Hello, and welcome back to the awfully quiet podcast. I'm really excited for you to tune in today. I have a feeling it's going to be one of those spicy episodes I sometimes do when I feel really strongly about something. And these past couple of weeks, I had a lot going on in my career, in my personal career, outside of my business, outside of the podcast.

And Time and time again, I came across career advice specifically from older generations. I would call them, you know, Gen X generation, that just kind of rubbed me the wrong way. And don't get me wrong. Not every piece of advice from the Gen X generation is bad. And I'll get to that. There is certainly.

Helpful pieces of advice, but I struggled recently with advice that I've been given that just didn't feel applicable to me, to my personality, to my, to where I am in my career and time and time again, I felt like it wasn't only not applicable to me, but it's also not applicable to other people like me.

Other introverts, other people who may be. Awfully quiet. So this is something I wanted to bring to you because I know you are very, very similar. You are introverted. You are likely ambitious. You want to grow your career. You want to pursue your career aspirations. And I'm pretty sure that you're getting career advice from all the generations to that just doesn't feel like.

It sets you up for success. It just doesn't feel like you can, it's relevant to you. You can use it. It's helpful. More often than not, it feels like this type of advice is constricting. It feels like somebody shuts the door in front of you. It's like, you know, nope, can't go in here because of X, Y, and Z. And you're often, you know, often left feeling like, you know, there, there's no going through that door and.

You may not know what else to do because. Quite frankly, gen X feel like they have all the wisdom. They know it all. They're often, you know, when, when it comes to our corporate careers, they're often in it for much longer than you are, and it feels like everything they say is gold. So what I wanna offer you today is' an honest conversation about some of the career advice I have been hearing.

I have been getting not only these past couple of weeks, but years and years back in my career. And what I tend to do is I challenge it. I go against it. Whenever I feel like, you know, career advice doesn't work for me. I find another way to prove them wrong, to make it happen. And I'm super, super aware that.

That may not be everyone's reaction to receiving career advice that doesn't work for them. So I want to offer you my perspective. I want to offer you what I do in these types of situations. I also want to give you peace of mind to see that even though I've made it to a great place in my career, I still receive advice that is not helpful.

So it happens to us all. And it's down to us of what we make of it. It's really down to us to how we react to it, how we perceive it, and what's our next action. So let's start there. Today I have three pieces of career advice. That moving forward, I want you to challenge, scrutinize, think twice before you take it on blindly.

We're going to be covering these three pieces of career advice because they come up time and time again for me and I'm sure they have for you in one way or another. And then at the end. We're going to get into one piece of career advice from Gen X that I actually find helpful, that I actually find relevant because at the end of the day, this may be a little bit of a bashing of Gen X today, and I'm apologize if this applies to you and if you have given this career advice in the past, but I think that.

It'll be even more relevant to hear this from me today because I want you to be uber uber conscious of what you tell other people, the advice you give other people. I always say that whenever I give career advice, I always say, take what is relevant for you. Take what resonates. And leave the rest because I feel career advice has to be tailored.

It has to be, tailored to each person's personality, to each person's point in their career. It's not universal. Career advice is not universal. So we need to be really, really conscious of the career advice we give. And the career advice we take on. So wait all the way to the end to hear what we can actually really learn from Gen X.

What is super, super helpful. I have brilliant Gen X leaders around me in my corporate career. I truly cherish their opinion. I cherish their advice, and I want you to find the nuances of the advice. that you should be taking on and the advice that you should probably let go. So let's start with the three pieces of career advice that I want you to challenge.

I want you to think differently about. Career advice number one that you might, may or may not have heard already is, Oh, you're still so young. You're not ready yet. You still have time. You still have a lot more time to build your experiences. You're not ready. You're young. And this is actually something that I recently heard.

Oh, don't worry about it. You're still young. Like, I'm 32. Yes, to somebody from the gen X generation that might still be young from where I'm standing today. I feel like there are younger people who have achieved more in their career to date that may be a good thing that may be a bad thing. I really don't.

