| Forget about enthusiasm and motivation. Do not waste | | | | your life. |
| your time trying to impress people who do not care | | | | 2.- SOME PROFESSIONS OFFER LITTLE |
| for you. Most of the career advice that you will hear | | | | OPPORTUNITY. College counsellors usually possess |
| comes from ancient times that, actually, never existed. | | | | good statistics about the employment market. On that |
| Make a commitment to discard inherited nonsense. It is | | | | basis, they can tell students about the earnings that |
| time to rebuild your strategy according to reality. | | | | they can expect on their initial job should they choose, |
| Pick up a pen and piece of paper and write down the | | | | for instance, to become embalmers. The problem with |
| names of unsuccessful persons you know. Chances | | | | this sort of advice lies in its short-term focus. Instead, |
| are that your list will be quite long. Look at the names | | | | go and talk to someone who works in your field of |
| and ask yourself some hard questions. Recall their | | | | interest and ask how fast people can move upwards |
| individual circumstances, assess their challenges, and | | | | from their initial position. If the answer is unconvincing, |
| question their excuses. | | | | stay away. There are plenty of professions whose |
| Some men and women in your list will be intelligent and | | | | markets are growing. Why on earth would you want |
| educated. From those, a few might deserve being | | | | to enlist in a losing legion? |
| recognized as brilliant. Others will be highly motivated | | | | 3.- THINKING LOCAL IS A RECIPE FOR DISASTER. |
| and enthusiastic. How come that they are not | | | | National economies and international trade are likely to |
| progressing in life? The primary reason of their failure | | | | transform the face of our cities in the next twenty |
| might be their belief in false ideas, such as overwork | | | | years. Currencies fluctuate and importers might |
| and career planning. | | | | become exporters. Present territories of immigration |
| Let me put forward some controversial truths. These | | | | might give rise to waves of emigration. Things are |
| are the kind of statements that you might have heard | | | | going to change massively in the next decades and |
| before but that you were too quick to discard. Reality | | | | nobody is quite sure how cards will be reshuffled. In |
| can be disrupting, but you will benefit from | | | | this environment, thinking locally might bury your |
| acknowledging facts as they are. You might want to | | | | professional chances. Spread your risks and boost |
| sit down before you read this: | | | | your career. Learn a foreign language and stay mobile. |
| 1.- MANY MARKETS ARE CLOSED. Ignore the | | | | Advertisements for jobs and training programmes |
| propaganda and examine the facts with a cool head. If | | | | always fail to tell you the ultimate truth: nobody cares |
| you are trying to enter a market dominated by highly | | | | about your career as much as yourself. Employers |
| entrenched players, the undertaking might require too | | | | who cheer you up with empty motivational talk |
| much effort to be worth it. People might preach | | | | frequently turn out to be exploitative. When it comes |
| openness and fairness to the gallery, while their actions | | | | to your professional future, as for everything else, you |
| show that outsiders are not welcome. Stay away | | | | will be much better off if you remain skeptic and think |
| from those markets. You have better things to do with | | | | for yourself. |