Welcome back to another episode of the corporate Cowboys podcast my name is Alex as always your host today’s episode well we need a proof of life first it’s Thursday March 2nd 2023. and if you don’t know if you’re listening to the podcast for the first time the corporate Cowboys podcast
Is focused on helping you assisting you develop yourself professionally first in order to attain the status the state of being a consummate professional now this is a cathartic mechanism for myself I mean it’s my own form of therapy being able to think through difficult questions regarding corporate Maneuvers and
And uh strategies plans plots to undertake in order to better one’s self professionally right so it always depends on the context we’ve had different we’ve had professionals at different levels in their career approaching us with questions in the past and for the most part they’ve they would much rather these questions
And answers remain private right so if you want your own personal session our rates are more than reasonable and if you don’t have a trusted circle of Associates or friends right friends that are actually out to help benefit you and help contribute to your ultimate Improvement then you
Can hit us up we will be that Circle for you right it’s what we do in our day-to-day when we’re not getting our own hands dirty we’re helping others clean up you know if you clean up nicely you move up in proportion so today’s question is coming from r slash career guidance
And the question is how to find how to find a career if you have no passion or interests for anything and now you see why this might be a delicate a sensitive topic for some where it’s it’s much easier to just get these questions off of Reddit right because
Some of uh these hypothetical clients are willing to put themselves out there the clients that we service they might be higher level they might be working at a popular firm or a notorious entity and don’t want to be exposed to any degree right so whatever
Goes on between us is kept between us if you find yourself in a position where you need help or you know an associate that does have them reach out to us do that on Instagram you can DM us we can set something up on a private encrypted chat
Where our handle is at corporate Cowboys the Z at the end as always and on patreon there are multiple tiers there some of them which offer a question and answer feature so what’s more personalizable if you will where uh on Rumble on YouTube and wherever podcasts are distributed
You have a couple of donation links floating around so if you want to pitch us a dollar or a mill to keep this operation non-profit right that’ll go towards business expenses legal fees as always I say office supplies stationary stamps and ammunition so the question begins with or the body
To this question begins with please bear with me and we will we will I mean that’s what we do we’re patients we’re actually interested in hearing about what you have to say I mean if you go to the internet and expose your vulnerability as far as Career Development I mean the least you
Could expect is someone to take it seriously and give you positive comment a positive constructive criticism that you could or could not follow right what we’re about to contribute now you want to take with a grain of salt right because you’re not live we this isn’t an in-person interview
So this hypothetical client if they are listening shouldn’t construe any of this to be legal advice right that’s our disclaimer to anybody listening to the podcast don’t get us in trouble for what you heard us say if we haven’t engaged you personally and we’re not liable to you we don’t owe you
Anything then you have no rights to this opinion it’s not even well informed so that disclaimer is up front they say please bear with me right I am 29 years old not much younger than I am right I live in New York I graduated college with a bachelor in
Computer science and to this day nothing excites me I still can’t find a field that I want to work in I currently work as a mechanic and I really do not enjoy the work I’m not even good at it well more than likely if it doesn’t excite them I mean then they’re not
Going to take an interest in doing a good job if nothing excites them you see I’m going to begin I’m just going to begin tearing them up this uh post is rather long the body on this is rather long so typically what I’ll do is I’ll read one or two sentences maybe a
Paragraph and then provide some some side commentary right before I give whatever level of informed opinion I can muster right but again what you hear from us you can take notes on whether it’s on paper or in your mind but if it’s criticisms and you find yourself in the same
Position if the shoe fits lace that [ __ ] up and change your ways you want to strive to be a consummate professional you want to develop yourself professionally and find ways to do that and I can help we can help by providing a blueprint by providing by overlaying a schematic of sorts
Of questions you can ask yourself questions you can ask your Associates your manager questions you can ask of the organization you are working with or work for right ultimately our goal is to create corporate Cowboys that feel empowered that know how to negotiate their worth and elevate
Elevate their status to that of a corporation where they can negotiate on an even playing field again you don’t have to work for corporate you can work with it and get paid proportionately it says every day after work continuing here every day after work I force myself
To learn programming I do it because I want a career I want a job I want to make just enough money to live a life I forced myself to learn HTML CSS Js and they seemed easy enough however every time I surfed the internet all I
See is that everything I learned is not even close to being enough and that you need to learn a ton more things such as GitHub slash Java slash react.js slash node.js slash angular slash MySQL in order to even land an entry-level job this is extremely overwhelming and makes me think that if
It’s painful that painful to learn it all then programming is also not a career that I should pursue and they put a question mark on that which is why I did that last inflection upward inflection on it it’s not something I should pursue right so they listed off a bunch of [ __ ]
