What on earth is "happenstance"?

We career folks loooove to talk about using happenstance to help with career development, job search and career transitions.

But what are we even talking about?

In this episode, we'll define happenstance, how it works and how the teens in your life can use it to help them figure out next steps in education and careers.

Transcript

Devon: Welcome to The One About Careers with Devon,

Sarah-Jane: and Sarah-Jane,

Devon: the career podcast for adults involved with teens navigating life after high school. 

Sarah-Jane: We help you help your teens make informed education and career decisions by providing quality information and resources. 

Devon: Join us for weekly bite sized conversations covering various aspects of careers, including insights from professionals in different fields. 

Sarah-Jane: New episodes are available every week at theoneaboutcareers.com.

Devon: All right, welcome back to another episode of The One About Careers. This week, what we want to talk about is happenstance. And if you up to a career person and you say, hey, tell me about this happenstance thing, they'll be able to tell you a lot of stuff about it, but in most cases, when you bring it up to the average person, they're like, I'm sorry, what? Did you sneeze? What did you just? And I'm watching Sarah Jane as I'm talking, nodding away, like, yep, that sounds about right. So, yeah, Sarah-Jane, what is happenstance? What does that even mean?

Sarah-Jane: I love the term, but you're so right, it's a career term. And if you don't live in that space, it's like, what the hell are you talking about? Essentially, it's basically, how do our actions contribute to chance events? So the assumption is that our actions actually do contribute to chance events. And we just had this conversation, right, about goal setting and numbers and who actually controls whatever numbers. I think sometimes when we talk about careers, people really do think it's supposed to be this very clear, very straight, very simple, straightforward line. And I would say 90% of people, that's not how they experience career. That it's more like one of those sort of corkscrew roller coasters that also goes backwards. And so then people go with, well, then why should I plan for anything? Well, I do think there's something. We have control over our own behavior. And so it's thinking about, what are the things that I can actually control? And essentially, lots of this information, of course, is contained in a book called Luck Is No Accident, Making the Most of Happenstance in Your Life and Career by John Krumboltz and Al Levine. And so it really is about recognizing that unplanned events influence our career history. So, having said that, Devon, is there in your work or in your own life, have there been unplanned events that have influenced your career?

Devon: Oh, my gosh. A million. A million. And then you look back and you think, oh, I see what happened there. Okay. Yeah. So when I first moved to the Island, of course, I started getting to know people, and I happened to come across the person not happened to. I looked up the person who had wrote the careers curriculum for the high schools out here, and we had a really interesting conversation. Like, I reached out to her and I said, I'm curious about what the process was. How does this look in the schools? Whatever. And it's the same gong show it is everywhere else in the country. But as to what that curriculum, actually, how it actually performs in the classroom. So we had some really good conversations and I did some work through with her, I guess, just talking about how can we connect the schools a little bit better, how can we get some more of this stuff in there and having some of those conversations. And at the time, covid was still very much a thing. We had a teacher shortage, and so a lot of administrative staff from the boards and the school boards and the department of education were actually being pulled into the classroom, which was pretty wild. 

Devon: So she and I kind of fell out of touch and we hadn't talked in quite a few months. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I get this email from somebody who had the same last name as her, and it turns out they're sisters-in-law. And she said, hey, we've had this situation where a person who worked for us has had to step out of the role. So we're in a bit of a crunch looking for somebody. And of course I started asking around everybody I know. My sister-in-law brought your name up for this role. Would you be interested in submitting an application? And it was like, what? That's what it looks like. A  lot of times I talk about networking 'til I'm blue in the face and I try to make it as accessible as possible. And so, so often people are very resistant to the idea, or on the other hand, they're very desperate about it. It's, well, I have to go to these events and find people who can give me jobs. And networking is about creating this situation of happenstance. It's about putting yourself in a lot of places at a lot of different times to increase the chance of you being in the right place at the right time, right? To put you top of mind with people so that 2, 3, 4, 6 months down the road they go, you know what? I talked to somebody about that. I wonder if they're available and they reach out.

Sarah-Jane: That's really what it's about. Exactly. And I think the thing that most people miss is that you're just to use your own curiosity. And so whatever you are naturally curious about, which is exactly what you did, and I love this piece. It's in terms of, so what are you naturally curious about? And we can ask our young people, what are you naturally curious about? And let them follow that little trail or big trail or whatever, or whatever that trail is. Just follow that and see where it takes you without the expectation that it will actually take you somewhere. It's simply opening up the new opportunities, potentially.  

