What advice would you give PTs about their careers who are looking for what’s next?

Whether you're a new graduate or have been working in PT for awhile, there are often questions that arise about what's next. In this video, Jenna and Phil discuss what they believe the "secret sauce" is in achieving career success.

Jenna:  Hey Phil. I think a lot of students struggle with what setting they want to go into.  So would you tell students that don't know what setting they want to go into or maybe like new grads that don't know exactly what they want out of their career or even other people that don't know what's next in their career.  What advice would you give them?

Phil:  That's a great question.  I heard this commencement speech that just really articulated it really well.  It was everybody tells you to pursue your passion, but frequently,

A. you don't may not know what your passion is or

B. you can't because you're in a certain setting, a certain place, certain time of your life, or you don't have the money to do it or the skills or, you know, lots of reasons that you can't pursue your passion. 

But what he said is that's actually bad advice is to pursue your passion. But what you should do instead is pursue what you're currently doing with passion and do those things with excellence.  And I will tell you, that is the secret sauce. In working with the highest level people in the profession, that is the secret sauce. They do all the little things and the stuff with excellence: the job that they hate, they still do it with passion and excellence, even though they hate the job or a particular aspect of the job, even though they hate their work circumstance or things like that. And that passion and excellence is what gets them recommended for the next thing. What do you think about that?

Jenna:  I think that's awesome. Yeah, I think that the better you show up or the more enthusiastically you show up, the better things come from it.  

Phil:  I was actually I was actually just on a meeting where someone didn't show up with excellence, even though they're nearly at the top of their profession. But they didn't show up with excellence and kind of a little bit crabby and that the other.  Well, guess what?  When an opportunity comes up, I can't recommend that person now.  So they now, without knowing it, have decreased their opportunity to pursue their passion because they didn't show up with passion and excellence.  So absolutely, I think it's I think it's the secret sauce.

Jenna:  That's awesome.