Just realized the best career advice I got was a wing stop cashier in Tulsa

She told me 'pick a line, not a place' while handing over my 8 piece and it hit me that I'd been chasing job titles instead of the actual work I like doing, has anyone else had a random stranger say something that reframed their whole 5 year plan?

2 comments

2 Comments

jackson.jenny26d ago

The 2019 Subaru Outback I was driving when I heard something similar, actually. I was at a gas station in Ohio and this old guy filling up next to me said "stop buying things to look good, buy things to work good." I thought it was dumb at first because I was all about my fancy job title and the car that matched it. But then I realized he was talking about my whole career too. I kept chasing roles that sounded impressive instead of the tasks I actually enjoyed doing, like fixing and building stuff with my hands. That one sentence changed how I picked my next job, and honestly it worked out way better than the title did.

leo_carr1325d ago

Friend of mine had almost the same thing happen. He was a big shot at a marketing firm, drove a BMW, the whole package. Took a weekend trip to help his dad redo a deck and rented a beat-up pickup truck for the drive. He told me that truck felt more like him than his BMW ever did. Next month he quit, took a job running maintenance at a small apartment complex. Makes half the money now, but he actually sleeps at night. Saw him last summer, he looks ten years younger.