Waldron Career Insights: Follow Your Passion
We are excited to feature a few clips from previous Waldron Student-Alumni Connections Program conversations and panels focusing on finding a career path and following your passions. First is a conversation with Rachel Kimber ’03 (Cognitive Science) and her experience working her first few jobs after graduation. Rachel’s insights might be particularly helpful for those of you who are anxious about finding the perfect first job after graduation. Up second is an excerpt from a conversation with Steve Greenspon ’91, ’09 MBA (Political Science), who talks about using your passions and interests to help you pursue a career that is right for you. If you are overwhelmed looking out into the job market and don’t know where to start, Steve’s words can provide guidance!
Panels and Conversations Featured in this Podcast:
For more insights from Rachel Kimber '03, watch the recording of this alumni panel on Exploring Your Career Options: Majors Without a Direct Path here.
For more insights from Steve Greenspon ’91, ’09 MBA, listen to our interview with him on the Weinberg in the World Podcast here.
Transcription:
- Cassie Petoskey:
- Welcome to the Weinberg in the World podcast, where we bring you stories of interdisciplinary thinking in today's complex world. This episode is brought to you by the Waldron Student-Alumni Connections Program, a resource in Weinberg College where we help current students explore career options through making connections with alumni. In today's episode, we're excited to feature a few clips from previous alumni conversations and panels focusing on finding a career path and following your passions. First is a conversation with Rachel Kimber from the class of 2003, who majored in cognitive science and her experience working her first few jobs after graduation. Rachel's insights might be particularly helpful for those of you who are anxious about finding the perfect first job after graduation.
- Rachel Kimber:
- As we're going the Northwestern researcher always, I'm trying to look for threads and themes here that we can kind of elevate, and I think one difference I will share is Patton was saying he felt pressure to find a track. And a really pivotal moment for me was as I was trying to figure out what was next and I was researching grad schools and I already had a part-time job in the corporate world, I realized I wasn't feeling fulfilled by any of it. And so for me, a conversation with one of my dear Northwestern friends who had graduated a couple years earlier and had gone on to grad school said, "Do what excites you. You're 22 years old. Do what you want to do at this moment. There's no next step."
- Rachel Kimber:
- And I feel as a type A I was so determined to figure out what is the next right thing, and then I was kind of given permission to just explore and I mean, I found out I could get a work study and go to New Zealand and ... Or travel, and it was really kind of a leap. And so having dabbled in research and having dabbled in the corporate world, I think I really felt like I just needed to take a minute to figure out what I wanted to do because once you're in it, you're in it. I mean, now I have a house and I have two kids and I can't switch sectors as easily, but where you are right now, you can try something, and much like Patton just said, and realize it just doesn't work. It doesn't inspire you. It doesn't excite you. If you are sitting in a cubicle and you don't want to be there, figure out what the other options are and start working towards that.
- Rachel Kimber:
- And my first job, when I came back from traveling, I knew at that point, I don't want to go back to corporate. There were reasons that it just didn't appeal to me and I was looking at nonprofits. Unlike Myra, I didn't have this question and this passion, so picking a nonprofit was really hard. I don't want to save the whales. That's not what is going to get me up every morning, but I want to help other people do that. And so that's how I found my way to philanthropy, and right now I'm working at an organization that supports conservation and social justice, and it's incredible. I couldn't be more passionate about my job. And then because of the sector I'm in, there aren't the same kind of financial crunch feelings that you get at a nonprofit and there's not the same kind of bottom line measurements that happen in the corporate world.
- Rachel Kimber:
- So in philanthropy, I have a whole lot of space and financial resources to explore, to do the data and the analysis and the systems thinking and the research and interacting with people, but I wouldn't have known that if, as Patton was saying, I didn't realize that this sector just is not a right fit for me and deciding to go somewhere different. So I think the most important thing to hear from the three of us so far is figure out what you're passionate about, what gets you up in the morning, and follow that, whatever it is. And if it's not the job, then make sure the job gives you time to do that thing, right? So I think that's what I learned in my early career steps is to make sure that I was feeling fulfilled as a human and then everything else kind of fell into place.
- Cassie Petoskey:
- Next is an excerpt from a conversation with Steve Greenspon, from the class of '91 who graduated with a major in political science, who talks about using your passions and interests to help you pursue a career that is right for you. If you're overwhelmed looking out into the job market and don't know where to start, Steve's words can provide guidance.
- Steve Greenspon:
- Be ready to pivot. Be ready to change. Be ready to take advantage of different things that are happening and follow your passion. Do things that you enjoy and that you're passionate about. I have a buddy who's just famous for following any - Oh hey, I heard that this is the next big industry. I'm going to get into mobile apps! I'm going to get into mortgage brokering! I'm going to get into N-95 masks! I'm going to get into this or that. And it's every couple years, it's just chasing something different. And it's not anything that he's passionate about and as a result of that, he gets bored easily. He doesn't spend his time thinking about it and how to change it and how to be better at it.
- Steve Greenspon:
- And truly, if you do something that you enjoy and with people that you enjoy doing it with, you'll be far, far more successful, both in a lifestyle type of way than doing something where your motivation isn't your personal happiness and success. And when I use the term success, I'm not talking about monetary success. You define your own success and what's best for you. Is it family/career balance? Is it doing something that makes you happy? Is it doing something to change the world, change the environment? And I think if you pursue something that you're personally passionate about, you'll find your happiness, your personal success a lot easier.
- Cassie Petoskey:
- Thanks for listening. If you want to hear more of these conversations, links to the full videos and podcasts are below. For more information about Weinberg College and this podcast, visit weinberg.northwestern.edu and search for Waldron. As always, we would love to hear your feedback. Please email us with your thoughts on the program. Have a great day and go Cats.