I really want that to stay neutral for now. But my perception of my age. Is mine, like, I'm not going to have anyone else tell me, oh, you're still young or you're too young to do a certain kind of thing when I see other people who are the same age or who are younger do far more than that. So I feel like this perception of age is something that we'll often perceive from Gen X and it's really not helpful because it's completely subjective.

And the problem with. That is when Gen X say, Oh, you're still young. You have time. They are holding you to the same standards. They were held to in the past. I believe that they had to be extremely resilient to move up the ranks, to get promoted, to lend their first leadership positions. And it took them a lot of time and they will have been told, Oh, you're not ready.

You're still young. Wait for it. And you will have often seen that Gen X moved up the ladder with time, with experience. So what happens today is that they will hold you to those same standards. It took them a lot of time to get where they are today. So they want you to take that same time. And I think that they may even Feel challenged.

They may even feel threatened by some of the younger generations and things happening faster to them. It's that same sort of sentiment is when you're the older sibling and you feel that your younger siblings are getting things earlier, faster, and it feels unfair. But that is how life is right? It is not supposed to be fair.

Career progression changes, corporate dynamics change, the world changes around us. So it's only fair that that changes too. And so I often find that today we have a lot younger people in leadership positions and we see many young people thrive in leadership positions. And so The truth behind this career advice is that it's absolute BS.

It's absolute bullshit. You don't need to be 40 plus to be a great leader. Yes. With experience, you become better and better at what you do. And that is the same principle applies to leadership. You become better, but you don't have to be 40 plus to be a great leader in the first place. And I would even say that the younger or the sooner you have this experience, The better you can be once you are 40 plus.

The second thing is you don't need to have children yet. You don't need to have a family yet. You don't need to be married yet to be a leader. I think that's often the misconception in terms of like, oh, the further you are in your personal life. The more inclined you are to have a leadership position.

And I think, I feel like that is something that Gen X will often look at. Oh, you are still young, you are still not married, you still don't have kids. You still have a lot of time in your career. But that's also not applicable to today's day and age anymore. Because we're older now. , we will have done our bachelor's degrees, we'll have done our master's degrees.

We'll have worked a couple years. We're not those young. Families are at the age of 25 are already married and have children and are ready for their leadership position. And while I believe that those personal experience do have an effect on your ability to. Lead yourself and lead others. I certainly believe that if you're a mom or a dad, or if you are married, if you, if you, if you have a family, I believe that those experiences also help make you great leaders, also help progress you from a professional perspective.

It's not a prerequisite. It's not a requirement for you to go ahead and do what you really want to do in corporate or in your career. You also don't need to have years and years of experience in a field to get to a higher position or to get to that position that you want to do next. More often than not, it's potential over experience.

It's personality over experience. It comes down to your fit to the team. It comes down to the potential that you bring to the table rather than the experience that you have. And more often than not, more time passing. Is not actually something that you need in order to thrive in order to be ready for a certain position, you don't need time passing.

You need to be out there and you need to hone your skills. You need to go get what you want, because otherwise you're just going to be unhappy where you are. And that. Is not helpful to anyone. So let's wrap up that first big theme of like, you're still young. You're not ready. You still have time, your time.

It's down to your own perception of time. If you feel like now is the right time. If you feel like now I want to go for that position that I have in mind. Now I want to go for the promotion. Now I want to go for my first leadership experience. Do not behold back. By anyone telling you, Oh, you're still have time.

It's your perception of time. And if the time is now you go out and get it. The second piece of career advice that you will often hear from Gen X is you need to do X before you can do Y. And they will often hold you to follow certain career paths that are set in stone. Now, when I first started in marketing, Everyone said you must have a field sales experience in order to become like a junior marketing manager, a junior brand manager, you will have need to start in sales and you will have had to have this sales representative experience.

And this may be very specific to my industry and the corporate environment that I'm in. I'm in the CPG consumer goods business. And, that's a very. Common career path that you will be advised to take when you want to start out in marketing is like get your, get your hands dirty in sales. Get this foundational experience of being in sales, being out in the field, learning, you know, these kind of things from the ground up in order to then become a better marketer.