That they should continue learning right because they’ve they haven’t even scrape the surface of computer programming and yet they’ve already gotten discouraged demotivated on continuing down this path because of everything else that comes with the territory right but you heard them or you heard them you
Heard me read that they want a career they want a job and they had enough initiative to start teaching themselves now this isn’t something that interests them right this isn’t something this isn’t something that excites them so obviously they’re not digging deeper they saw something surface level and
It’s not netting them a hundred thousand dollars a year just off rip so now they’ve become discouraged this is a 29 year old and they may be living in in in a delusional state of instant gratification where because they believe they just learned something never actually having applied it not
Having any experience that not laying any groundwork for a career they deserve it they don’t have any certification anything any accreditation right no licenses no nothing nothing special going on about them and they’re worried about having to learn everything else that comes with this computer science career they’re aiming for
And they think it’s painful to continue learning I mean if it’s not something they’re passionate about I think the fact that they want their career wants a job something that will provide for them a life they can live that ought to be incentive enough that ought to be a motive enough
Because typically folks that aren’t excited by the work and me I’m I’m one of those that is excited by work I where I work for the Love of the Game right I always say it’s not so much the destination but but the trip but the chase the hunt
That to me is what gets my rocks off for the most part and this person has their eyes on the destination but they’ve just barely set their sights on it and already believe they should be there it’s literally eating with your eyes where your eyes are bigger than your
Stomach and this person cannot stomach the fact that they need more they need more training they need more skill they need to hone what they learn and they they need to stay abreast of the novelties of newer systems the newer programming languages better required I mean personally at this point if they
Want something where I think if they are Angling for uh a position where they don’t have to put in the type of the type of hours the type of Manpower required to learn all of these languages because you don’t necessarily need to know them all I mean there may be a a
Chosen Few a handful that know all of these languages that are on the bleeding edge of programming but this person this person doesn’t sound like that at all so either they’re going to stay at the bottom doing jobs off of upwork or Fiverr and they gig the gig economy
Or or they apply themselves if they don’t want to learn the languages and still want a career in computer science become a project manager a project coordinator where you don’t so much need to know the languages but just just enough jargon right now I’m putting you barely Over the Bar the
Bare minimum you need to know just enough jargon to be able to talk shop right you need to talk the talk and walk the walk so you were able to manage a team that produces deliverables that produces final products programmed works programmed deliverables continuing it says as a hobby for the
Past four years I monitor the stock market I learned quite a lot about stock slash options trading probably have over a thousand hours invested in it however all I do is lose money so I’m confident that this is not my call I was just a victim of quote get rich quick trap
And they put here in parentheses I still am a victim since I can’t stop sounds like you’re an addict bro sounds like you’re addicted to losing on the stock market maybe you get a rush from placing that that that that option right like that’s the rush you get and then
You wait for it to to finalize and you [ __ ] lose money on it you get depressed so what do you do you buy some more stocks the rest you get from buying you hope pays off by holding and the longer you hold the deeper it Dives in you lose money right
I [ __ ] around with the stock market for a little bit but I mean nothing panned out I just about broke even so I called it then and there I was like this this this level of buying and selling What’s called the retail Market not my cup of tea because you have
Little to no influence you can only ride the wave or ride headlines and then speculate on what the wave will look like but like our hypothetical client here if they monitor the stock market and learn quite a lot about how to track trends then you’re at the mercy you’re at the mercy
Of those that have actual and direct influence that impacts the prices of stocks continuing it says on the other side on the side sorry on the side I also surfed the internet for apprenticeships I’m constantly applying for Union apprenticeships And Trades such as electric slash Plumbing HVAC stationary engineering stationary
Engineering never heard of that maybe I’ll look it up stationary engineering but what I found out is that it’s extremely hard to get in unless you have connections within the Union and in parentheses they add they’ve been trying for two years now two years right so what we’ve got ourselves is
The undecisive client right the undecisive clients they’re a mechanic now and they don’t want to invest any of this time that they have bullshitting with the stock market or bullshitting with apprenticeships which a mechanic necessarily you could move up and make as much money as a journeyman right let’s say you were
An apprentice in a mechanic shop but you don’t want to invest the time and with those fields with those trades you’ll need to buy tools in some cases you’ll need to pay for your own training right you’ll be investing time money energy effort also and if it’s not something that excites you
You’re gonna be bitching and whining within six months how long have you been a mechanic for it says hold on hold on I currently work as a mechanic and I really do not enjoy the work I am not even good at it okay so they don’t even
