These days, I am reading Andy Grove: The Life and Times of an American. As the author of this book is Harvard Business School professor and also it has more than 450 pages, so it is pretty tough to finish. So far, I finished to read 350 pages, but still 100 pages have remained. In this book, I found the hint when you find/choose a job. So I try to write about it.
In the chapter 13, the book describes about Intel Inside marketing campaign/program. This campaign is launched by Dennis Lee Carter. Carter graduated Harvard Business School before he joined Intel. When he graduated, one of his professors send him following word.
When you look for your first job, find a job where nobody knows exactly what you’re supposed to be doing. If they don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing, they won’t know what you’re not supposed to be doing. As a result, you can do anything you want, and you can take risks.
Carter joined Intel in 1981, and in 1985 he found an opportunity to get the kind of job his professor had described. Its job opportunity was Andy Grove’s Technical Assistant position. When he got this job, the job description is not defined clearly. Therefore he worked the way he wanted. And he loved this job, and he held it for four and a half years even thought original plan was two years. I believe it was fun, but also it was difficult job because his boss is Andy Grove and job is not defined. So he had to find what he had to do by himself. After Technical Assistant job, he got marketing manager position and higher position.
Following is my comment. In case job description is clearly defined, it is easy to work because he/she knows what he/she has to do. But it may be lack of fun/excitement because job is defined by others. I guess many people feel same way. In case job description is not clear, it may be tough/hard because he/she has to find what he/she has to do. However, he/she has a chance to find the job by himself/herself, probably it is fun to work for the job defined by himself/herself.
Life after reading Startup 