Do I follow a path or do I create my own? Career advice from Arcade Fire
Author Note: This is the first of many posts where I will be using a musical reference for career advice. Let me know what you think. Damon
“There are not too many people in the world who can honestly say that they are the first person to walk this path.”
There is no shame in modelling your career or studies against somebody that you look up to or admire. If anything I encourage it. During my studies I identified several people who I aspired to be like and tried to model my journey on. I’ve since been able to help shape my journey and successfully drifted away to follow my path. Which leads us to our next quote.
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I agree with that as well. But in order to venture off the path you actually have to find a path to venture from first.
So use all the tools available to research people who are in a similar position to where you want to be and ask them how they got there.
So how can I get in contact with someone?
Well I use a combination of Twitter and LinkedIn. Last year I found someone who has achieved some pretty great things in their career to date and was in a position that I’d like to be in at the same stage of my career. So we exchanged a few emails and got talking about how we have both got to our current destination.
So don’t feel ashamed or afraid to reach out to somebody you look up to and ask for a helping hand. Because once you start your motor you’ll find it a lot easier to not only keep the car running but also have the confidence to turn down that new path when the time is right.
Bonus: If you check in on the blog next week you’ll see an interview between this mystery man and me to talk about how he made his dream move from Sydney to New York and made the switch from corporate HR to consulting.
“But they don’t know where and they don’t know when
It’s coming, oh when?
Is it coming Keep the car running
Keep the car running
Keep the car running”
So make sure you keep your career car running as you never know when you’ll need to be ready to make that next turn down your new path!
Damon Klotz 
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