Translator: Kathy Beckwith Reviewer: Tanya Cushman
Do you remember in first or second grade
when you were asked what you wanted to be when you grew up?
Does anybody want to share what they dreamed of becoming?
(Audience) Engineer.
Engineer, you bet.
(Audience) Zoologist.
Zoologist.
Maybe you dreamed of becoming one of these classic answers -
like an astronaut or a teacher or a ballerina or a firefighter.
Maybe you dreamed of becoming a superhero
and imagined all the amazing ways you would save the world.
Or maybe you were an out-of-the-box thinker, like my daughter Ellia.
She wanted to become a cat.
(Laughter)
For most of us,
between this dreamy phase and our midlife crisis,
we find that our career paths turn out different than expected.
At some point, we realize we're probably not going to become a cat.
(Laughter)
That feeling we had as a young child, of unlimited possibilities,
starts to disappear.
And it's replaced with this cookie-cutter map
to college and the best paying jobs,
and we're told, "Just stay on this path and everything will be okay."
[Please Stay on Trail]
But for most of us, that map doesn't work, and we struggle with college and careers.
And we struggle because most often what's missing from this career advice
is the most important question of all.
And that question is,
What's the best path for you?
What's your right-fit path?
My brother Keith and I
certainly never imagined we'd start a metal fabrication business.
But in the fall of 2007, standing in an empty warehouse,
we cracked a beer and raised a toast.
We were celebrating; we had just opened our new business.
We were forging our own right-fit career path.
Now, getting here was no picnic.
I thought for sure I'd become a professional basketball player.
(Laughter)
It became apparent through high school that despite that textbook follow-through,
that probably wasn't going to happen.
So I launched my backup plan,
and I asked for help with my plan from the best adviser I knew - myself.
(Laughter)
And because at age 18 I pretty much knew everything,
most of my choices were brilliant.
(Laughter)
I did listen to some advice though.
I remember a high school teacher
chiding a fellow classmate on a failed homework assignment, saying,
"You better pay more attention, or you'll never get into college."
And his favorite line was "You're going to end up digging ditches."
Well, this made an impact on me because I was going to be successful,
work with my mind, not dig ditches.
So I went off to college, and things were going pretty well in the beginning.
I soon realized
I didn't quite have enough money to make it through my first year.
But I wasn't worried; I'd just get a job to help pay the bills.
My first try was an office secretary position,
where my responsibilities included keeping my boss's fridge stocked with yoghurt.
(Laughter)
Turned out not to be a great fit for me.
(Laughter)
Next, I found a job as a forklift and delivery truck driver.
It seemed like a better fit,
but within three months there
I'd managed to get a speeding ticket in the delivery van
and tip over the company's forklift.
(Laughter)
I would still argue that speeding ticket wasn't my fault; it was the van's fault.
(Laughter)
Seriously.
Tipping over the forklift - unfortunately, that one was all me.
Finally, I found a job
drafting for a company that makes vinyl pool liners.
Honestly, I didn't even know what vinyl pool liners were at the time.
But I'd learned to draft in my high school woodshop class,
and I was pretty good at it.
It was a much better fit than shopping for yoghurt.
But I was still struggling to make ends meet
and keep up in college,
and things started to fall apart.
By 21, I'd managed to switch majors a couple times, ran out of money,
dropped out of college, and was falling behind on my student loan payments.
Obviously, my brilliant backup plan was working out pretty well.
It was also about this time,
the pool company was hiring for a production manager.
I applied and somehow got the job.
I had no clue what I was doing or how to lead 25 people.
So it was quite a bumpy start, and frankly, this was a tough time for me.
Not only was I a college dropout, but I wasn't good at my job.
I was coming home from the vinyl plant every day, smelling like a Barbie doll.
(Laughter)
It's nice.
(Laughter)
So where did I go wrong?
I went to college like I was supposed to.
I took the path advertised as the "best path" for career success.
But it wasn't working.
What I've learned while building my business
and 20 years of hiring and training employees
is that I was actually part of the majority -
that the majority of Americans are struggling with college and career paths.
See, education has done a great job
of getting kids through high school and signed up for college,
but almost 50% of those who sign up for college
drop out.
About one in three adults do make it through
and earn a four-year degree,
but 40% of them find that their degree doesn't translate into a career
and end up under-employed.
So these numbers are telling us that college is working well
for only about 20% of the American population.
We've created such a stigma around some careers
that the other 80% are missing out on opportunities that pay well,
have great benefits, and opportunities to advance.
[What about the other 80%?]
Remember that high school teacher's threat
that nothing could be worse than digging ditches?
The mindset has been to devalue skilled trades
and shift resources away from vocational education.