And I'm not challenging the fact. That a field sales experience lends itself to becoming a great marketer further down the line. But again, there are people who can get completely burned out by this experience if they are anything like me, you know, being introverted, needing a lot of your own time.

Having a completely different set of skills, sales may not be part of the equation or an entry level sales position may not be part of something that helps you thrive. It may do the opposite to you. I'm pretty sure it would have done the opposite to me.I had the same experience as I moved up. The rank, so to speak, when I first, moved into a regional marketing position, everybody said that I will have need to have needed to have a local brand manager role before going for a regional role, you know, being responsible for more than just one market.

And then, you know, When I became interested in a particular brand manager role regionally, the thing that I kept being told was that I would have needed to have an experience on a smaller brand first, before I could go for the brand that I actually had in mind now, mind you. That's the brand I currently work for.

I did none of those things. I didn't have a local brand manager role before I went to a regional brand manager role. I did not have a small regional brand manager role before then went on to be a brand manager regionally for the big iconic brand that I wanted to work for. I had none of this, but. That's only because I would challenge those career paths and it's only because I would still go for those positions.

I would not be held back by any of this advice that I would have often gotten from Gen X. And particularly the role I have today, I had this one experience that I've told you before about where I had a more senior leader. I'm pretty sure Gen X leader tell me that I wasn't ready for the role.

So back to number one, you're not ready. You will have needed to have a, you know, another brand manager experience before you can go be a brand manager for this brand, because it's so much bigger. And, you know, luckily. I didn't really believe that person. I felt like they, shut that door in front of me.

I felt like, you know, they just kind of showed me, no, here is the limit. You can't go for this. Then I went for it anyway. I got the job and I'm thriving in this role. Now, just imagine I would have gone for another smaller brand instead in order to then go on to being, the brand manager for the brand I really wanted.

I would have been terribly unhappy in that role because deep down, I would have known that I can do more. I can do better. I can do the bigger brand job. But. I first needed to prove people that I could. And so what I want you to do is I want you to challenge career path. I think career paths are really a thing of the past.

I do not even want you to think of your career as a certain path where you take one step after the other. We're going to get to that later when we touch on what's actually helpful. In some of that career advice, but for now, , my top advice is challenge career path whenever you can. Life is too short to follow a certain path in your career.

And they are often laid out by, you know, by Gen X who have followed the same path, who now challenge you to follow the same path. And they are a path of the past, if I may say so. So these paths are often done, you know, They are set in stone for like years and years and years. They certainly do not put into, take into consideration any of the jobs that are only going to be formed right now.

Any of the newer fields, any of the newer functions that are now, you know, popping up left and right. If I go back to my marketing experience, you know, you will have had a sales experience, you will have had a local brand manager experience, and you go on to regional, then you go on from a smaller brand to a bigger brand.

Now, what about, digital marketing? What about e commerce? What about AI? What about all of those newer functions that those marketers will know nothing about with this career path? So don't do it. Whenever you get advice like that, whenever somebody shuts that door in front of you, find somebody else who is willing to open that door for you.

I did and I am so grateful that I did. Now onto career advice number three that I often find very, very unhelpful. And it often comes from Gen X advice. And I keep getting this time and time again, all throughout my career. And it is, you need more visibility. You need to be out there. You need to be more visible in front of senior leadership.

You need to be seen. People need to know about you in order for you to thrive and be promoted and have a great career. Now. The intention behind this piece of advice is correct. You need to be seen. But the ways and tools to get there that you are often advised to utilize are problematic. Now, visibility is absolutely needed.

But what Gen X will often tell you to do is to present in front of large audiences, present at company town halls, speak up more in meetings, grab coffee with a senior leader, that's their idea of how you get more visible, but those tools, those actions are often so far out of your comfort zone that you'll end up tanking them.

You will not end up more successful because you pushed yourself in front of a huge audience because you spoke at a town hall or because you grabbed leader a coffee with a senior leader. What I often find is happening when you do go out of your comfort zone to an extent where you feel just overwhelmed is you freeze in front of those large audiences.

