Detours Are the Route to Happiness

Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success
by Penelope Trunk

Are you taking long lunches? Ignoring sexual harassment? Do you keep your desk neat to the point of looking like you don't have enough to do? The answer to all three, if you want to succeed in your career on your own terms, should be yes! Penelope Trunk, expert business advice columnist for the Boston Globe, gives anything but standard advice to help members of the X and Y generations succeed on their own terms in any industry.

Trunk asserts that a take-charge attitude and thinking outside the box are the only ways to make it in today's job market. With 45 tips that will get you thinking bigger, acting bolder, and blazing trails you never thought possible, Brazen Careerist will forever change your career outlook.

This irreplaceable guide offers 45 new rules for success, including advice on:

Interviewing: There are stupid questions, so don't ask them.

Office politics: It's more important to be liked than to be competent.

E-mailing: The five messages you should never send.

Job hunting: Make a strategic move to your mom's house.

Bosses: There are no bad bosses, only whiny employees.

Paying your dues: Don't be the hardest worker.

The book is guaranteed to get you thinking bigger, acting bolder, and blazing trails you never thought possible...

Chapter 1

One of the best decisions you can make in your twenties is to explore. Exploring postcollege options looks a lot like being lost; in fact, being lost is normal and productive at this stage in life. "I tell students there is no rush here. Career interests typically don't solidify until about the age of twenty-five. All the research shows that," said Linda Arra, director of career services at Lafayette College.

At earlier points in life, people are penalized for getting lost. For example, dropping out of high school for a year to explore makes colleges think you were hospitalized for mental instability. But it's a different story right after college: you don't get dinged for taking time off. "Most graduate and professional schools today would prefer the students take time to go away, have different experiences, and then come back refocused," said Bill Wright-Swadel, director of career services at Harvard College.

Part of the reason there is so much institutional respect for exploration is that there is no better way of figuring out what will make you happy. "We are not very good at using our imaginations when it comes to how we'll feel in a given circumstance," says Daniel Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard University who specializes in figuring out what makes people happy. Therefore Gilbert recommends that we test out a lot of different careers. He admits that this tactic takes time, but he says it's worth it because otherwise you're likely to make a decision based on money, which, research shows, is not likely to have much impact on your happiness.

What about the people who pull their life together in a tight little package by age twenty-four? They're the exception to the rule, according to Wayne Osgood, professor of sociology at Pennsylvania State University. He labels these people "fast starters" and explains that they are only about 12 percent of the population. This group typically does not finish college and appears to have conventional personalities and the same expectations as their parents' generation. Some fast starters are just plain lucky: they love the first job they get after college. The other 88 percent of us have to trudge through our twenties formulating a new career plan.

The good news is that this is what most people are doing in their twenties: wandering. Taking trips to Thailand, changing jobs every year, volunteering for unpaid work while living at their parents' house, and starting businesses that fail. All these options are, surprisingly, right on track for making a good decision about what to do with yourself in adult life.

1. Be a Sponge

There are lots of paths to happiness and most of them include an annoying job or maybe even ten. The most important thing about an annoying job is that you make sure you are learning and growing. Before you throw a fit and leave, consider that the most successful people are curious, with a broad range of interests, and can learn from anyone.

I spent the majority of my twenties doing jobs that raised eyebrows - as in "Are you a loser?" But I learned a lot from each job I had because any job - really, any job - can help your career if you let it. Each person, no matter how weird, has something to teach you. And each business has a gem of genius because, hey, they're making enough money to pay you, aren't they?

Some of the best negotiating training I got was from a job I had on a French chicken farm. I only took the job because I had a deal with the family who owned it: I would perform household chores in exchange for room and board (in France). To me, "chores" meant sweeping and dusting. To them, it meant killing and plucking chickens. In my lame French, I told the matron of the house that killing animals was not among my duties. She said I'd be kicked out for breaking the agreement. So I learned to pluck. Lesson #1: Get all your agreements in writing.

It was important to move the chickens into the buyer's truck before they realized what was happening. So in the middle of the night, while they were sleeping, we grabbed the chickens by the legs and held them upside down. The farmer couldn't believe I did it without throwing up. Immediately I asked for three days off and got them. Lesson #2: Timing is everything when you ask for a concession.

I picked cherries from the branches that were too high for the eight-year-old daughter who was also doing chores. Later she gathered the eggs out from under the hens so I wouldn't get pecked. Lesson #3: Everything in life is open to negotiation because everyone has something they can give you.

Relatives of the host family came to visit from Lyon. I had more in common with the city French than the rural French did. They invited me to stay with them in the city so their kids could learn English: another job offer! And the farmer overheard. So I told the farmer I would stay to harvest the hay only if I didn't have to feed the pigs anymore. Lesson #4: Get a job offer in your hand to get more leverage at the job you have.

The truth is that negotiating skills apply to every situation, and the worse shape you're in, the more essential the skills are. Had I not been suffering with the animals I probably wouldn't have paid so close attention to how to negotiate a break.

At another point in my life my friend got me a job signing Esther Williams's autograph for fans. In the 1940s and '50s Esther was a star of MGM water musicals: think Ginger Rogers with nose plugs.

I hated the job because I felt like I was wasting my time. I thought of myself as a misplaced generator of big ideas. But in hindsight I'd have to say that Esther Williams was my first marketing mentor, and later I built my own marketing career around rules I learned from lame tasks I did while working for her.

During my first week, Esther gave me three copies of her signature (different pens, different sizes) and told me to practice. I submitted my best shot to Esther and she said, "Make the E's loopier." I looped and resubmitted and then she gave me the go-ahead. Lesson #5: Quality assurance is part of marketing - you can't brand something that is inconsistent.

We had stacks of old MGM promotional photos in which she looks like a showgirl. But for the die-hard fans who requested it, I also had a headshot photo of Esther when she was about fifty years old. Lesson #6: Give the customers what they want.

We had 8x10s, but I only sent those if the person enclosed postage. Otherwise, Esther instructed me to send a 5x7. Sometimes people would request an 8x10, and even if they didn't send postage, I'd send a big photo. I figured it would make a happy customer and it wouldn't break Esther's bank - after all, she was still receiving residual checks from Million Dollar Mermaid. Lesson #7: Know when to follow rules and when to use your own judgment.

At the time I didn't understand that Esther Williams had spent a lifetime cultivating her own brand. I was lucky to see the intricacies of maintaining the brand, even if the operation was a little eccentric.

I realize now that the reason I picked up so much information about negotiating and marketing from these less-than-challenging jobs is because those are areas that interest me. I'm good at them and I like watching how other people do it. You will notice in your early, random jobs that you gravitate toward certain lessons. What you like learning about is probably what you like to do. Learn from yourself by watching how you learn from others.

So if you find yourself in a job in which you're not learning anything, ask yourself whose fault that is. You can't stay at a dead-end job forever, but don't ever assume there's nothing to learn. The first step is to figure out what interests you most about the job, and then watch very carefully and ask a lot of questions.

Copyright © 2007 by Penelope Trunk

About the Author

Penelope Trunk writes career advice for a new generation of workers. She explains why old advice - like pay your dues, climb the ladder, and don't have gaps in your resume - is outdated and irrelevant in today's workplace. She has a reputation for giving advice that is counterintuitive but effective, like take long lunches, ignore people who steal your ideas, and stop vying for a promotion.