🆓 Issue #37: A Regret-Free Career
Ideas on how to develop a regret-free career path during the Great Resignation
💬 Welcome to issue #37 of Between the Lines
This past January, over 4M+ people in the U.S. quit their job, and The Great Resignation (or whatever else you prefer to call it) isn’t showing signs of slowing down. There are an estimated 11M+ current job openings in the U.S., and the demand for labor is as strong as ever. Just because there are an unlimited number of job opportunities with increased salaries, however, doesn’t mean they’re all the right fit for you. Claremont alumnus Rebecca Offensend also just recently switched investment roles from Working Capital Fund to Morgan Stanley’s Next Level Fund — she shares her thoughts on how she’s tried to navigate a regret-free career below.
~ Josh & Miles
📢 👥 Community Voices: How To Have A Regret-Free Career
Author: Rebecca Offensend
If you’re at the beginning of your career, you likely have 40 years or more of work ahead of you. Not to scare you, but most people spend about one-third of their life working — over 90,000 hours. That’s a long time to plan for — and the truth is, you can’t really plan it. The job you have in 30 years may not exist right now or have even been heard of yet. Industries and markets change, emerge, rise, and fall. A dream company can quickly become a nightmare job (ask anyone who worked at WeWork). Between bad managers, toxic work culture, and ‘passion’ buzzwords, it can be really confusing and borderline terrifying to think about navigating your career path. How do you organize that thinking? What guidelines exist for planning something so changeable and intangible?
One of the guidelines I have found most helpful in making career decisions and planning my future has been to plan for a ‘regret-free’ career. When I’m on my deathbed, what will I have been proud to accomplish? What do I hope people say about me in my eulogy? Who will I be glad I worked with? What contributions will I have made for my legacy?
When I was a student at CMC, I was energized by learning new things and challenging myself, but I had no idea how to translate that into a career. When someone asked me what I wanted to do after graduation, I had no idea what to tell them (to this day, I can’t remember how I answered this question!). I started to seize opportunities and push myself further based on this regret-free mentality. It is because of this approach that I had jobs I never could have imagined (everything from teaching snowboarding to being a banker and impact investor) and I met amazing people who impacted me along the way. These are some of the lessons I’ve learned that have helped me develop a regret-free approach to my own career path. 👇
📣 Pardon the Announcement: HMC Entrepreneurial Summer Fellowship Program
Are you an employer interested in bringing on technical talent this summer? Or creating a full-time talent pipeline to one of the world’s top undergraduate technical programs?
HMC is launching its inaugural Entrepreneurial Summer Fellowship Program. The program can provide full or partial stipends to support technical internships for select rising seniors, juniors, and sophomore STEM majors at Harvey Mudd College over Summer 2022. We’re proud to be partnering with the program to get the word out to employers.
Most of our readers probably need no reminder, but just in case:
HMC is ranked the No. 2 undergraduate engineering program in the world
HMC's curriculum emphasizes experiential, hands-on learning and team-based projects with real-world applications, evidenced by required programs like HMC Clinic
If you're interested in recruiting through this program, fill out this form to receive the student resume book. For any questions, please contact Professor Kash Gokli.
💼 Who’s Hiring?:
Altara Ventures is a venture capital firm led by general partners with extensive experience in founding, operating, and investing in technology startups in Southeast Asia and globally. They back founders in their journeys to build and scale by leveraging the partnership’s global networks and prior experience in building companies to successful exits. Gavin Teo (CMC) is a General Partner at Altara and is looking to hire a new Senior Analyst.
Catena Biosciences was co-founded by Marco Lobba (PO) in 2020 based on technology developed in the Francis and Jennifer Doudna (PO) Labs at UC Berkeley. Their platform allows for the rapid coupling of proteins for the creation of novel therapeutics in autoimmune disorders, oncology, and vaccine development. Marco and the team are currently looking for some great Claremont talent.
Make sure to check out the other 5,000+ open jobs at 400+ Claremont-affiliated companies here on our Storyboard. Plus, make sure to create a profile and enter your preferences to get alerted to new job postings relevant to you, be they the 750+ remote-jobs, 180+ internships, or 30+ part-time positions available. We’ve published research that shows that Claremont-founded companies that disproportionately hire Claremont talent outperform — so pay attention Claremonsters!
As always, if any of these roles catch your eye 👀 , apply and mention Between the Lines. Or if you are an employer and are looking to hire tip-top Claremont talent, fill out this form to have your jobs featured.
🗣️ Conversations on the Interwebz:
This week’s top reads🔥
Saahil Desai (PO), Associate Editor at Atlantic, on the recent niche craze of nickel hoarding. Probably the only time you’ll ever want to ask for Nickelback.
Speaking of the nickel shortage, KoBold Metals and co-founder Kurt House (CMC) are using AI-powered mineral exploration to help with the global EV supply challenges.
Everything else you need to know….📖
Rebecca Offensend (CMC) making tax season a bit more enjoyable.
Kyle Hill (PO), Head of Crypto at Troika, shares his top reasons for why startups fail.
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🍽️ BTL Snacks:
🦄 Another Unicorn Exit….. LanzaTech and its CEO Jennifer Holmgren (HMC) announced that they plan to go public by merging with AMCI Acquisition Corp II, in a deal that values the carbon recycling technology company at $2.2 billion.
√ The Roots of Education….. After recently winning the 2021 Tools Competition, Aashna Saraf (PO) was showcasing her new startup Root at SXSW EDU. Root EX is a game app that promotes learning and regular assessment of math milestones for young children.
🌿 Cannabis Meets Higher Education….. Mike Z (CMC), the cannabis pioneer and founder of High NY, is joining LIM College in the newly-created position of Academic Director, Business of Cannabis. He’s helping play a critical role in all aspects of LIM’s recently announced Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Professional Studies degree programs.
🌱 Mineral & The Beanstalk….. Project Mineral’s mission is to develop new technologies that can help scale the adoption of sustainable agriculture globally, and Erica Bliss (CMC) and the team are working to understand and uncover hidden crop traits within the world’s largest bean collection.
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