Any path other than college was labeled an inferior path,
appropriate only for the academically challenged.
This is causing big problems in some critical industries.
It's estimated that one-third of the skilled trades workforce
will be retiring in the next five years,
and nowhere near that many entering it.
These are the people that build your homes and your roads
and other critical infrastructure.
If you think failing bridges and housing prices
are a big problem now,
what happens when we lose a third of our workforce?
Maybe the biggest problem with wrong-fit career paths
is a workforce that is unhappy and less than fully engaged.
70% of Americans say they're unsatisfied with their career choices.
Think about that.
That's 70% of the population
spending the majority of their day at an unsatisfying job.
How much creativity and ingenuity is our economy losing
when 70% of the workforce is unhappy?
We all know that when you don't enjoy what you do,
you're not going to be excited to learn and grow and master your craft.
And isn't it also true when we find something we're truly passionate about,
how we want to spend every waking moment learning more?
Something interesting happened when I took that management position.
My boss recommended some books on leadership,
and I was hooked.
I finished one, and another, and another,
and slowly my professional toolbox began to grow.
Things started to click.
My company supported this growth
when I returned to college to finish my degree as a business major.
(Applause)
Finding right-fit career paths isn't always easy,
but it's the solution to these problems.
It's important enough to our economy and our happiness
that it's time to remap career pathways.
It's time to expose a better network of paths
that works for the majority and makes finding our way easier,
that bridges the gap between right-fit careers and critical industries,
where you're excited to go to work
for an employer who prioritizes your growth.
Imagine what this could do, not only to our collective professional psyche
but our economy and our shrinking middle class.
These solutions take students, parents, educators, and industry leaders
to all work together.
It requires shifting our perspective on careers
and removing the stigma from skilled trades.
It's not an argument for or against college;
it's an argument that finding our right-fit path
creates the environment for people to thrive.
Stepping off the beaten path can be intimidating.
But if it means helping more people rise to the top,
shouldn't we consider a different approach?
As a business owner,
I feel it is my responsibility to take the lead.
The importance of vocational and career technical education has been realized.
These pathways are returning to schools.
They're designed to prepare kids for technical and skilled trades careers,
and they work best when industry is involved.
We found a number of great ways to build these partnerships.
We start by sharing our story.
We speak at career days and host shop tours for students
because sharing success stories from a wide variety of careers
exposes kids to options they may have never considered
and it removes the stigma.
One of our industry partners was the VP of a large manufacturing operation.
To help remove the stigma,
he would always park his bright red sports car
right in front of the high school shop
to prove that a career in manufacturing can be cool
and buy you fast cars.
(Laughter)
Just don't get a ticket.
(Laughter)
As vocational programs return to schools,
we join with industry partners
to help remodel shops and reshape curriculums
to match 21st century manufacturing environments.
We participate in classrooms and after-school clubs
by donating materials and sharing manufacturing expertise.
And right now, we're hosting our first two high school interns,
who are building a new sign for the front of their school.
Finally, we launched a vocational endowment fund
to support skilled trades,
and the first distributions will go out this year as scholarships
to help students buy the tools they need for a career in skilled trades.
Partnerships should include colleges and universities as well
because most college students are still trying to find their right-fit path.
Many don't know what options are available, even in their hometown.
So when our local economic development partnership
launched a city-wide college intern program,
we volunteered as one of the first host sites
and joined the steering committee.
And so far,
82 students have had internships with 24 different employers.
Thirty-five of them have gone on to receive extended internships
or permanent positions from program host sites.
Two of them are on our team right now.
Lastly, and probably most important,
is our responsibility as business owners to provide great places to work
because every right-fit career needs a great employer.
If we want the careers we offer to be attractive,
we need to be some of the the best places to work for.
Our appeal should be more than great pay and benefits.
It should be our ability to help maximize your growth
and rise throughout your career.
And if we view leadership
as helping those around us to be the best they can be,
then business leadership starts
by helping everyone find their right-fit path.
So it's time for a new map to career pathways,
one that works for the 80% who struggle with college
and the 70% who are unhappy with their jobs.
It's time to lay out a better network of paths
that makes finding our way easier,
that strengthens the partnerships
that bridge the gap between right-fit careers and critical industries.
And it's time to provide jobs that inspire people to learn and grow
throughout their lives,
where individual success is measured by levels of happiness,
creativity, ingenuity, and career satisfaction,
where, as you look ahead, what you can see is right-fit opportunities multiply.
And as one final thought, if you need proof this is possible,
that kid in my high school did end up digging ditches -
then went on to become a superintendent of a large excavation company,
making a six-figure salary and loving his job.
Thank you.
(Applause) (Cheers)