team teaches a kid how to deal with people. What should he do if a hyper-intense teammate starts chirping at him? If kids don’t put in the effort and glide while others are busting hard? He disagrees with a coaching decision or has to get used to not being a starter while also supporting the team? Stuff like that happens throughout life.

That’s the stuff I have seen my kids get out of sports. I am totally not a sports guy - full on academic and music geek here - but they’ve been a good experience for both of my kids…

7

In the entirety of my working life, which spans 35 years, I have been employed by 6 organizations. The only one I interviewed for was McDonald’s, which was my very first job, if you can call “here kid, fill out this application, here’s your shirt, come back on Saturday at 2:00 for training” an interview. I have never applied for a job I didn’t get, but then most jobs I have applied for were in the bag before I went in the first time.

During my university years, while taking a few side courses at AIB (yeah, what was I thinking), I met Muriel Siebert, who vouched for me with a bank seeking someone to reconcile mortgage remittances. It was a terrible job and I wanted to kill myself, but I stayed for a little over 2 years until I was recruited away by Goldman Sachs.

Working for Goldman Sachs was a dream job; very prestigious, and the money was fantastic…and I absolutely hated it. The long hours and the questionable ethics of my bosses were a bit much for the early-20s me. During my time at Goldman, I began to reevaluate the focus of my education, deciding I despised finance.

After a couple of years at Goldman Sachs, finishing my first degree, and holding a new load of medical coursework, I was approached by a friend who did oncology research who’s company was hiring students for entry-level positions. I took the job and stayed there for a number of years. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it.

By my mid 30s, I decided to try to offer research services as an independent contractor and landed my first client almost immediately. After a stint of a few years, one of my clients approached me for a position within his company, which I accepted. I remained with the company for the next 15 years.

Approximately 4 years ago, I began thinking about trying my hand at running a business again. The whole controlling my own destiny bug was biting me again, big time. I started approaching a few of my colleagues about going out on our own and forming a new company, which is exactly what we did a little over two years ago.

If I were to attribute my employment acquisition successes to something, I would have to say that it is my focused, aggressive, A-type personality and the strength of my skillsets, although luck and being at the right place at the right time may also have been contributing factors.

8

#1

9

After a couple years of watching my university fail to proffer an education to me in a form that was meaningful to me, I had to move on to Plan B, which I (much later and in retrospect) thought of a name for: “Living by my Wits Alone”.

It was a combination of a number of factors: Doing jobs that I could do effortlessly and tolerably well, spending as little time as possible doing them, fulfilling as many of my other dreams as I could, keeping my head down, crisis avoidance, and being careful to not do anything that was downright destructive or inimical to my best interests.

Where I am now is age 75, in better health than i deserve, living where and how I please, debt-free since 1970, and not responsible for anybody but myself.

10

Sheer blind luck. I had finished HS in 13th percentile, not enough for a scholarship in those days. The idea of need-based rather than merit scholarships had not yet arrived. My family had no money. I was looking for a summer job with the vague idea of saving up enough for a year at Drexel that had a co-op program that I could earn enough for the rest of college. Otherwise, I had no idea what I would do. An ad in paper led to an interview to become a lab assistant at Penn, go to school part-time, have half the tuition waived and walk out with a degree in five years. My life changed! After that, it was #1. In those days there was a shortage of mathematicians and there were no real competitions for people. I even got an entirely unsolicited offer from Penn State, a school I had never had any contact with.

11

Bad luck and ill health:( I don’t suggest either.

12

I started out slow - administrative college diploma only - but landed a job right out of college because of what some might call luck, but what in retrospect was because of my (still small at the time) network. I worked for that company for eight years, and during that time went to night school for a more career specific diploma. Then I made a big career mistake and left for a completely different industry (and a slight pay cut) because I thought I wanted to try something new. I lasted 18 months before I started looking for a new job.

I was successful with my first interview, and was called for a second in my current job. I now know I was against one other person for the job. By this time, I had built up my confidence in myself to a point that when they asked me why I wanted the job at the end of the second interview (it was a panel interview with six people :eek: ), I said something like “I have a lot of potential, and you won’t regret hiring me”. I would have NEVER said that in years previous, but I felt good about myself and that I could perform in the role at a high level. They hired me and I was right, and one individual who was in the interview still talks about my saying that and how it impressed her and the others so much there was no way they couldn’t hire me. YMMV with that kind of thing though.

