My only advice is to try to get the job that's most like the job you want, rather than the one that's more prestigious. Always try to be the talent.
Interpretation
Pursue work that aligns with your passions over jobs that offer prestige.
In this quote, Ezra Klein emphasizes the importance of choosing a career path that reflects your true interests and aspirations, rather than simply chasing prestige or status. By focusing on becoming skilled and passionate in your chosen field, you cultivate genuine talent and fulfillment in your work, which often leads to greater success and satisfaction.
In practice
During a career advice workshop, you might quote this to inspire attendees to pursue their true interests.
To say what I would have been if I wasn't boxing, I don't know why, but I always wanted to be an x-ray technician or a substitute teacher. Those two occupations always stuck with me, maybe because my substitute teacher didn't give us homework, or because I've always had x-rays of my hands.
By an irony of fate, my first employment was as a draughtsman. I hated drawing; it was for me the very worst of annoyances. Fortunately, it was not long before I secured the position I sought, that of chief electrician to the telephone company.
I think the biggest mistake most people make when they pick their first job is they don't worry enough about whether they'll love the work, and they worry more about whether it's good experience
Employers have gone away from the idea that an employee is a long-term asset to the company, someone to be nurtured and developed, to a new notion that they are disposable.
It likes it when you don’t depend on it. It will reward you every time you don’t act needy. It will chase you if you act like other things (passion, friendship, family, longevity) are more important to you. If your career is a bad boyfriend, it is healthy to remember you can always leave and go sleep with somebody else.
Our career is not something that we go out and *find.* Your perfect career is something that emerges from deep within you. When you are aligned with the truth within yourself, then you magnetize people and circumstances which align with that truth.
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