Sarah-Jane: And the other thing I think that you're talking about, really is that you're taking concrete steps in terms of producing desirable chance events. And so it is taking that step in terms of the networking piece, so it's not necessarily attaching an outcome. It is essentially expanding your knowledge, expanding who you know. And I loved what you said about desperation versus I would say, I don't know if I'd call it curiosity. Like you. When you work with individuals, employers can smell desperation. Sometimes, simply creating a list of potential ideas of employers allows someone to relax. And that kind of is that happenstance that then someone came into their world that was from one of those organizations, or is it that they sent about an event? I don't know, and I don't need to know. It's more that it's that idea of open mindedness, curiosity, flexibility. Interestingly enough, in the decade after high school, 90% of high school and university students reported that at least one chance event influenced their educational or career path. I think that's hilarious. At least one chance event. But it was. Yeah, it's high school or university. It's that first sort of, yeah.

Devon: And that's the power of a website, too, like LinkedIn. It's not… yes, they post jobs. Yes, you can reach out to recruiters. There's all those pieces. But a lot of it is really, it's about those interconnections, and that's really what social media was supposed to be about before it got to be about hearts and likes and everybody thinking you were wonderful and being an influencer. It was supposed to be about connectivity and finding those interconnections. And I still get such a kick out of it when I connect with somebody for the first time, really, on any platform, and I see them connected to somebody that is like a totally different part of my life. But I know that person, too. And I'm like, I have no idea how you two ever came across each other, but apparently you did, and I think there's something really fun about that. Of course, in the 80s, we all talked about the whole six degrees of Kevin Bacon, that whole situation, right? And of course, our parents listening will remember this. 

Devon: That's basically what we're talking about here, right? Is how do you leverage some of those circumstances? You do have an existing network. No matter how young you are, you have family and friends and teachers and neighbors and people who are connected to those people. Right?  So there's really not an age where you can't start doing these kinds of things. So it's like, yeah, when you hear the neighbor down the street is organizing a garage sale, and you're like, you know what? I'd love to help you sift through your stuff. Then you get chatting, and then the ball starts rolling, and that's what happens. And then two, three weeks, three, four months, whatever it is down the road, it's, oh, so-and-so tells me you're looking for a job. I'm looking to hire for the summer or whatever, and that is how these things happen. And it's funny because it can be a little scary to just kind of go and be curious and explore and be open and try things. But that is honestly the fastest way to learn more about careers, to find jobs, to do a lot of these things that are related to career development. 

Sarah-Jane: Absolutely. It does feel a little bit like risk taking, which is, in fact, how happenstance, part of how happenstance happens. And the other piece is about persistence. When I talk about reaching out to potential employers, I'm like, you'll get a 10% response. So when you go in and you know, that's the kind of response rate you're going to get. You get more. And people are like, oh, my gosh, you said not to expect more. You're right. I set very low expectations, because then if more happens, great. But really, what's realistic is, and so I think that it's not giving up on the first time like we do anything, right. We've got to keep going a little bit. The other thing I would say with, I'm going to say a couple of concrete things about happenstance taking advantage of unexpected disappointments. Maybe there's something better. Being open to changing locations and occupations. I think that's going to be super critical in the next five to ten years. I think maybe? 

Devon: Yeah, I think you're right that adaptability is going to be, I mean, it's been on number one skills employers are looking for lists for 10 or 15 years now is just that ability to take what you have and sort of stretch it so it extrapolates a little bit into a different field, or it looks a little 8different, but the base skill set is. That's massive. For sure. And for sure, that idea of creating circumstances to the best of your ability will absolutely be a part of that. 

Sarah-Jane: Exactly. I love…one of my employers. When we were having a really difficult time with a particular piece of the work. She simply drew a circle, and it was about, what's the piece that we can control? It's like 10%. So let's 100% focus on the 10% that we can actually control. And when you start to list what you can control, it

just feels like, okay, there are things that I can do. Absolutely. There's all sorts of other stuff outside here that's like, I can't do it. I can't control it. And that's okay. And you'll find that you forget about that other piece because you figured out what you can't control.

Devon: Yep. 

Sarah-Jane: Awesome. Is there anything else you wanted to add about happenstance?

Devon: I don't think there's anything else I would add at this point. What about you?

Sarah-Jane: I think we've covered it in a good kind of way. So next episode will be about chaos theory, which is not my area of expertise – 

Devon: But I'm going to nerd out hard! I cannot wait. It's gonna be so good.

Sarah-Jane: This is why we collaborate. Thanks for tuning into this episode of The One About Careers and tune in next week for the next one. 

Devon: See you next time.

Devon: Thanks for listening to The One About Careers podcast.

Sarah-Jane: You can catch up with past episodes at theoneaboutcareers.com.

Devon: Join us next week for another bite-sized conversation.