I’ve continued to further my education over the years, having just completed my MA. My company paid my tuition and my thesis related directly to what I do for work. It was a very hard three years, but totally worth it. Now I’m advancing at a rapid rate and am very satisfied in my career.

If I had to pick out a few things that got me where I am:

  1. Networking. I didn’t buy in to networking even five years ago, but I now see how essential it is for success, or ‘beating out the competition’, or even just circumventing the competition because those who are looking come directly to you due to your reputation.
  2. Continuing education. Even if you don’t want to go back to school to get a grad degree or whatever, occasional night classes, workshops or conferences on your subject matter really make a difference and keep you up to date.
  3. Hard work and dedication. I think it’s true that you have to love, or at least enjoy, what you do. I work hard and will put in longer hours because I enjoy my job and the people I work with. This is much harder to do if you don’t like the job. Either way, working hard early in your career to prove yourself can make a difference in your career trajectory.
  4. I’m finding that I have to know a little about a lot of things (related to my role) and a lot about the most important things. I’m a ‘Subject Matter Expert’ when it come to the higher risk aspects of my job that can harm my company, but I’m also the person that people come to when they have questions about processes or how to do this or that - things that don’t matter as much but that people need to know. Tie this to the networking piece and I find that even if I don’t know the answer, I do know who does and can get the answer.
13

I should also add that while a career is very important, I also make it a priority to have a work/life balance. I take all my vacation time and we do mini-vacations on long weekends. I’ll take a day off in the middle of the week if I have no meetings and get the urge to go out to the mountains (like I did last Tuesday). That makes a big difference in how hard I can work when I am working, because it’s not the only focus in my life.

I’m also lucky in that people who demonstrate a good work/life balance are viewed favourably within my company - for example, I’m the Team Captain for our company Ride to Conquer Cancer (long bike ride with fundraising efforts that benefit regional cancer programs) because I am a cyclist and I also like to do volunteer/fundraising work. The president of our company got wind of it and sent me a personal email thanking me for the initiative…he now knows my name and what I do. That’s sort of a big deal in career advancement (if that’s what you want).

14

I ran my own business for 30 years and got contracts by underbidding the competition. As to how I got to where I am now I am in the Dominican Republic and when it came time to retire I jumped on an airplane and came here.

15

Little from column A, little from column B?

I used to work with someone at my old company and eventually he moved on to a new company and became a partner. Years later, when their person in my role quit, my old co-worker immediately recommended me for the position and contacted me to make an offer. So I wouldn’t say I “lucked” into since I had impressed this person enough to seek me out years later but neither did I competitively apply against several other people.

16

Started at the bottom and moved up.

  • Worked hard.
  • Maintained a good reputation.
  • Developed a network.
  • Never did anything half-assed.
  • Upgraded skills.
  • Accepted management and supervisory roles.

I haven’t really had a career trajectory as a plan. However, for the last 15 years, I’ve had increasingly senior roles within 4 different organizations.

The one thing that I always keep in mind is that my reputation is my most valuable asset. While working hard and doing a good job is good for the company I’m with, it’s also increasing my own personal marketability within my industry. Don’t burn any bridges. Always respect the people you encounter (even if you don’t care for the way they do their job).

17

I am responsible for every single accomplishment (and failure) in my life. There’s been no luck or nepotism. I’ve worked hard and beat out the competition for every job I’ve earned.

I assumed that most people fall into this category.

18

No nepotism I believe; but everybody alive gets where there are in part through good fortune. Fortune favors the prepared man; but the prepared man still benefits by luck. No one does it all themselves.

I am self-employed because I was a failure working for other people. Sooner or later I got tired of sucking up to whomever demanded sucking up to, and either told them they could suck up to themselves, or just started sucking up less and less until they realized I was no longer a “team player”.

19

1st job…moved to work in a city no one else really wanted to work in. Not hard to get a job.

2nd job…moved to a small town…not many people wanted to work there because of it being a small town.

3rd job. Got it in the city. How? I made a friend out of a principal. He helped me get hired. I tried to get in for seven years based on my resume. No luck until I knew someone. It’s not what you know…

20

I guess #1.
I was the only candidate for the job, but a big part of that is that I did the training for a very specific role, paid for out my own pocket.

The OP makes a good point. “Life’s a competition” is the kind of soundbite that many people would agree with, but even if accurate it isn’t useful to see things like that in most cases. The kind of person that thinks like that is the kind always whining about “why did so-and-so get the promotion and not me”? Not only thinking about what others are doing, but also trying to second-guess the boss (or whoever is “scoring” the competition), instead of just focusing on doing the best work.