Tell us what their background is they don’t tell us they’re educational or experiential background what other experience they have but give it six months in any one of these other jobs and you’ll they will be just as miserable hypothetical client this is one of those individuals one of
Those persons what they require is more discipline than passion the discipline to do better work now I’m not judging the way they were raised I know nothing about what sort of structure they might have been given when they were younger but this is one of those instances where it behooves the client
To be a better mechanic for the simple reason that you make more money the better mechanic you are right that’s what they want they want to make money they want to move up provide for a life they can live and if they want to improve themselves in the position they are in currently
And will hold themselves out as being a shitty mechanic what prospects do they have that if they jump into the computer science Industry that they’re going to be a shitty programmer and they don’t want to improve themselves how much time and effort how much time
And energy do you think they put into a an internet search on what it takes to work on not just one type of car but all the types of car domestics Imports European Americans Japanese Asian what makes you think that they investigated any of that
So that they also made a list and could demotivate themselves even further oh but I learned I did some research on the further I looked the more I learned that you need to know how to work OBD2 Sensors how to read codes how to
[ __ ] and I only know how to work on this one particular type of car there’s European systems Asian systems that work on need special tools right it’s never ending it’s never ending with people who who haven’t tasted who haven’t felt professionalism who haven’t recognize the benefits of professionalism you want to be better
In any area that you’re working regardless of who you work for because ultimately you will end up working with them it’s imperative continuing here they say please don’t tell me please don’t tell me what I need to do is quote really think about what excites me or what my quote interests are or
Anything similar I’ve been asking those questions for the past five years well I mean I didn’t I didn’t give any of those opinions did I to have them think think deeper what are you really passionate about what really interests you no no no I said be professional [ __ ] face
Be better at what you do now before you jump into something else and [ __ ] that up too what you need is discipline right I mean it in the least offensive way possible you walk into our office you sit at our table and you ask us this question you should expect a little banter
Right if you have a drink in your hand a joint I don’t know what you do to unwind maybe you’re listening to us while you work while you drive this is the type of conversations I wish that I had when I was 18. [ __ ] when I was younger when I was 16.
I mean by 18 I was already I was already running amok in the streets nothing to be proud of wasn’t until I hit 20 20 maybe 20. yeah I’d say about 20 when I started straightening up putting my ideas down on paper and then formalizing them to something tangible something that actionable
They say please don’t tell me any of this I have been working I have been asking I have been asking those questions for the past five years they give me anxiety attacks now oh oh dear watch out because I simply don’t know what I would enjoy to do for eight hours
A day fam some folks don’t enjoy work it’s a labor it’s laborious whether it’s physical or whether it’s mental it’s labor right some folks want to be good at what they do so they make enough money so they can live a life they can live where they have hobbies where they have actual
Interests they can indulge in it’s not it’s sometimes most times for some for most it’s not something you do while you work you’re at work to get work done and you do so because you’re a professional at least aspiring to be the content that professional now maybe maybe if you changed your mindset
Maybe if you pivoted and sought to be a better professional really internalize the meaning of being a consummate professional who takes what they do seriously it takes Pride in the work that they do you might find it interesting you might find it interesting the steps you take
To improve your skill the steps you take to improve your image the moves you make to improve your reputation and then you take a step back and you realize you’ve developed a network I mean that to me is interesting I’m passionate about that and from there you’ve got yourself
A network of support both professional and sometimes social if you choose to go off and and play right you don’t have to work 24 7. nine to five eight to five I guess nine to six sometimes but a lot of professionals and clients that we’ve met work during the day
So they can devote their off time to doing things that they like they say I’m continuing here because I simply don’t know what I would enjoy to do for eight hours a day that’s I mean that’s [ __ ] sad on your part but you’re 29 years old I would say you need discipline
Somebody needs to whip your ass into shape but sometimes sometimes old dogs can learn new tricks but I’m not saying I’m not saying it’s too late for you I’m just saying if nothing inspires you nothing inspires you nothing excites you nothing interests you and you haven’t realized or recognized the necessity
Of being a professional the necessity of just improving yourself via your professional development it’s going to be one tough uphill climb for you my friend it says the only conclusion that I came to is that I want a job that pays enough to cover the bills
Technical and has to do with it being at one place stationary so they want to do something technical they want to do something stationary to me it sounds like they don’t want to do any manual labor they think they can skirt they can they can they can skirt the
Manual labor part or having to commute anywhere right I mean it’s not a pretty image they’re painting they’re painting something sedentary something slothly something lethargic where you just they’re gonna be uh like like a just lazing this this lazing lounging they continue I wish I could just go
