Don’t tie yourself to a set career path, advises Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
Especially when you’re young or early in your career, you might have an idea of your perfect dream job, and the exact steps you need to take to achieve it. But challenging yourself and embracing new opportunities, even if they don’t align with your intended career or college major, can play a huge role in having a fulfilling career, Khosrowshahi said during a fireside chat with Brown University president Christina H. Paxson on April 10.
“I have gotten unbelievably lucky in my career, but I’ve gotten lucky because I’m very, very open to anything,” said Khosrowshahi, 55, who’s helmed Uber since 2017. “Be curious about meeting new people, be curious about interests that are outside of your immediate field of education … and that curiosity will open you up to the world and open you up to opportunity.”
Before Uber, Khosrowshahi worked in a variety of industries, including 12 years as the CEO of travel company Expedia and seven years as the CFO at IAC, a holding company of digital media platforms including Investopedia and Verywell, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He got to the C-Suite — and stayed there — due to his rampant curiosity, and the relationships he built with leaders and mentors who helped guide him, rather than any naked ambition to chase impressive job titles, he said.
“I just worried a lot less in my life about what I was doing, [and] I was much more focused on who I was working for, and that served me well over time,” said Khosrowshahi.
You can train yourself to be more open and curious, according to psychologist and leadership development expert Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic. Start by intentionally setting aside 20-30 minutes to work on learning a new skill, research a topic you find interesting or pick someone’s brain about their career journey.
Not having time or being in an unstimulating job are “merely excuses” that keep you from learning, Chamorro-Prezmusic wrote for Harvard Business Review in 2023.
“In reality, there is nothing actually stopping us from harnessing our curiosity,” he wrote. “It’s really just about picking the right priorities and making a deliberate effort to learn, to have novel experiences, and to close the gap between what we know and want to know.”
Simple questions like, “What are you good at?” and “What do you enjoy doing?” can help you identify your strengths, weaknesses and areas of improvement, whether you’re seeking to build new skills on your current job or preparing to make a career jump, neuroscientist Juliette Han told
Indeed CEO Chris Hyams even asks those types of simple, open-ended questions when interviewing job candidates, he said in February. A person’s answer to them are more important to him than a resume, he added.
“If you can spend 45 minutes talking about baking sourdough, and the 57 different recipes that you’ve tried … When people have that intense curiosity … it’s just a question of, what else can you fall in love with?” said Hyams.
