Brett Mooney is the president and chief executive officer of American Express Canada.
Starting out in your career can be daunting.
Where do you begin? What qualifications will you need? Where should you work? Who should you work with? What do you want to accomplish? What does success look like to you?
Feeling overwhelmed by these questions can make it difficult to start down a career path that will lead you where you want to be in five, 10 and even 30 years from now.
I’ve been there and it wasn’t easy; however, I learned a few things along the way that helped me to reach the position I’m in today.
Success is subjective and everyone gets to decide what it looks like for them, but here are my top tips for building a fulfilling career that you can enjoy and be proud of.
Identify where your passions and talents intersect
You know the saying, “find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
There’s some merit to it. To remain engaged and motivated throughout the entirety of your career, you must be passionate about the work you’re doing.
But there’s more to it than that. I’ll use a personal example to demonstrate that passion alone is not enough. I’m passionate about home improvement, but I’m not particularly adept at it. So much so that my wife jokes that I take equity out of our home every time I pick up a hammer. And she’s right.
The point is that in addition to having an interest in a particular line of work, you must also have some talent or develop talent in that field for you to be able to excel and build a career out of it.
Seek experiences and leaders, not titles
There’s something incredibly tempting about snatching up a role with a new, impressive title. It can feel good to receive recognition from family and friends and it might feel rewarding to update your LinkedIn profile.
But be careful and make sure you assess roles holistically, looking deeper than surface level titles and taking a close look at the leaders who will guide you. It’s the collection of experiences you have throughout your career that train you for the next challenge. Without the right training it will be hard to be successful as you take on more complex assignments and positions.
Make working with the right leader a priority – it is the fastest path to development on your career journey. Each and every day, your leader can be a catalyst to an accelerated growth trajectory, through the amount of time and energy they invest in you. The outcome of their investment is meaningful work and ongoing coaching which enables you to gain more experience and reach your destination sooner.
If you focus on acquiring experiences that develop “durable skills” – those that will stand the test of time, such as product management, analytics or technology – while also “training with the best” leaders, you will create the right foundation for long-term career growth.
Be intentional with your time
This might seem obvious, but it’s easy to get distracted. Time is our most precious and scarce asset, so it’s important to invest it where it will be most impactful.
Evaluate how you’re spending your time throughout the year, each month, any given day and even each hour to see whether you’re allocating enough time to high-leverage activities, such as deep critical thinking and problem solving, that can deliver an outsized impact at your organization.
It’s easy to go to work every day and do what’s asked of you, but to get ahead and to develop in your career, you must think beyond your day-to-day tasks and take the initiative to find new ways to drive results for your organization. Don’t forget to spend time focused on the team around you as the best leaders make their organizations better by lifting others and actively contributing to extraordinary work cultures, in addition to delivering on their other accountabilities.
There’s no substitute for hard work
This should come as no surprise, but you must work hard if you want to progress in your career and achieve your goals. There’s no getting around that.
I won’t sugarcoat it. You’re going to need some grit, resilience and adaptability to be successful, but it is possible with the right mindset. And if you follow the advice above, working hard will come naturally because you’ll be passionate about your work, you’ll always surround yourself with incredible leaders and you’ll be a master at how to manage your time.
Anything worth doing is never easy, and I would wager, it’s not always straightforward. Like many things in life, you will encounter variables on your career path you simply cannot control. But if you create the right foundation by following your passion, seeking the right experiences and leaders, being intentional with your time and working hard, you can build a career that you’ll be proud of at the end of the day.
This column is part of Globe Careers’ Leadership Lab series, where executives and experts share their views and advice about the world of work. Find all Leadership Lab stories at tgam.ca/leadershiplab and guidelines for how to contribute to the column here.