Chispa

The Harvard Business Review Blog caught my eye once again with this recent post entitled “Solving Gen Y’s Passion Problem”, read more here:  http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/09/solving_gen_ys_passion_problem.html?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-weekly_hotlist-_-hotlist092412&referral=00202&utm_source=newsletter_weekly_hotlist&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hotlist092412

When I saw the words “passion” and “problem” in the same sentence I knew I needed to click on the link.  The author, a member of Gen Y, explains that he and his peers have grown up with the concept of “following your passion” when it comes to deciding on a career.  This entitled generation feels misinformed; however, sorely disillusioned because they expected to love their jobs fresh out of school.  Apparently they didn’t realize there would be so much hard work involved to build a rewarding and fulfilling career.  Now they’re looking for some solid advice on how others have fallen in love with what they do.

As one of the youngest Baby Boomers, it’s hard for me to even fathom that this group didn’t know they’d need to do grunt work for a while, or that the assignments would not always be glamorous, that there are dues to pay.  I feel like the only thing I knew at that time in my life was that I could expect to work hard. If you’re making broad generalizations, Baby Boomers and older Gen X’s seem to possess a humility that is absent in Gen Y.

What I find myself telling the super-talented, ambitious Gen Ys, and even some of the late Gen X’s, is that they just need time.  No matter how badly you want to ascend in an organization, you can’t rush experience.  When I think about raising my own Gen Z’s, I’m certain that once they get over the sloth that is their adolescence, nothing in the working world will move fast enough for them either.  These are digital natives, born and raised on the internet and smartphones.  Patience might as well be Sanskrit.

But I can offer advice today to these bedraggled Gen Ys, and someday to my beloved Gen Z’s, because the making of careers really doesn’t change much through the ages. It’s a slow growing love affair, building over time as expectations move into alignment with achievements, becoming more satisfying with age.  Fulfillment has as much to do with where you are in life as what you’re doing at the time.

When I think about the story of my own career, I could characterize it in the same vernacular as the search for true love or a soul mate.  Some of the relationships were great, some not so much.  There were hook-ups and multi-year marriages.  I garnered valuable insight from each encounter. And every experience has made me who I am today. 

I’m not so different from Gen Y.  I started following my passion, going to school for design.  My first three jobs were brief affairs, lasting no more than two years each. Two amicable partings that sandwiched a messy falling-out:  I knew it needed to end but couldn’t bring myself to make it happen, so it was ended for me.  I had been unhappy for a while. 

Not long after, I settled into a seven-year relationship at a big architectural firm.  We dated for a few months; I was a temporary employee they soon decided to hire permanently. We had good times, for the most part, but I realized eventually that I wasn’t what they needed me to be. I guess I was cheating on them for a while with another company, but they were the ones who pushed us together, sending me off to a client site to be a project manager.  I ended up leaving them for my client, and a completely different career path.

And here I am today, fourteen years into a very satisfying relationship that has absolutely had its ups and downs.  I’ve had assignments that I loved and some that I couldn’t stand.  It hasn’t always been easy.  We’ve weathered many storms, and I stuck it out in some very dark times because I believe in the core values and culture fostered here. They’ve supported me in tenuous situations and demonstrate an unwavering commitment to me.  Because of this, I’ve unearthed passions that I didn’t even think I possessed. Somehow along the way I’ve fallen deeply, madly in love with what I do. 

If I could write a letter to my younger self, I’d tell her she has no idea what she will be capable of down the road, or where her dreams will take her.  

But Gen Y doesn’t seem to lack for confidence and courage when it comes to embarking on the pursuit of what they love.  Reading the HBR Blog, I thought for an instant I might be misleading my readers, thinking that I am making it sound too easy:  Just decide on your passion and go for it.  Am I feeding Gen Y’s problem? 

I don’t think so.  I like to think I do a decent job of acknowledging obstacles and supplying encouragement to work through them.  I hope I’m sending a positive message to keep moving through the mess because there is greatness all around us.  I want others to see that we need to find ways to enjoy the journey, not hold all happiness in check until we get our desired outcome.  And that it’s okay to change your mind, but only if you really want to, not because someone else thinks you should. None of this comes easily.

What’s sometimes absent in us all is Gen Y’s spark to launch fearlessly in the direction of dreams.  It’s the embers of the youthful independent spirit I’m seeking to ignite. Gen Y may think it’s the falling in love that’s the hard part; but anyone who’s been through it knows the real challenge is in staying in love.