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HBCU Careers Magazine
92
The Importance of Paying Your Dues
By: Sean Lynott, MBA, CPRW
My career has covered working with students in a variety
of capacities: student advising, career advising, teaching,
recruiting, etc. Over the course of many years one theme
has stood out to me; the importance of paying your dues
and avoiding the entitlement trap. I hope you’ll stay with
me on this brief journey as I explore this important theme
and how it’s essential to your future success in the world
outside academia.
I think back to May 2002 when I was finishing college. I
hadn’t really given much thought to what my next step
would be. Unlike other students I didn’t pursue internships
or anything else career related. Let’s just say that I wasn’t
as ambitious as my peers and the thought of joining the workforce was a scary prospect. I had
my expensive piece of paper and had the assumption that as a college graduate the work would
come to me. Where did this attitude come from? I can’t say for sure but it certainly didn’t do me
any favors once school was completed. The result of this was me bussing tables at a restaurant,
just like I did during the summers between my years in school. I was the victim of my own ego and
the feeling that a degree was enough. It would take me years to figure out that finding a career
involved real work and that I would have to build my own brand to achieve any semblance of
career success. As someone who is graduating soon or will be wrapping up your education I hope
that you’ve been working with your career team to figure out the direction you wish to take.
Even after I landed my first successful corporate job I still had that entitlement following me
around. I had a “real” job now and all the things I envisioned coming my way were just around the
corner. I remember applying for a senior role on my team and not getting it. How did I handle this
rejection? By trying to get my peers to protest management; a childish labor walkout that was silly
to say the least. Fortunately, I had a manager who saw this as a learning opportunity and shared
with me that I was their second choice and just narrowly missed out. They saw me as someone
with potential and I rewarded them by flashing my true colors as an immature employee not
ready for the big time. I was never able to shake the image of the childish employee and had to
seek opportunities outside of the organization. I had sabotaged my own career and there was no
one to blame but me. This was one of those “ah-ha” moments where I learned that how I dealt
with rejection was just as important as how I dealt with success. Make sure that you always try
to take everything in stride and don’t let your mindset sabotage your career and how your peers
perceive you.