How to Start a Career and Plan Goals in an Entry-Level Job

In Chapter 6 of 16, "Start With Why" author Simon Sinek shares how entry-level professionals can excel in their job and make it a positive career building experience. He advises early career professionals to couple their exuberance and enthusiasm with a broader perspective, noting careers are made in 30 or 40 years and not 12 months. A patient approach to building incremental skills goes a long way toward creating long-term experience useful across a career.

Erick Michielson: I talked to a lot of recent college graduates who are you know putting them their duties per say and in some point they start to get frustrated because they want to have a bit more ownership of what they do either in that organization or to start they’re own thing. What’s your advice for folks that as their putting their dues, how to think about the future and what's the step to take next? Simon Sinek: Try and think of your life and your career in broader terms. I think all of us especially when we first start out, we’re full of you know excitement, we’re full of energy. We want to do some good in the world. We want to prove that we’re smart and we want to do it this year. But the fact to the matter is you—you have a long career you know and if you got 20, 30, 40 years, where do you want to be in 40 years? What do you want to gain in 40 years and what do you need to achieve this year or the next three to five years to get there. And I think to played on just an annual basis is—can be demoralizing because you think to yourself when do I ever get out of this. Look, laying the bricks of a foundation of a house is very, very hard work and no ones going to get to see it and it has—it's not even beautiful. But we all know that that house stand up so stronger when you have a strong foundation. And so entry level is the building of the foundation of your house, that’s all that is and there is a point which should be like, okay it's build, it's time for me to make a change now. I want to start moving to this capital thing you know. I want to start moving up the structure. So if you understand what an entry level job is, I think it helps you navigate it a lot easier.