Welcome back. Lesson three is about service. How service can help you grow your personal and professional communities. And even potentially lead you down a new and different and fulfilling career path. You know, some people, when they're kids, they just know what they want to be when they grow up. I have friend who knew she wanted to be a doctor, and another friend who knew he wanted to be in law enforcement. And they both were convinced that they were going to do it, ever since they were little. So they followed an educational and life path that was pretty clear cut and they applied to jobs within those industries right out of school. And they grew from there. They never wavered in what they wanted to do professionally. Me on the other hand, I had no idea what I wanted to do when I grew up. I just knew that because my parents were lawyers, I didn't want to be a lawyer. Funny story, I'm totally a lawyer, I'm barred and everything. But I don't practice or play one on TV. So how did I wind up being lucky enough to have a career built in policy and politics? It was mostly because I was open to new opportunities, including volunteer positions. And I worked hard, even though I wasn't being paid. But it paid off, in relationships and experience. Some background about me. So you know I wasn't kidding when I said I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I started off as a math and physics major when I first got to college. And when that didn't pan out I switched to anthropology and. I thought I wanted to do advertising because it seemed creative and fun. I got an internship at a small ad agency between my sophomore and junior years of college. Great, right? Just do that again, next summer. And then get a job after graduation, be totally fine. Well I applied to a bunch of internships during the spring of my junior year, large ad firms in New York City, that sort of thing. One firm actually wound up giving me some scholarship money but no internship offers by the time finals were over, zero. So what was I going to do? I wound up looking for internships on Craigslist, what can I say that was 15 years ago and the internet was a very different place. But I came across an ad, Andrew Cuomo's campaign was looking for volunteers. Now, up until then, my interest in politics had really been only academic, and the only thing I knew about Andrew Cuomo was that he was Mario Cuomo's son. But they seemed desperate, and I was desperate to fill a hole in my resume. So I sent in a resume and cover letter. I wound up as an unpaid intern, a glorified full-time volunteer along with a bunch of other college kids, and I had a blast. I learned a ton and I met really great people. And I got hooked. The next year, when I was graduating from college, I applied for a job on John Kerry's presidential campaign. And the rest is history. How I wound up on my path was really haphazard. And I'm lucky that it turned out the way it did. This lesson is designed so that your journey will be more intentional. It will be more structured and introspective. To help you figure out how you can build in service to grow your networks. And maybe even find a way to build your interests into part of your career. In this lesson, the goal is for you to understand the role service can play in growing your networks, and how it can steer you towards a fulfilling career. You'll do an exercise where you'll visualize how your service and professional experiences connect to your optimal work environment and professional opportunities. And you'll apply the service model in an introspective exercise, evaluating your interests and values.
