Warning: Unsolicited Career Advice

I recently spoke to a finance class at a local college, a group of third-year finance students looking for an opportunity to hear from industry professionals. I have had the pleasure of speaking to groups of students like this on various occasions and I always enjoy it. Who doesn’t enjoy talking about themselves? But also, I can remember being there, sitting in school, wondering if I was making a good career choice, if I would be successful, what success actually is.

I remember when the industry professionals came to my school with fancy suits and lots of words—but not a lot of insight or tangible career advice.

So when I speak to students I try to be real, relate, and share what has worked for me as well as what hasn’t. Students invariably come to the table with all sorts of questions, some very specific and some more general, but one question pops up nearly every time in some form or another: If you could give just one piece of advice for those just entering the workforce, what would it be?

And as sure as the question was to come up, I was equally sure to answer with some generic and somewhat cliche answer about working hard and taking chances. Truth is, I wasn’t sure if you could boil it all down to one piece of advice … or perhaps I just hadn’t taken the time to try.

So before speaking to this particular class, I decided to make the effort to have an answer for the question I knew was coming—which was actually not an easy task! Looking back on my career so far, I have had and continue to have some amazing mentors. I have learned so much and have been on the receiving end of plenty of wisdom from some very experienced and awesome people. But does any one thing stick out, one magic bullet piece of wisdom, one life-changing piece of advice that I can attribute a statistically significant portion of my success? No, I wouldn’t say so.

Relatively speaking, my career has been successful. At the very least, I assume my eighth-grade teacher who voted me most likely to get my butt kicked in high school would probably be surprised at how well I am doing. So I figured looking back at what has helped me get to this point could provide the answer to that burning question.

I think what stands out most in the rear-view mirror is how my path to get here has been totally different from what I expected and planned. I had an end goal in mind, laid out the logical steps to achieve the goal (e.g. education, designations, etc.) and envisioned the ideal progression up the corporate ladder (my career started with a big bank). But, as clear as my path had seemed, opportunities I didn’t foresee came up, stuff that wasn’t on the vision board, opportunities that at the time seemed to stray from that path. But I took those chances, took those opportunities, took the detours. And I can say with certainty that I wouldn’t be where I am today If I hadn’t.

I never lost sight of my end goal, but I was open to different paths to get there, ones I couldn’t have imagined from the start.

So I guess that is it: if I can give only one piece of career advice what would it be?

Be focused, but be flexible. 

About the Author

Derek Dedman, M.Sc., CFA, CFP, has spent over a decade working in different capacities in financial services and is currently a vice president and portfolio manager for Watson Di Primio Steel (WDS) Investment Management, an Ottawa-based boutique investment firm. Derek joined WDS after serving as vice president of a Montreal-based wealth management firm specializing in serving cross-border clientele. Previously, with the Financial Planning Standards Council, he was an integral part of the content development efforts for the Certified Financial Planner® national certification exams in Canada.