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Summary

• My early career was pretty much a mess
• I found success kind of by accident
• That is why I care so much about career stuff

Full Transcript

In this post I’m hoping to share a little bit more about why I care so much about career stuff. I thought I’d offer a little bit more about my story.

I grew up overseas and didn’t come to the U.S. until I was 18 to attend college. I would up transferring colleges SEVEN TIMES (only went to five schools, but transferred seven times).

By that time all that was over I was like, “man I need to get away from it all.” So I wound up as a scuba instructor on Guam where I spent about 10,000 hours underwater kicking with tourists on each arm – I would swim through the ocean and show them everything there was to see underwater.

But after doing that, my brain got a little waterlogged and I knew I kind of had to pull it together. So I asked myself, “what would be the most prestigious job I could find?” My answer was, “well, that must be the White House in Washington, DC.”

So I took out a piece of paper – and it was the worst cover letter you’ve ever seen – to write something like, “Dear Mr. President, you should hire me…” and I didn’t give a particularly good reason.

I don’t know your politics – this was back during the Clinton Administration. So if your politics don’t match mine, please forgive me.

But I wrote this letter and I figured, “man, I’m never going to hear back from those guys.” But then one day I was riding my bicycle past the Guam post office and the guy came out and said, “Eric! You have this cool letter from the White House on fancy White House stationary!” So I opened it up and it was an internship application.

At that time I didn’t really know what the hell an ‘internship’ was, but I was really good at filling out applications because I’d transferred colleges so many times. So I filled it out, and sent it back in thinking, “man, I’m REALLY never going to hear back from those guys”…but at least I still had that cool envelope from the White House.

But that got me thinking, so I applied to some Grad schools and wound up getting into one in Washington, DC. I landed in DC with just a backpack and a big bushy haircut and flip flops. I was dumpster diving for furniture – trying to figure things out.

After a few weeks I had bought a pair of running shoes and was out running along the National Mall and I ran past the White House. That reminded me about the internship application I’d turned in. I thought, “you know, those White House bastards, they never even bothered to let me know about that internship thing.”

So I found a payphone and put in a quarter and called them and I said, “hey you bastards, what about that internship thing?” They asked, “is this Eric, from Guam?” I said, “yes, but I’m in DC now.” They replied saying, “Eric! We’ve been trying to reach you, you’re supposed to start your internship in the First Lady’s Office on Monday.” So I took the metro to a shopping center and bought a suit and a pair of shoes and got a haircut and I showed up.  

The experience I wound up having was transformational. I wound up staying there, in the First Lady’s Office – again, this was when Hillary Clinton was First Lady. Politics aside, she was a GREAT boss and I learned so much. I wound up going to my grad classes when I could – zipping back and forth to the White House so I wouldn’t miss a single moment of my internship more than I had to.

Eventually I got hired there and wound up managing a lot of early professionals myself, and in time, started to give career advice. From there we moved to the U.S. Senate – I was there all 8 years with Senator Clinton. From there we went to the State Department where I did some UNESCO stuff and other things related to early career development. Eventually I wound up as Director of Fellowships and Internships at the Smithsonian.

But all through this time – both as an early professional and working my way up the ranks and advising others at all levels – I’ve seen this same movie where a lot of people struggle with how to navigate their careers.

So often, when it comes to careers, people spend a lot of time worrying about the wrong things. They spend a lot of attention focused on the wrong thing.

That’s why this career stuff is very very personal to me and why I’m driven to help people figure out their careers. It is why I’m driven to help you figure out your career.

It is my hope that the offerings here serve you and that the information we offer here serves you. If you have career-related questions I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

In the meantime, make sure you’re getting yourself out there and that you are showing them what you can do!