Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, participated on a panel in front of college students and was asked, “What should my 5-10-year career plan look like?”
She responded that a student shouldn’t have a 5-10-year career plan, and relayed that if she had followed a set career plan, she never would have ended up in tech because Mark Zuckerberg was still in diapers when she graduated from college.
What should college students do instead?
Choose a first job based on how much you can learn, or that allows you to work with people you can learn the most from. That’s your goal—to learn as much as possible. The learning is what will help you discover your path and open up doors for your future.
For high school students, that approach—making the choice based on where you’ll learn the most—might not be a bad way to choose classes, activities, and even colleges.
This entire podcast is worth a listen, but the portion about Sandberg begins at 18:40.