I’d agree with what Michelle says, though I also wanted to add some quick thoughts about:
What’s a good rule of thumb for letting go of your Plan A?
One simple way to think about it is that ultimately you have a list of options, and your job is to find and pick the best one.
Your Plan A is your current best guess option. You should change it once you find an option that’s better.
So, then the question becomes: have you gained new information that’s sufficient to change your ranking of options? Or have you found a new option that’s better than your current best guess?
That can be a difficult question. It’s pretty common to make a lot of applications in an area like this and not get anywhere, so it might only be a small negative update about your long-term chances (especially if you consider Denise’s comment below). So it could be reasonable to continue, though perhaps changing your approach – we’d normally encourage people to pursue more than one form of next step (i.e. apply to a wider range of common next steps in political careers, and then see which approach is working best).
Another good exercise could be to draw up a list of alternative longer-term paths, and see if any seem better (in terms of potential long-term impact, career capital, personal fit and satisfaction).
Thanks, Ben. I’ll be taking your suggestions on board! A small note:
It might only be a small negative update about your long-term chances.
I think this is highly likely. Several Cabinet Ministers and Shadow Cabinet Ministers were told at a young age that they were either not a good fit for their party or would never achieve ministerial office, or struggled to get their foot in the door.
Despite this, they persisted, and I would love EAs to embrace this attitude more. Currently it seems that people are shutting themselves off from long-term paths too early because they’re not seeing near-term success or think they won’t be among the best of the best at something they really care about.
I’d agree with what Michelle says, though I also wanted to add some quick thoughts about:
One simple way to think about it is that ultimately you have a list of options, and your job is to find and pick the best one.
Your Plan A is your current best guess option. You should change it once you find an option that’s better.
So, then the question becomes: have you gained new information that’s sufficient to change your ranking of options? Or have you found a new option that’s better than your current best guess?
That can be a difficult question. It’s pretty common to make a lot of applications in an area like this and not get anywhere, so it might only be a small negative update about your long-term chances (especially if you consider Denise’s comment below). So it could be reasonable to continue, though perhaps changing your approach – we’d normally encourage people to pursue more than one form of next step (i.e. apply to a wider range of common next steps in political careers, and then see which approach is working best).
Another good exercise could be to draw up a list of alternative longer-term paths, and see if any seem better (in terms of potential long-term impact, career capital, personal fit and satisfaction).
Thanks, Ben. I’ll be taking your suggestions on board! A small note:
I think this is highly likely. Several Cabinet Ministers and Shadow Cabinet Ministers were told at a young age that they were either not a good fit for their party or would never achieve ministerial office, or struggled to get their foot in the door.
Despite this, they persisted, and I would love EAs to embrace this attitude more. Currently it seems that people are shutting themselves off from long-term paths too early because they’re not seeing near-term success or think they won’t be among the best of the best at something they really care about.