Note: This post is a preview of the types of content I'll be sharing in my new newsletter, "Optima & Outliers." If you enjoy this piece and want to explore these ideas further, you can subscribe here. I lasted just 18 months in my first job at JP Morgan, where I was supposed to help bankers manage money for their uber-rich clients. "Help" is too strong a word, since they didn't seem to think I was contributing much at all. My resignation was a response to a Performance Improvement Plan, a corporate euphemism for "shape up or ship out."
I'm cruising along at maybe 80th percentile conscientiousness, which feels like a sweet spot, for all the reasons you listed.
I'd never want the conscientiousness of 99.99th percentile Big Law types. I don't know if they enjoy/don't mind 80 hour weeks of (apparent) drudgery. More power to them if so. But as you said, I think their personality just makes them less inclined to stop even if some part of them is screaming for release.
"I'm bullish on the idea of young graduates adopting a self-enforced policy of "Quit in 12 months unless this job is a great fit.""
Sounds like a good idea in theory, but in practice would only be workable for somebody who doesn't need to be overly concerned about paying the rent or paying off their student loans.
I made a complete back-to-square-one career change at age 35. My first career was in college teaching and after 13 years I could no longer accommodate myself to the relentless leftist groupthink that dominates all parts of the education system. So I embarked on a five-year retraining - as an architect. This was much more 'me' (although I was naive in hoping to escape the groupthink). Was it a good idea? At age 35 it had huge downsides (take too long to describe these) but the alternative would have been worse.
This is probably excellent advice for your peers, but, I doubt the average person is as smart as you, or has the talent necessary to bounce from one organization to another before they find their home. Others may be talented, but saddled have values, interests, and background that make them a poor fit for many jobs. (Personally I find that the more salary I am paid, the more I hate what I am doing; wish me luck that this is not true, as I recently quit and changed to a higher-paying job.)
In other words, most people are just going to find all jobs unpleasant enough that a modicum of Conscientiousness is a necessary ingredient for their economic survival.
that sounds right to me. I'll be better about caveating when I write these pieces, but if I do that, i'll probably spend way too much real estate doing just that. But you're totally right that this is good advice only for people who are both competent, privileged and looking to their careers for stimulation and fulfillment. This would be not be obviously right if someone were trying to just maximize their remuneration to effort ratio, but even on those grounds, people who try to climb linear competitive paths like cosnulting and banking are almost always doing worse.
Your average work from home email job, once you've got enough experience to know what you're doing, is like a ten hour a week job in terms of getting work done. You can only get to forty if you're finding meaningless make-work to do. Poorly controlled conscientiousness is the enemy.
I've noticed that women especially find ways to waste time at work to fill up the day.
Lastly, I like working with people with kids because they are in more of a rush to be with their kids and don't want meetings running late.
Mm, that's more likely Emotionality (or Agreeableness+Neuroticism if you don't know the HEXACO). I doubt that people who run around being anxious about things and trying to please other people are more Conscientious than controls.
I remember reading somewhere, though I've long forgotten exactly where, that "our monomanias drive us like clockwork". Your - "our" -- conscientiousness may well qualify as such ... 🙂
Yes, although I personally try to elevate the importance of conscientiousness since it's convenient for me to underplay the value of conscientiousness. I also just read that conscientiousness was shown to be slightly negatively correlated with number of working hours (study conducted in South Korea), pointing to the fact that incentives matter much more than some innate inclination to show up and do what you think is "required"
I'm cruising along at maybe 80th percentile conscientiousness, which feels like a sweet spot, for all the reasons you listed.
I'd never want the conscientiousness of 99.99th percentile Big Law types. I don't know if they enjoy/don't mind 80 hour weeks of (apparent) drudgery. More power to them if so. But as you said, I think their personality just makes them less inclined to stop even if some part of them is screaming for release.
"I'm bullish on the idea of young graduates adopting a self-enforced policy of "Quit in 12 months unless this job is a great fit.""
Sounds like a good idea in theory, but in practice would only be workable for somebody who doesn't need to be overly concerned about paying the rent or paying off their student loans.
I made a complete back-to-square-one career change at age 35. My first career was in college teaching and after 13 years I could no longer accommodate myself to the relentless leftist groupthink that dominates all parts of the education system. So I embarked on a five-year retraining - as an architect. This was much more 'me' (although I was naive in hoping to escape the groupthink). Was it a good idea? At age 35 it had huge downsides (take too long to describe these) but the alternative would have been worse.
This is probably excellent advice for your peers, but, I doubt the average person is as smart as you, or has the talent necessary to bounce from one organization to another before they find their home. Others may be talented, but saddled have values, interests, and background that make them a poor fit for many jobs. (Personally I find that the more salary I am paid, the more I hate what I am doing; wish me luck that this is not true, as I recently quit and changed to a higher-paying job.)
In other words, most people are just going to find all jobs unpleasant enough that a modicum of Conscientiousness is a necessary ingredient for their economic survival.
that sounds right to me. I'll be better about caveating when I write these pieces, but if I do that, i'll probably spend way too much real estate doing just that. But you're totally right that this is good advice only for people who are both competent, privileged and looking to their careers for stimulation and fulfillment. This would be not be obviously right if someone were trying to just maximize their remuneration to effort ratio, but even on those grounds, people who try to climb linear competitive paths like cosnulting and banking are almost always doing worse.
Your average work from home email job, once you've got enough experience to know what you're doing, is like a ten hour a week job in terms of getting work done. You can only get to forty if you're finding meaningless make-work to do. Poorly controlled conscientiousness is the enemy.
I've noticed that women especially find ways to waste time at work to fill up the day.
Lastly, I like working with people with kids because they are in more of a rush to be with their kids and don't want meetings running late.
Mm, that's more likely Emotionality (or Agreeableness+Neuroticism if you don't know the HEXACO). I doubt that people who run around being anxious about things and trying to please other people are more Conscientious than controls.
I remember reading somewhere, though I've long forgotten exactly where, that "our monomanias drive us like clockwork". Your - "our" -- conscientiousness may well qualify as such ... 🙂
Yes, although I personally try to elevate the importance of conscientiousness since it's convenient for me to underplay the value of conscientiousness. I also just read that conscientiousness was shown to be slightly negatively correlated with number of working hours (study conducted in South Korea), pointing to the fact that incentives matter much more than some innate inclination to show up and do what you think is "required"
Interesting; do you remember the study title?
https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w26459/w26459.pdf