Dan Miller Quotes

Careers are a jungle gym, not a ladder.

I started out as a lawyer and came in laterally to Goldman Sachs. So I learned myself that life is unpredictable. That you really should, in terms of your career, try to be excellent at what you're doing. I think if you focus on your job, and you focus on being broad in the context of your job, the next jobs follow from that.

I have been constantly shaping and reshaping my career. I laid a foundation by doing respectful work in all media. And I am happy with what I have done.

Have a goal. Know where you want to end up. Knowing where you want to end up is a lot easier than figuring out how to start and how to get there. You will figure out how to get there. Do not chart your career. Trust me; you do not want to chart your career.

Your post-college years should be an exploratory time in your professional life. From your early twenties and on into your early thirties, you should feel free to explore your professional prospects. Keep an open mind, and don't expect to get everything right straight out of the gate. Be prepared to start over once or twice.

Stop looking for the 'right' career, and start looking for a job. Any job. Forget about what you like. Focus on what's available. Get yourself hired. Show up early. Stay late. Volunteer for the scut work. Become indispensable. You can always quit later, and be no worse off than you are today.

Just because you started your careers in a certain role, let's say hardware engineering, does not mean you'll end your careers in hardware.

Broaden your work experience - either within your company or through your job progression in other companies.

I've had a lot of careers in my life. When I think about it, I think every piece of that - from being a nurse, a farmer, dealing with real estate - has added to a skill set that I would have been able to use throughout my political career.

Careers will come and go. Talent is always there.

I never had anything planned, like, 'When I'm 40 I'll be coaching here.' A number of people in our profession have done that, but my thing was always, wherever I was coaching, to work hard, do the best you can, and if it happens, it happens.

I don't have a career plan. I've never done that. Things happen accidentally and I've been lucky.

The biggest message I have for young women is, Don't start cutting off branches of your career tree unnecessarily early. Sometimes women say, I know I want to have a family or play in the local symphony, and they start pulling themselves out of their career path. You don't have to take yourself out of the running before you even start.

I was never afraid of taking the wrong job because maybe it would hurt me. I was more interested in the experience.

When I talk to students - and I still think of myself more than anything as a kind of professor on leave - they say, 'Well, how do I get to do what you do?'... And I say, 'Well, you have to start out by being a failed piano major.' And my point to them is don't try to have a 10-year plan. Find the next thing that interests you and follow that.

I describe my career path as a zigzag, not a ladder.

On a career level, I always advise people to look ahead and be open to changes in direction. That job that seems so good now can easily turn into a nightmare if you do not see the possible corners it can land you in.

I think about my own career, and when I graduated from college, the Internet didn't really exist yet. And so not having a specific plan, being able to be opportunistic at the end, is what enabled me to make some of my best decisions, which is to go to places that were growing but that I didn't plan to have happen.

Sometimes you have to re-invent yourself in this business in order to be accepted in different roles.

I'm interested in long careers where you take detours.

I tried working with the best of directors and producers. I tried being selective, but things didn't work out. Now, I am open to working with anybody and everybody who is good. Or I'll try to make it good. That suits me.

Your career is not going to go the way you planned. It is impossible at the age of 23 to pick the right industry, the right company, and you can visualize what you're going to be doing in your 40s, 50s, and 60s, but chances are that it's going to be something quite different. So remain open to opportunities and change.

I'm hoping that other people can learn from me, both the mistakes I've made or the opportunities I've had, or for the decisions I've made: for instance, not to go and take a lot of different jobs in a lot of different places, but to stay in one place for most of my career.

Don't be afraid to learn on the job. No matter how much preparation you've done, the tech industry is changing so fast that we're all learning every day.

You can hit the proverbial roof at certain areas in the industry unless you venture out. And I never really set out in my career to stay in one place. I wanted to go out and try new things. Luckily, I've had that opportunity.