Episode 14: 10 Career Truths
I am a big believer in the theory that happiness (or disappointment) happens when reality doesn’t match expectations. This mismatch, if it happens too often or too severely can affect your performance and even derail careers.
Hence I am here in this solo episode to talk truths, to create awareness and to set the right expectations (NOT “low” expectations) about careers and the occasional downsides. So that you are insulated from these pesky mismatches.
The reason I highlight these truths is because what is sold to everyone are only the positives of careers. Of course “downside” depends on your mindset and perspective.
In any case, I’d urge you to learn quickly from any negative episodes and move on.
Welcome to Reality.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
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Binod:
This is Binod Shankar and you're listening to The Real Finance Mentor Podcast, from therealfinancementor.com. The Real Finance Mentor is your go-to resource for insight and inspiration on careers and finance, CFA and more. Youwould think, "Why this podcast?" Well, my goal is to deliver insight and inspiration for your finance career, by making it one, relatable. This is not theoretical stuff. We zero in on the critical, practical issues. Number two, authentic. No bullshit, no sidestepping. The topics, guests and questions are all from that perspective. And number three, take a chartered accountant, CFA charter holder, add 17 plus years as a corporate warrior, mix in 10 years of entrepreneurship, throw in a decade of full-time CFA training, add speaking, mentoring, cycling, and mountaineering and that's me. Welcome to the Real Finance Mentor. Or as I call it, RFM.
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Binod:
Hi guys, this is Binod Shankar, The Real Finance Mentor, here with one of my rare solo episodes.
Many youngsters have workplace illusions. Wrong expectations create major disappointments. My recent LinkedIn post on this topic was the motivation for this episode. I got 1,000 + likes and 78K + views and 70 + comments. Someone even commented that “These should be handed out to every graduating class. It would have helped me immensely even if I only knew half of these when I started!”
So, I thought hmm… this connects with many and perhaps I should do an entire episode on it! Also, I couldn’t capture the nuances. I love LinkedIn but you can only say so much on posts. So here are 10 truths, which you must hear, with some explanations.
Ten career truths
1. Your prospective employer will lie to you
· Both parties lie to each other. It’s a beauty contest.
· The employer will lie to you during recruitment and you will find out all the bad stuff AFTER you join.
· But the risk to you is greater; its your career, the only means to live and what you’ve prepared your ass off for. Plus, a large company can easily replace you.
· What you know is the hard stuff- title, responsibilities, pay, benefits, reporting etc.
· What you will NOT know is the soft stuff, the more critical things like weird personalities, legacy company issues, toxic politics, unnecessary stress, corruption, nepotism and most importantly, whether your boss is incompetent or an asshole.
2. You won’t get any formal training and must learn on the job.
· Many companies prefer ready-made staff – it’s cheaper and faster.
· Then they will throw you in the deep end immediately after you join, and you’ll just have to learn and survive
· Your colleagues will be of little use, some secretly hoping that you fail and the guy you are taking over from is in a hurry to leave and no mood to explain
· Like the exiting Big 4 audit senior 22 years ago who casually tossed me the previous year’s audit file at the start of my first season with the firm and asked me to “learn”.
3. The most deserving candidate does NOT always get hired or promoted or sent for training or get the plum assignments.
· From my experience, and from the reactions I got on my LinkedIn article THIS is the most common (and most painful) Truth of all.
· You’ll be treated based on your race, looks, gender, nationality, your ass kissing ability and/or whether you are related to top management.
· This is probably the biggest bloody shocker of all. Not just because it was so unexpected but because you will see a serious disconnect between your effort and the reward and that can be seriously demotivating. Because we all like and expect to be treated fairly
· Various fake reasons will be given as to why Mr. X r Ms. Y deserves better. Reasons like “She is more senior” or “We need to keep him” or “You don’t know the full story/big picture”.
· True story. I once had a female colleague who was this close to being promoted ahead of me although I was far more qualified and delivered more. She was good looking (a fake blonde) and she was sleeping with my boss. So that was two excellent reasons which beat out my CA, experience and performance!
· Anyway, she was fired before she got promoted and a few months later my boss quit. Yes, Karma can be a bitch.
4. If you are brilliant & dedicated but not “good with people” you will be ignored
· And trust me you deserve to be ignored.
