A career beyond conformity

I've only got a year left of college before I enter "the real world" as they say. Honestly, I'm terrified of getting stuck in a company that treats me like a cog and forces me to do underwhelming work.

The heart of the problem is that I want to do significant work in a world where most companies are industrial machines built around careless people doing the simplest possible jobs over and over. These machines don't want us to care - they want us to do what we are told.

I believe we can do better. Here are some thoughts from a hypothetical company I would want to work for.

Creating change

This business produces change. By turning our focus away from cost cutting and towards creating change, it requires a fundamentally different mindset about how we choose to do our work. You are not a machine, and we don't need you to mindlessly follow orders. We need your creativity, humanity, leadership, and care in order to solve problems that make change.

This work is for you

No more manipulation - no more phony accolades and incentives. You tell me what you want. You make a promise about how much you will care. I'll find more people that care as much as you do and, just as important, keep out those that don't. I'll work tirelessly to support you and challenge you the entire way through. This work is for you. I'm just creating the environment for you to get where you told me you wanted to go.

Care is everything

Companies today support a fatal flaw that deteriorates teams. Too often, members are allowed to undermine the project by checking out and not pulling their weight or running off other great people with office politics and bullying, yet they persist because everyone shrugs, they have technical qualifications, prestigious titles, or it "just isn't that bad". All the enthusiasm and trust you work so hard to bring is slowly and painfully drained away by a tolerance for this kind of behavior. Ensuring our entire team cares is priority number one when creating an environment where everyone can do their best work and find some of the magic that happens when great people work together. No more diluting jobs down to accommodate whoever cares the least. Get on board or get out.

Stepping up

Leadership is not only an option here but a necessity. You can step up and help craft and steer the environment where it needs to go. Leaders don't need authority, but they must coordinate the trust, focus, and connection of the people who are bought into this journey. This is an art, a skill, and it can be learned. This is your chance to enroll people in a way that matters, dream up a path forward, and make things better.

When things go right

You can feel the difference. The whole team can feel the difference. We get to say, "My pleasure", to the people we serve and mean it. We will all be doing the best work of our lives and creating something that matters. And when a group of people who care build something they're proud of, the market notices. There might not be a better feeling than this.

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For more on this topic I highly recommend, The Song of Significance, by Seth Godin.