Having gone to these chats before and spoken with plenty of real, live, grown-up adults on this issue, I can firmly say that they all have at least one piece of advice for you: Just put yourself out there.
Thankfully, almost nobody ever gives any explanation behind this phrase. You know - put yourself out there! Surely you can grasp all kinds of specifics from this detailed, nuanced gem of advice.
As a young person clamoring for a decent job, I can attest that the patronizing tone dripping from these sage words has been a massive help. You're right - I've been doing all the wrong things to advance my career up to this point but thank God you gave me this handy phrase to correct my path. Why didn't I think of this before??
putting yourself out there
More than once I've heard people use "put yourself out there" before explaining that they got their first job(s) after accidentally bumping into a family friend who knew of a job opening somewhere. I should try randomly bumping into people I know - then I'd be putting myself out there.
Every now and then they'll back up this advice by giving the story of young Mary Nolife, who spent her time calling up/personally visiting/writing letters to/having sex with every living being she could contact to ask about jobs. Forsaking everything but the most basic sustenance required, she slaved day and night until everyone was convinced of her humility, thus rewarding her with an unpaid internship in the mailroom. You kids these days just wouldn't understand.
putting yourself out there
I've decided to start labeling everything I do as putting myself out there - at least then I'd know what it meant. Doing the dishes? Putting myself out there. Taking the train to work? Putting myself out there. Disemboweling those with vague, trite career advice? Putting myself out there.
I can practically feel it working already.
I'm pretty sure that the one thing that "put yourself out there" does not encompass, ironically, is going to career-related panel discussions.
ReplyDeleteYeah, evidently. I should run career panels that people pay a lotta money for, where I'll tell them that this is a waste of time and they should put themselves out there instead.
ReplyDelete