· This is one reality where I understand the employer’s view.
· Many people get wrongly promoted to management because of their technical competence.
· But they suck at managing people. They lack patience, empathy, communication skills and of course self-awareness. They make life hell for their teams.
· And because behavioral change is so tough, and training doesn’t really work its very likely you will continue to be overlooked
5. You are wholly dispensable and instantly replaceable.
· Sometimes you get the feeling the company can’t do without you.
· Wrong!
· The company is far bigger than you and they will find your replacement. He may not be as smart or diligent as you but that’s fine.
· You find this out when you are fired, or you resign.
· Like the time I submitted my papers after being a what I thought was the lynchpin at a company and my superior instantly accepted it. No attempts to retain (I’d have left anyway). It was just thank you, goodbye.
6. You will not get the truth from your Boss or HR
· Either because they don’t give a shit or they don’t want to upset or argue with you or they don’t want a legal case on their hands.
· A lot of performance evaluation is subjective and hence fertile grounds for debate.
· Appraisal is once max twice a year which is too infrequent. Plus, they are hurried and narrow and hence a waste of time.
· I recall thinking and hoping fervently I’d get promoted at a Big 4 and getting a nasty shock when my name wasn’t in the annual list. I had simply no clue.
· Turned out I was actually simply average at work but no one (not my managers or audit partners) had bothered to tell me along the way! A heads up may have been helpful.
7. Promises will be made and broken.
· Your boss or HR may make vague promises, to keep you or to motivate you.
· What they say and do behind your back is another thing.
· Like the time my manager (who was also a good friend) promised to fight for my promotion but many years later I found out the lying Jerk had actually condemned me in the managers’ meeting.
8. No one gives a damn about your career or self-development
It’s a great and dangerous illusion that the company or your boss cares about your career.
· You are a resource and a replaceable one at that.
· Forget the HR manual and the feel-good posters and emails. Its bullshit.
· The big mistake is to outsource career management to your Boss or HR, thinking as long as you are a good employee, they will take care of you. Trust me they have bigger priorities and you are not one of them.
· Don’t be a fool. Its your life, your career, not theirs.
9. Politics is a popular corporate sport.
· People love and cling to power hence all the faking, backstabbing, one upmanship etc.
· You can’t trust anyone because everyone is there for themselves.
· Like my fellow manager who used who work closely with and share reports and have lunch with me. The minute my boss (the new CFO) joined, he ignored me completely and spoke only to the CFO.
· Or my self-aggrandizing CEO who refused to defend me for a laughably minor mistake committed by my junior, seeing this as a perfect opportunity to get rid of me.
10. Last but not the least, the workplace is NOT fair.
· I think the biggest surprise is that work isn’t fair. Fair means your rewards are directly linked to your efforts.
· We are surprised because so far (school, college, home) your very limited experience has been of a fair life. Study hard, score high marks. Play hard, win at football or cricket. Be nice to parents, relatives and friends, they return the favor.
· But corporate life is different.
· Look much of life is also not fair. Workplace is just a microcosm of life.
So that’s the ten career truths. This isn’t a work of fiction and I didn’t make these up- I’ve experienced most of the above or seen it happen to others.
Of course, there are exceptions to the above. There always are. But in the pandemic era, with companies losing clients and revenue and profits, the worst comes out and I bet workplaces will get worse.
Sadly I didn't know most of these truths when I joined the workforce 28 years ago but now you do.
Many people may find all this negative & demotivating. But this episode is not meant to demotivate or to dissuade you. It’s meant as a heads up, to prepare you for that career. Because disappointment is when reality doesn’t meet expectations and I want you to get your expectations right. That way, hopefully any good stuff will be positive surprises in a corporate career that can be fulfilling in many ways, like it was for me.
You can thank me later.
Stay safe.
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Binod:
This podcast is brought to you by The Real Finance Mentor. Thank you so much for listening and I hope you found it insightful and inspirational. If you did enjoy this episode, please drop us a review and spread the word and be sure to check out more exclusive content on therealfinancementor.com and my LinkedIn profile, which is Binod Shankar CFA. Let's keep in touch. Just add your name to the mailing list on therealfinancementor.com and we'll tell you about new episodes plus book reviews, upcoming events, and blogs. Till the next time- onwards and upwards.
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