You're not going to be doing a great job and accompany town hall when you're not used to speaking in front of this audience. You will not be yourself in front of senior leadership. And you definitely won't leave a good expression if you only do it for the benefit of advancing your own career. I've been there.

I've done that. It doesn't come across naturally. If you speak up in a meeting just to say something, it will very certainly not land. If you speak up and you're, you know, just make yourself louder, it will not land. It simply doesn't work. Because all those things do the opposite of what you truly want.

They do not put you in the best light. And they will definitely keep you from doing this ever again. Now you go out, present in front of a town hall, you absolutely tank it. You will not do it again. You go out, meet a senior leader, and it just this kind of awkward situation. And you both walk away feeling like, Oh, that was kind of hard.

You'll certainly not do it again. And you will very likely just hinder your, career progression than fuel it. There is a smarter way to go about visibility. And I have had, I have heard no Gen X ever heard of it. Reference them. And that's why you're listening to this podcast is because there are more subtle ways.

There are ways that are more conducive to introverted personalities. And what I want you to do instead is I want you to start small. I want you to present something, you know, really, really well. In front of a small group of people who truly care, forget about the large audiences, find a group that is a lot smaller, make them truly care, make it interactive, answer their questions, add value, start by engaging smaller groups to your topic that are already prone to, be interested in that.

Now, have coffee with someone who can do nothing for your career. Start there. Practice interacting and talking about career stuff before you move up to senior leadership. Have those conversations. Get into the habit of having coffee with someone, connecting, finding that, balance of, you know, Whatever.

Science You know, going out, meeting a stranger, but it not being somebody who influences your career to a certain extent, just build that muscle over time. And then in meetings. Say something only if you really have something to say. I feel like that is the most introvert friendly advice ever given. You can ask good questions.

You can always follow up via email. You can interact in the chat or you can offer to present something at the next meeting. Again, if you have something to share, you can offer it up. add value to a smaller circle before you move up. This is how you slowly build that muscle and climb the ladder to more confidence, feeling more confident and visibility.

That is actually going to make a difference for your career. It's on a much smaller scale, it's a much safer environment for you, but it hones that muscle over time instead of stretching you too far out of your comfort zone to a point where you overextend and overwhelm yourself. All right, so , let's recap what we've just covered in terms of the three pieces of career advice that you will often receive from Gen X and the ones I want you to challenge number one is you're too young and inexperienced number two is you need to do X before you can do Y. And number three is you need more visibility.

I want you to really scrutinize and challenge them when you hear them, when you feel that door shut in front of you, I want you to find five other doors that will open and other opportunities for you. To stand out to become more visible in a safe environment to go for positions that you're really, really interested in and to not be held back by somebody telling, you know, that I am very certain that there will be other senior leaders who are willing to.

To take a chance on you who are willing to take a leap of faith and who will support you. You just need to find them. Now that we've covered these three pieces of career advice that I want you to challenge that I find hugely problematic and they often come from Gen X. I do want to honor some of the great career advice that this generation holds for us.

And there is actually one great piece of career advice that is hard to hear at first, but I think it's brilliant. And I think that we should definitely take that one to heart. And that's the one about breath and patience. You will often hear Gen X talk about patience, about breath and the power of a side move.

It's often not what you want to hear, but need to. When it comes to career growth, I think we're often focused on making it as far as possible in the first five to 10 years into our careers. But we tend to forget that That our career is much, much longer. It's very likely 40 plus years. And if you are at the top of that mountain too early, if you go, you know, five to 10 years into your career, you climb up, up, up, up, up.

If you're up that mountain too early, you will have also limited yourself to that exact field, to that career path, to that function that you went up in to that exact job and the pivot. At the top of the mountain is often a lot harder than lower down the mountain. That's why they often say you need to build that breath early on in your career.

You need to build a variety of skills that then lend themselves later on in your career to potentially pivot to potentially climb, you know, up another part of the mountain or an entirely different one. So don't just thrive for up, up, up. Go where your interest lies. Do not shy away from a sidestep, a lateral move, if you feel there is something there that sparks your interest.

