When I interviewed 1,000 people for What Should I Do With My Life?, it was plainly apparent that so many of our smartest college students from our best schools are actually very risk averse. Coming out of college, they took jobs where the “track to success” was spelled out and clear. Wall Street, law school, corporate America - there was no imagination or creativity in these choices. And nothing daring about it. Ten years later, many of them were unhappy and unfulfilled. But quitting - even though they had lots of money in the bank - was absolutely terrifying to them. The loss of status scared them; the idea of jumping off a track and freestyling their career was frightening. They didn’t want to look not smart. They were afraid of taking a job that didn’t broadcast to the world how smart they must be to have that job.

Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman’s blog has some great posts about self esteem (start with that one, then look more recent) and the insane science and practice around promoting it.

I’m also shocked with the risk aversion among my peers, but it gets worse than Po sees. So many people graduate college and skip the job search because they fear getting rejected, or don’t apply to graduate school because they think they need more experience. The worst thing that happens - they say no and you try again in a few years. What I worry about the most, though, is the tendency for people not to pursue a career because they might not like it, so instead they languish in jobs they already know they don’t like. The best way to find out if you like a job? Try it! It’s OK to quit and try something else, but they are so afraid of success, or of leaving, they don’t even give real employment a chance.

Categories: Careers, Education, Graduate School, Matching Mechanisms