Want to love your job and advance your career at the same time? Learn simple ways to develop a career you love from Alec Brownstein, VP of Creative for Dollar Shave Club.

Alec has one of the coolest jobs out there – he runs all of Dollar Shave Club’s famously fun and clever content. Since joining with the founding team, Alec has had a lot of different roles at DSC as it’s grown and is an expert at shaping careers.

This article covers some of Alec’s tips from our interview on how to enjoy your job more and continuously develop yourself as you advance through your career.

Reframe your career

The term ‘career path’ often sounds more rigid than it is. Once in your first job, it’s common to feel social pressure to make a path similar to others.

I’ve met too many people who followed others’ footsteps only to one day realize they didn’t like their job anymore. Worse, they now felt stuck and unable to change much about their careers.

“Compare the stress of picking a college to your first job, which arguably has a greater effect on your life trajectory,” Alec said when discussing how people often spend less time thinking about their first job than they did on picking a college.

Alec highlights how people should spend more time reflecting on their jobs and what they want from their careers. If you focus on the wrong things or only follow a career path because that’s what others have done you lose control and are less likely to end up with a job you love.  

            “Think about whatever job or experience you’ve had and what you liked about each. For your next job, find something where you get to do more of what you like. Keep getting more and more focused until you’re just doing the things you enjoy doing. And get really good at them”

There’s no such thing as a ‘traditional career path’ so don’t try to fit into what others say you need to do or your own pre-assumed ideas of what a career path should look like.

“People want to have a trajectory they can understand. They find comfort in that trajectory and use it to say ‘well, this is what I do’. People talk themselves out of things before anyone else does...they hold themselves back. Be very focused on what you like to do and keep working to do more of that”

Regardless of your field, if you don’t focus on doing what you love, you likely won’t end up doing what you love. Don’t be afraid to chase a less common path if it makes you happy.

Alec then explained two key aspects to loving any job and leveraging it to get a job you love even more.

Expand on what you love

Throughout your career, always expand on your interests and develop the skills that allow you to do them more. How?

View every job as a chance to learn something new and gain new experiences. Focus on getting jobs that provide the opportunity to work on:

• Things you know you like
• Things you’re interested in learning more about

Within those two categories, find jobs that will deepen your skills and allow you to take your craft to the next level. The more the job lets you develop your skills in what you like and want to learn, the more you’ll be able to do them in the future.  

Do what you love and get really good at it. Use whatever you’ve learned and experiences you’ve gained to make sure your next role has more of a focus on the things you like.

Continuously challenge yourself

It’s never too late to find things you like about whatever job you’re in. To know where you want to go, you first need to know what you like. If you’re having trouble finding that, get more engaged with your work by finding interesting challenges for yourself.

“You’ll enjoy what you do as long as you’re learning and experiencing different challenges”

Find new challenges for your interests. There are tons of ways to grow-

• Take on a project with another team

• Learn about other roles or divisions
• Find a mentor
• Start a side project
• Talk to cool people in your field
• Take an online class

Do whatever you can to find new challenges and build skills around the things you find interesting.

Leverage your work and experience on these and show your initiative to move into a role better aligned with your interests. Use this to craft your story of being the perfect fit.

Don't lose sight of your goal

Finally, while this advice may be fairly straightforward, it’s not always easy. Be reflective and honest with yourself on what you like and what you want to do more of in the future. Stay focused on learning and getting more experience on what will help you get there.

There’s no one ‘perfect’ career path to aim for so be flexible and patient. The most important thing is to not lose sight of what you’re aiming for and to continuously chase what interests you.

Huge thank you to Alec Brownstein for taking the time to chat. Talking with you was encouraging and I really enjoyed hearing your perspectives on life.