This is Obama’s No.1 piece of career advice for Gen Z
In a recent interview, former President Barack Obama shared his advice for getting noticed in one’s career and being the most successful in what one does.
President Barack Obama recently sat down for an interview with LinkedIn’s Editor-in-Chief Daniel Roth for the career social media platforms series ‘This is Work.’ The former occupant of the White House shared his views on the meaning of work as it changes during an extended period of disruption. As well, he gave his advice to young people for getting noticed in their career and being the most successful in what they do.
It essentially boils down to not just seeing problems that exist but being a problem solver. And with a “can do” attitude along with giving it your all, no matter the task, you will get notice by whoever is running the organization, he promises. Additionally, people should focus on what they want to do, not on who they want to be.
This is Obama’s No.1 piece of career advice for Gen Z
Obama broke his Number One piece of advice into two parts. Firstly, “the most important advice I give to young people is, just learn how to get stuff done,” he told Roth. By that he means, from his experience, there are plenty of people at all levels “who are very good at describing problems, people who are very sophisticated in explaining why something went wrong or why something can’t get fixed.”
However, what he is always on the look out for is that person who says, “Let me take care of that,” no matter the size of the problem, from the smallest to the largest. “If you project an attitude of whatever it is that’s needed, ‘I can handle it and I can do it.’ Whoever’s running that organization will notice, I promise,” the former president said.
Also that “young people you don’t always have to be impatient asking for the plum assignment.” Showing yourself as “somebody who can get something done” with whatever is assigned to you by “nailing it” and killing it” people will notice.
Secondly, “worry more about what you want to do rather than what you want to be,” Obama said. “I think so often, people have in their mind ‘I want to be, you know, a congressman by 30. I wanna make X amount of money by this age.’”
But if you want to end up becoming a Bill Gates, “the people I find that are most successful are the people who say, man, I’m really interested in computers and figuring this stuff out,” he advised.
That doesn’t mean that you will actually achieve the pinnicle of whatever career path you follow, but you will “have an extraordinary career” due to the fact that you’re “just interested in the thing itself.”
“If you are absorbed by what you’re doing, one of two things is gonna happen. You’re gonna get really good at it, and whether you’re rewarded, recognized, you get the positions that you want or not, the journey will have been a good one,” Obama added.