Making Smart Career Decisions — 3 Factors That Matter The Most

0:08 Is there an ideal time for you is the right question. There is no global ideal time. I have seen people you know 25 years into their career, 30 years into their career join a startup for the very first time. I've seen many such people. I've seen 25 year olds be in a very large enterprise company be very happy there and stay there for the next 1015 years of their career right like many of my colleagues at Google were exactly that they're still at Google they joined Google when they were 22 23 straight out of college and they're still there so what I'm typically interested in with this stuff is like what is the question behind the question if this were a one-on-one kind of career conversation maybe the individual starts with this question and like what provoked you to ask this question. What is the confusion you're facing? Let's figure that out. And yes, for you particularly in your situation, there might be an ideal time. So, you've got to figure that out which is what do you want out of your life? What are your superpowers? What are you trying to do with your career so you can make a very intentional career happen? Because this is a question about what type of company I should work for. Perhaps actually I can share a useful kind of framework for thinking about career choices. So there's not that many words but it's a great way to think about the right career choices for you which is you know being good at your work being good at picking the right companies to join and then being good at recognized and getting promoted at that given company.

1:39 Usually you need at least two out of these three to have broader success in your career. Ideally you get all three. And then this last point about being good at picking the right companies to join is super important. Ultimately you have to remember that at the macro scale of your career the success whatever success means for you will largely be determined by whether you joined the right companies.

2:10 It is not largely determined by who was your boss for a six-month period or a one-year period. Yes, the boss matters. Yes, the manager matters. What I'm saying at a larger scale, it is which companies you pick that is going to be a big determinant of what your career looks like. Right? Think about something as basic as your resume. So what is the primary thing on your resume? The primary thing on your resume is the company you worked at and the role in which you worked at that company. Those are the main things on your resume. So in some ways it's not even the specific project you worked on.

2:53 This is why for some people this is not always the case. Again you have to remember none of this is global advice and this is not even advice. This is perspectives for you to make your own decisions. Right? So sometimes people will say, "Oh, I don't want to join this company because the project I'm going to work on is not as hot as the 0ero to1 project at this other company." And I'm like, "Okay, that makes sense.

3:18 To what degree is that specific project going to determine the macro scale of your career? Is that project going to show up on your resume?" And look, if the project is a failure, maybe you don't include it on your resume. The point is that the project you work on, yes of course it matters, right? But at a macro scale is not the main thing that is going to determine what your career trajectory looks like and whatever the definition of success is for you.