Don’t Quit Your Day Job

Prior to forging a career in tech, Aliza Knox spent decades as a global finance and consulting executive and is now a Board Director as well as a Senior Advisor for Boston Consulting Group. Awarded 2020 APAC IT Woman of The Year, she has recently launched her new book titled ‘Don’t Quit Your Day Job’.

AMT:  What drove you to write ‘Don’t Quit Your Day Job’?

Aliza Knox:  I’ve been doing a lot of casual mentoring via one-off coffees. If there’s one idea I learned from tech, it’s that things need to be scalable. Also, I don’t really like coffee. So I thought I’d write down a lot of what I share in these sessions.  In the climate of #TheGreatResignation, many people believe they need to quit their jobs to get what they want. I don’t think that’s always the case, so I want to explain my views on how to get what you need from your career and your life. The title doesn’t mean you should never quit, only that you may not need to quit.

AMT:  Can you share some of the mindshifts in the book?

AK:  One of the key mindshifts is that you need to nurture your relationship with your career, just as you do with a partner.

Once upon a time the mindset was that work was just something you did to earn money for whatever you needed, whether that be housing or raising kids or your equestrian passion.

We’ve moved through phases, which included finding meaning and fulfillment, and maybe even fun in your job, to looking for mission-driven companies, to then having work fulfill your passions. I think that sets too high an expectation for most people.

For some, it works out that everything they want in life is fulfilled in their career, but for most it doesn’t. People are multi-faceted and have different aspects to their life.

This means that a career probably cannot deliver on everything you need, as is the case with a life partner. If you’re in a relationship with another person – marriage or long-term relationship or even a short-term one – most therapists will tell you that you cannot expect that person to fulfill all your needs.

To be honest, most people are in their career even longer than they’re in a relationship, maybe until the age at which they stop working. In my case, I’ve worked about 40 years, and I’ve been in my current relationship for about 34. Very early on, I learned not to put all my demands, all my personal needs, on this one person, in my case, my husband.

I also talk about your career and your life being on the same side and staying away from that word, “Balance.” That word, when talking about Work and Life, brings up visions of a seesaw, and that means, if one side goes up, the other side goes down. I admit, I don’t think you can do absolutely everything you want, all the time, even if you never slept. But, as in the case with Cindy Carpenter, who carved out time to Chair The Bread and Butter Project in Australia because she cared deeply about the refugee situation, it not only fulfilled her personally and did not detract from her role running her business.  It actually added to her career by attracting attention from new clients. This can also apply to parenting while building a career.

I found myself able to have kids and to keep going with my work at Boston Consulting Group. I’m not saying everybody should do this, but I don’t like the idea that people who are new to parenting feel that they must make an either-or decision. In the book, I share the example of Suzy Nicoletti, who had convinced herself she couldn’t do those two things at the same time, but ultimately gave it a try (with some nudging). She went on to become the Head of Twitter in Australia and New Zealand and recently move to run Yotpo across APAC – oh, and she’s had three kids while doing this.

AMT:  Tell me about your move from banking to technology.

AK:  I was living in the Bay Area in Northern California, which includes Silicon Valley. We’d had the first dot-com boom and bust. I was at a meeting between VISA and Google where I met Vint Cerf, one of the real founders of the Internet. I followed up on the meeting appropriately for business and then I thought, I just met this amazing guy at an amazing company. Maybe I should take action. And so I wrote another note to him, this time from my personal email. I said that I hoped I wasn’t being too audacious and that I liked financial services and certainly hadn’t mastered it, but had been in it for a long time, but that I felt like I was missing out on a new industry. I noted I was new to online media and to tech but was keen to be part of it and learn. He responded and that led to me moving to Google. Google went through all my credentials to make sure I was appropriately smart/capable but then they asked, ‘what do we do with someone like you?’ I said all my roles, from being a partner at Boston Consulting Group to running the Commercial Card at VISA International, involve sales and product. Ultimately, I took on a sales role responsible for about two-thirds of the Asia Pacific revenue.

