Why Do We Have to Do This?

Guest Post by Lonny Butcher

Lonny sent this as an email to his TA’s to help them understand how to answer the question he gets most often. It’s a good read..

This is probably the question I’ve answered most over the last 7 years. Why? You’d think it’d be “how,” but it’s not.

The today, I saw this article: LinkedIn Asked People to Give Advice to Their 20-Year-Old Self. The Same Lesson Came Up Again and Again | Inc.com.

To summarize the article, the most frequent answer given to LinkedIn’s question was some version of don’t be in a rush to find the perfect job. You’d think this answer flies in the face of what we are asking students to do in the career classes (set a goal, execute an action plan, graduate with a job), but what we are asking our students to do FITS PERFECTLY with this advice.

The article essentially says that deliberating and researching endlessly is what’s pointless. You need to take action. Get out there. Work. Succeed. Fail. Learn. Well, that’s EXACTLY what we’re asking students to do through the Career Cycle and Career To-DO List assignment. Alex even says in the Career Cycle that students can “over-rely” on self-assessments and secondary research.

But, in the same way that endless deliberation to identify the perfect job is wrong, so is just mindlessly jumping in. We just ask students to do the exploration BEFORE rather than AFTER graduating. Why? Simple, people find students way more interesting to help than other unemployed-underemployed young people. If they mess up now (do an internship they don’t like, find out they don’t like the people who work at a company or in an industry, realize the major they thought they needed isn’t necessary or interesting…) they are in a relatively safe place to recover.

So, the next time you’re posed with a “why” question instead of a “how” question, keep this article in mind. We do these classes this way because we don’t want their future self to come back and say, “You had a chance to do something about it, you just chose not to!”

I would only add that your first professional job will not be your dream job. If it is, you didn’t have much of a career. That first job does however put you on a path that will close some doors and open others. You need to think about that, but the only way to get to your dream job is to start down the path. Procrastinating or being unwilling to do the hard things to get there, and there will be hard things, only keeps you from finding out what that dream job really is and where on your path it is hiding.

The Cost of Mediocre Experiences

One of the most popular shows when I was growing up was the Andy Griffith show. It was set in the small town of Mayberry. Andy was the Sheriff. The show was a comedy about the interconnected lives of colorful characters living in a small town where everybody knew everybody. In Mayberry you couldn’t separate the service you were receiving from the person providing it. This would lead to guys sitting at Floyd’s barbershop or Emmitts “fix it shop” not because they needed the service, but because they just wanted to chat with the owner. Or, Juanita at the Bluebird Diner knowing what you wanted to order when you sat down.

I grew up in that same small town. The show resonated with me. Very few encounters in my youth were purely transactional, they were personal. Daily interaction with the same service workers was part of the experience of living in a small town whether it was Mayberry NC, Norway MI, or McConnelsville OH.

Mayberry was on my mind last week when Dean Wang from the Rosen College and I visited GRUBRR. GRUBRR manufactures and services the next generation of food kiosks —the type you see in fast food restaurants. At GRUBRR the restaurant of the future doesn’t have any cashiers or people taking your order and the food is delivered to you without you having to interact with anyone. GRUBRR is growing by leaps and bounds, accelerated by the health concerns of people coming out of a pandemic and a recovering economy where it’s hard to find people willing to take these front end service jobs.

But at the heart of GRUBRR is a mediocre transactional experience of the kind that is far too common today. Computer scientists are busy taking the people out of these transactional encounters. They have rightly perceived that the service worker is at best irrelevant in such settings and at worst a source of error. As a result, in the words of Nick Riggle (a guest speaker of ours a few years back) there are no social openings in GRUBRR’s restaurant of the future, no chance to be awesome or have an awesome experience.

And that frankly is their vulnerability. Mayberry is not coming back and mediocre service interactions of all sorts, including in education, will continue to fall victim to computer scientists. The trick to remaining relevant and flourishing in this evolving world is to use the information you can collect through the new technology to know your customers better, provide that information to your front end service people (like professors) and provide that personal service that Floyd or Juanita did. If the person can’t complement the technology, they will surely be replaced by it.

Shrinkflators are out there

When prices can’t rise, sometimes products shrink. Shrinkflators are out there. Listen in…https://business.ucf.edu/is-shrinkflation-really-a-thing/

The Power of Eclectic Networks

I attended my first large birthday gathering in over two years Friday.  It was great to celebrate a good friend ( he sort of demands that you celebrate him) and to see some familiar faces I haven’t seen in too long.  Most importantly, it was a reminder of the power of wonderfully eclectic social networks.

I have two friends with such networks.  When you show up at their events you meet people from all walks of life who have little to nothing in common except the host or hostess.   Most people build networks of people who are just like themselves.  Not these two:  Kelly who is a professional taker (read development officer) and Garry  who is a professional giver (read community relations professional).  What I think they share is a lack of initial judgment about the potential value of a personal connection.  They take all comers and people are drawn to them not because of what they can get out of the connection (heck, Kelly is likely to get into your pocket), but what they freely give— time and attention to what is important to you.  

Because their network is so eclectic, they can connect you to anyone or even introduce you to people who work in your own organization that you didn’t know (Shondra, meeting you didn’t suck).  People who study social networks talk about the power of loose ties—these are people in your network who you don’t connect with often but can give you access to unique resources when you need them.  If you have a lot of such connections from different backgrounds and experiences you become a valuable resource for people ( it becomes your superpower) – they call you to help them make a connection and you return the favor when they call because of who they are and what they do for people.  For my student readers, this is why Lonny preaches the importance of being a good networker. An eclectic network is an asset few people can develop.  It will also allow you  to  throw really interesting parties.

Happy Birthday Garry!