I often think and say that the best careers are the ones that are not a straight line. I want you to think of your career not as a collection of jobs, not one job after another that pays the bills. I want you to accumulate experiences, skills. Don't build a career, build an asset. become super valuable.

Think outside the box. Think differently. Challenge the status quo and certainly challenge career path. You want to go where your interest lies. Now, if that is something that is a little out of the box or that is not normal, you know, from your position to somewhere else, more often than not, that's the right decision to take.

You want to be very attuned to who you are. Where you're headed, what interests you, and if there is something, an opportunity that pops up and it's slightly out of the ordinary, I want you to at least think about it, at least consider it because very often those are the kind of detours or those are the kind of experiences that may not look good on LinkedIn.

They may not look good to everyone else, but they are the smart move. They build that breath, they build that collection of skills that you will have and cherish later on in your career, because then you will have created so many more opportunities for yourself. So many more chances to grow, to go somewhere else, to pivot, to climb an entirely different mountain.

Please remember that your career is not 5 to 10 years, your career is a lot longer, so invest in yourself early and often, and just kind of, just kind of go where your interest lies. I often, it might sound a bit fluffy as far as career advice goes, but that's something that certainly always helped me. I find that, that advice from Gen X super, super helpful.

And why is that? Because this is not something that Gen X say to you because they are passing down something that they have been told. They do not pass it down because they had to experience it themselves, you know, such as the, you know, waiting or having patients or. this kind of sentiment of, Oh, you're too young.

You still need to wait in order to get to that certain level. It's not something that has been passed down to them, but it's something that they are now painfully experiencing themselves. They will have followed a certain career path that has a ceiling. Being too high up to make a pivot, stepping down, they will be on top of that mountain now, and they will painfully experience.

That they have constricted themselves, but now it's really difficult for them to do anything else other than what they have done, in the past couple of years, they will have to narrow a skill set now to do anything else. So, if they tell you, be patient, build breath, collect experiences, they are telling you that from a perspective of something that they have done wrong, something that they would probably do different.

If they were to do it all over again. And so that makes it valuable career advice that you should definitely take on. Now, if you're a millennial like me, and if you are introverted like me, you may find the best advice, not looking to what older generations say and do, but looking at younger generations, Gen Z.

Because they got one big advantage. They are really attuned to their personalities, to their needs. They accept their introverted natures. They do not go out pretending to be extroverts, which I'm sure you and me, we will have both trying to do. They simply don't do what doesn't feel aligned to them. Are they struggling as a result of that?

Some of them do, but I believe only in the short term. I believe in the longterm, they are really onto something and corporate environments change, the workplace changes, they are onto something in being really attuned to what they need, who they are, and do you know, taking on career advice that feels aligned to them, that feels like it supports their natural abilities.

It supports what comes in aid to them. So, I believe Gen Z are definitely on to something. If you look to, to other generations in terms of what do they do better, what is something that you can take on and apply to your own career, I want you to look at Gen Z more so than you look. At Gen X and again, take what is helpful for you, leave what is not.

But for this podcast, moving on forward, I certainly want to bring more of those fresher, newer perspectives. I want to get more perspectives from Gen Z. I want to get more perspectives that challenge the status quo. And I'm going to start with a guest. That I am really, really excited to introduce to you next week.

We're going to be talking all about leadership. And this is a person who went into a leadership position very, very early. in her career. And so that's exactly the kind of career advice I want to bring to you. That's exactly the kind of conversation I want you to be exposed to. So I can't really wait for this conversation to air.

And yeah, with that, I hope that you could take a little something away from today's conversation. Again, it was a bit of a spicy one because You know, I know that not all Gen X are out to get you and that some of what these generations say is actually really, really helpful, but I want you to be Uber, Uber conscious of career advice and that it's not always helpful for you.

I want you to discern between what fits you and your personality and what doesn't. And with that, I'll leave you to it and I'll see you next time.