From one job to another and try different things I mean that’s essentially what you’re doing is it not are you applying to other places are you interviewing again these are questions we’re going to be asking the hypothetical clients if we had them in an interview what other places have they applied to
What other places have they interviewed with you don’t necessarily have to work with the place to know what it is they do you could interview them I’ve done that before interview them ask them to donate a little bit of their time what it would take to interview you 20 minutes an hour
And then based off information you get from them you’re back on the internet researching what it takes to learn and do what they do what they pay their top Executives for I get the feeling though I you know I I get the uh the nagging feeling
That there’s gonna be a lot of technical work a list of it em after item of [ __ ] they have to learn whether on the job or something they could learn off the job again again that is going to demotivate them right it’s not until they get beat down by life it’s not until
They choose to reach out and actually pay for this advice and to some extent they need to hit rock bottom of their professional developments they have to be as if without options to really want to reach out and hear some some Stark realities some sobering truths is that not
All Fields not all walks of life provide for their passion provide for an individual’s interests and excitement and pleasure work is work baby and you either like doing it or you are professional enough to take care of business so that business can take care of you while you are off
Enjoying your time away from work it says here I’ll finish up here it says I wish I could just go from one job to another and try different things but holy crap it’s so damn hard to find an entry-level job all right well I kind of answered that
Before I even read that right you can interview them and find out what it is they do notice how this whole time I haven’t said leave the mechanic job right because I think within there we could find a way for them to move around but as a mechanic I’m well aware
That most have their own toolbox most have their own special tools and equipment memberships to certain tool trucks that sort of thing there was an investment that goes into that too whether or not you’re good at it you can improve but this person is glossed over the fact
That the I’m shitty uh doing mechanic work and then was like oh I also tried computer programming I also tried trading on the stock market I also looked into apprentices apprenticeships and everything is [ __ ] nah none of that is not even being a mechanic it’s just you have [ __ ] ethic
You have [ __ ] discipline right and that may offend you that may have triggered you you may say who the [ __ ] are you to judge it’s not judgment it’s an observation says here but holy crap it’s so damn hard to find an entry-level job since every job post has such a long list of
Requirements and nobody no one wants a fresh nobody no one wants a fresh nobody but notice how they how they state that every one of them has a long list of requirements if they have a long list of requirements then what the [ __ ] do you need an interview for do you have
A long list of [ __ ] that you need to learn anyways you literally you are a nobody you are a nobody trying to to get their livelihood taken care of on somebody else’s time somebody else’s monies somebody else’s energy you’re a [ __ ] nobody tell me why I
Should do that what value are you giving me in exchange for setting you up for life and if it’s nothing if it’s nothing you deserve to be [ __ ] a [ __ ] mechanic a [ __ ] computer programmer a loser in the stock market and not even an apprenticeship something that you are sorely
Overlooking as a mechanic because Journeymen that I know journeyman make easy money easy money you know what it takes the very minimum at the very least is disciplined if you don’t have a passion and I’ve met some passionate mechanics I’m at passionate mechanics with no discipline and discipline mechanics with no real
Passion for it they’re just good at it or they’ve become good at it they’ve made themselves they’ve improved at it to a point where they know what they’re doing but it’s just a job like any contract you’re in and out you’re not necessarily making friends with the clients unless unless you’re
Sociable like that or there’s nothing wrong with it but at the very least you need some degree of discipline to commit yourself the conviction to see it through and they end with saying if you read this far just know that I appreciate you and thank you no no no no we appreciate you
For exposing this vulnerability and we thank you for asking this question that that I’m sure nags at a lot of people I think the last episode we just had was do you like your job or or how how do you like how can you like your job can
You like your job I think it was two episodes ago season eight episode two I believe it was whether or not it was possible to like your job they’re asking this it was season seven episode 30. my apologies and that is possible but it takes discipline and in some instances it’s not even
Getting the job done it’s not even about making the customer happy sometimes it’s about you know when you can do the job right and you acting to get it done sometimes it’s not the destination for most it might be for for others it might be the journey
The path to get there the process the mechanisms in play the procedures the operation being not just the tip of the spear but the whole [ __ ] shaft it touches people in a certain way foreign people regardless of what it is about their job that they like founded on discipline
And whether they know it or not whether they can express it it’s to search for attaining that state consummate professionalism you see that’s that’s some corporate Cowboy [ __ ] you can’t just teach sometimes you can learn it sometimes it’s just a doubt on you and sometimes you have to pay for it
If you feel if you feel like you need to reach out to us I I said our rates are more than reasonable given what you have to gain you have nothing more to lose what you’re the shitty job you claim you have the shitty career you were about to abandon
Those aren’t the shitty areas of your life this should be asking yourself all right man I’ll stop beating around the bush I’ll catch up with you guys later
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