Be A Verb Not A Noun
- May 18, 2022
- 4 min read
Written by: Careers Collective, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
As a busy working mother of three school-age children with a new pet thrown into the mix, I was surprised to find myself recently on an actual girls’ night out in Bath (I know!!) and a prominent feature of that evening’s plan of action was the need to hire an Uber. Now, I live in a rural area not served by Uber; we have a chap with a big car in the village next door who doesn’t mind too much picking up his neighbours from various backwaters after they have had too much of the local ale, so an Uber felt modern, convenient and efficient. Grown up, even.
What was most exciting about the Uber experience, however, were the drivers. As an entrepreneur running, with a Co-founder, a digital business in the careers sector, I consider myself an innovator and look for innovation wherever I go, so I was delighted to find innovation in abundance on my ride in and out of Bath city centre.
First we had a female driver, also a parent, who had previously run a sandwich business, then retrained as a taxi driver during the pandemic when it became clear that it was no longer a going concern because of lockdown conditions. She had a wonderful ‘get on with it, why not’ kind of attitude and had no reservations about adapting to new circumstances and trying something new. She seemed to be thoroughly enjoying her time as an Uber driver, and we got the impression that she could take her enterprising spirit into a whole host of different sectors and roles before she was through with her career.
Our return journey was just as inspiring; this time we met a Romanian driver whose integration into British culture seemed to have been characterised by a similar ‘can do’ approach. He was cheerful about everything and delighted in teaching us some of his mother tongue and laughing at the awful linguistic results.
A few weeks later, I was back in Bath again, this time for a birthday day out in honour of my daughter’s 13th, which ended unfortunately because our catalytic converter was stolen. (Park and Ride car parks are apparently dodgier than I had realised!) The insurance company duly provided us with a taxi home so we had the opportunity to get to know another enterprising taxi driver, originally from Eastern Europe, who had moved from driving as a freelancer for other firms to setting up his own business, again prompted by lockdown and again because he thought, well why not? He now has 5 drivers working for him and has decided to offer a specialist service, transporting children with additional needs and disabilities to and from school in an adapted minibus, as well as rescuing stranded victims of crime for my insurance company. He was delighted by his success and proud to share that with me, and was keen to know how my Co-founder and I had turned pandemic adversity into a new business opportunity.
Now, I don’t suppose many children confidently tell their teachers during early careers lessons that they ‘want to be a taxi driver when I grow up’, yet here are three individuals who are making a very nice living out of just that and seem enormously happy in that space. They are entrepreneurs, have side hustles and portfolio careers. They are studying and looking for the next opportunity.
This got me thinking and I remembered something Stephen Fry said on the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show in February in response to a question about what kind of career he might be engaged in if he weren’t ‘in television’. He thought perhaps he’d be teaching, but reflected that really, career aspirations should centre on how one wants to behave, rather than what job one wants to have. He said, ‘Be a verb, don’t be a noun’. Following Stephen’s logic, we might, instead of asking children what (job) they want to fulfil (and the research-based answers are going to be doctor, architect, teacher, sports star) we could ask them what emotion they want to be feeling or what skills they want to be using. In other words, who they want to be. Could our children articulate those answers more effectively? Could they say: I want to be a useful, logical person. I want to be kind. I want to be inventive and creative. I want to inspire people. I want to lead.
If children were able to identify the activities, skills and ways of being that they aspired to embody, might that make the process of career development more intuitive and less fraught with the stress and burden of making the right choice? We know that the stock occupation answers, listed above and still given by children when asked what job they want to do, bear little resemblance to the kinds of opportunity that now exist or the kinds of jobs and sectors that are growing and will be available to them. Cyber security, data science and sustainability are words which feature in the job descriptions of tomorrow and they require a skill set that includes creative thinking, problem-solving, communication, flexibility and empathy, and we need our young people to start to identify and appreciate which skills and attributes they naturally align with and want to develop in order to be successful in that future world. And young people might want to be entrepreneurial. They might want to drive taxis.
Careers Collective, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Careers Collective was formed in response to the pandemic – to responses to the changing landscape and support anyone who is preparing to enter the world of work. As a collaborative collaborators bring their ideas, expertise and experience – many heads are better than two.
Careers Collective aim to bring about change, encourage self-determination, help individuals grow and meaningfully establish themselves as part of a wide community.
Using a blended pedagogy of teaching and coaching Careers Collective help clients to develop and discover the tools, intrapersonal skills and personal leadership that under pins any career development journey.