AMT:  Talk to us about your other ways of using serendipity in business.

AK: There is the kind of serendipity where Kate Moss, who became a supermodel, was spotted in a New York airport. I’m still waiting for that and get hopeful every time I show up at Kingsford Smith. But the kind of serendipity that I talk to people about is not that passive.  It’s opportunity, plus action. When I met Vint Cerf I could have said, “Oh, it’s nice to meet you,” and have left it at that. And he might not have responded.  But I seized the opportunity to reach out, which led to a career pivot for me. I really encourage people to be open-minded and think about when opportunities present themselves.

AMT:  I loved that story about when you moved to Manhattan for your first job at a bank. Tell us how you fulfilled some life needs with an attached work function.

AK: When I arrived in New York, I started looking for a place to go swimming. I wanted a 25-yard pool to do laps because I really needed that daily physical release. Swimming pools are not a common feature in Manhattan’s city landscape. But there was a huge brand-new gym and pool at New York University just a few blocks from where I lived. The catch was I had to be an NYU student to use it.  Even though I had just finished university and was in a bank training program, hence tired of studying, I decided to take a class at NYU so that I could swim. My employer would pick up the fees as long as I earned good grades. It turned out to be like a free gym, with homework attached. It also delivered an MBA, which I did not need then, but which enabled me, later to get the job at Boston Consulting Group in Australia.

I didn’t foresee that job. I didn’t know that I wanted to be a consultant. I didn’t even know what consulting was. So in a way, it was just serendipity, as well as further proof that work and life aren’t on opposite sides.

AMT:   Managers and CEOs are always working longer hours than others appreciate. I know they are also looking for guidance.

AK:   There are periods in life where you may need to work long hours, no doubt about it.

If you’re a new employee at many professional services firms or investment banks, if you’re a CEO, or if you’re an owner or founder, work may take most of your time. So maybe you have a little bit less time during some periods for the rest of your life. But I do believe that it’s a high bar for a career to fulfill all your passions and all your needs.  So, you probably need to allow time for some other activities. There are always trade-offs.  You can’t work all day and be with your kids all day.

Everyone talks about how much more productive we’ve become during the pandemic. And in a way we have, because of course many people saw their commutes disappear and could use that time. On the other hand, the blurring of boundaries between home and work may be what’s causing a lot of the burnout that we see today. The productivity increase seems to be partly due to the COVID-driven expectation that we could reach out to people at any time.

Overworked CEOs and managers need boundaries, and it’s important for them to model these for employees as well. I have always been committed to work, but there are times that I’m not on email or not at the premises. Although it sometimes sounds like the more hours you spend at the office, the better, usually there is some sort of limit to how productive you can be.  You need to figure out where that point of diminishing marginal returns is and do other things instead. Is it 12 hours at the factory or in the business, or 10 or eight?  Set that boundary and let employees in on it as well. That way, employees also optimise what they contribute when they are working, but don’t burn out.

Right now, retention is the ‘new black’. Keeping employees is especially important in a time where there’s a tight labour market and people are switching jobs with greater frequency. One cause of people switching is burnout (already addressed). Another is a desire for flexibility. People are also seeking pay rises. But I think what’s most important – and what comes through loud and clear in recent McKinsey research, is that employees still want their companies to value them and managers to be invested in their development. By setting boundaries, not only can CEOs take care of themselves, but they can also show employees that they value them and don’t want you to burn out. Many other things are important too, like providing insightful and actionable feedback, as well as training to demonstrate that they want to help their employees develop.

AMT:  Can you tell me about the book overall in brief?

AK:  My six essential mind shifts when put into practice, will set you up for long-term success and longevity in your career. Although the modern workforce may be changing rapidly, these strategies for rising and thriving are proven, and will stand the test of time. They will also provide you with a road map to excel in your career and love the life you’ve designed at the same time.

 

 

Aliza is donating all her profits from the book to Vital Voices, a non-profit organisation that works to elevate women’s leadership around the world to push for progress.

 

alizaknox.com

 vitalvoices.org