Six Things I’ve Learned About Careers

Sometimes the career you thought you’d have isn’t the one that suits you best.

Trevor Farrow, ’11 PhD, comes from a family of health professionals. In his youth, he would visit his parents at work in the hospital just to see how things worked. So, it seemed that medicine, in some form, would be a natural career choice.

But no matter how hard he tried, Farrow couldn’t quite get the hang of math and science; formulas, calculations and graphs just didn’t come naturally. Still, he persisted. It wasn’t until friends convinced him to take a course on Soviet politics during his undergraduate degree that Farrow realized he had other options. That class stirred something inside him.

Studying the humanities led him to the study of law and today, Farrow is the dean of law at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School.

Settling on the right profession is hard enough. Finding satisfaction in that career? Even more difficult. Here are some lessons Farrow has learned about making your career (and your life) work.

1: Find your joy.

Science was in Farrow’s family, but not in him. “You don’t want to keep struggling with what you think you should do,” he says. Instead, he found joy and passion in questions that didn’t necessarily have clear answers. “I feel fortunate that I finally found the things that interested me instead of the things I thought I was supposed to be interested in.”

2: Serendipity is us.

Planning and foresight are good — in theory. The truth is, taking advantage of even a little bit of serendipity is probably how most of us find our way. “I could tell a great story as though I meant to do everything I’ve done, but that would be complete and utter B.S.,” says Farrow.

Even after pursuing law, he thought he would settle down in Toronto as a litigation lawyer. But Fred Zemans, a professor at Osgoode, asked him to help teach a law course, and that changed everything. “You can plan, but your plans have to be flexible enough to take up opportunities — some you really didn’t know of.”

3: Know your audience.

No matter what you’re doing — writing, teaching, building, helping others — it’s likely that you’ll have an audience at some point. Farrow says it’s important to learn about them and to tailor your approach. In the context of teaching, that means trying different things for different groups. When he teaches experienced lawyers, for example, “it could be exercises, it could be anecdotes, it could be experiences, lectures or self-reflections — whatever lights up a room.”

He advises that you recognize and value the varied experiences of your audience. “It’s not about me,” he says. “It’s about the student, the reader, the client, the judge.” More generally, it’s about empathy and understanding, which applies in almost any career.

4: Practice makes for pretty good.

People think that if you do something often enough, you will perfect it. “Maybe others might reach perfection, but I haven’t, and I think most of us won’t,” Farrow says. “There’s nothing wrong with that.” Steady improvement is a laudable goal. And don’t be afraid of criticism, he says; you’ll learn from it. “I’ve forgotten most of the good feedback I’ve received, but I remember pretty much all the bad. Feedback helps us improve.”

5: You can’t do it all. So, don’t.

Knowing what you can and cannot do is extremely important. Rely on colleagues and peers, Farrow says. “Draw those people in so that they can do their job and feel valued. You can’t control or do everything. Getting help is a sign of strength, not weakness.”

6: You are not your resumé.

Some of Farrow’s toughest and most rewarding experiences unfolded at the rink, not in the classroom or courtroom. “I’ve spent years of nights and weekends coaching our kids’ hockey teams, which I wouldn’t trade for anything,” he says. “Of course our jobs matter, and I really do care about my work. But at the end of the day, we’re humans, not walking resumés.”