Hello, my name is Ashley Grice
and I am the CEO of Brighthouse,
the creative consultancy that is part of BCG.
First off, I want to say congratulations
on your milestone achievement,
and I say that with both excitement and trepidation.
I have two nieces who are also going through graduation
this year, and I get a sense
of both excitement and loss that they feel
achieving such an important piece in your life
at such a strange time.
As for advice, I get asked by students all the time
on finding a perfect first job,
and in light of the job market
and the changing ways of working
I thought this might be of worry to you,
so I wanted to quell your anxiety
by saying this, simply, there is no perfect first job
and the first job that you take
will not define the rest of your career.
In fact, it's taken me 25 years
to get into the perfect job which is where I am now
but I have certainly enjoyed the journey.
So instead of looking at perfection,
lean into a job where you can learn something
about yourself, pick up skills
both rational and emotional that will help you on your way.
When I'm asked about my career I often show people
two slides, the first one is how my career looks
on LinkedIn.
It starts with internships, it ends with my CEO position now
and along the way there are title changes
every couple of years, it looks very smooth,
a 45 degree angle, a slope of 1 to 1.
But in this way I think this LinkedIn is very misleading,
it is just as filtered as a Kardashian Instagram post,
don't let it fool you.
I then show what my real career looks like,
which is the same upward slope
but with lots of peaks and valleys along the way.
It's a very jagged trajectory, and it's in these jags
where I learned all the life skills I needed.
I learned things on the rational side
that I need to be where I am now,
how to price something, how to manage people,
how to run a PNL.
Also learned the emotional things
I need to be where I am now,
how to be a working parent, how to manage up,
how to manage Millennials.
It is the combination of the rational and emotional
where true leadership emerges,
and you learn these things in the jags of your career,
so if I can tell you one piece of advice
it would be to lean into the jags.
My career has had many jags, and as I look back
there are few things that I would change,
I don't think I would play anything differently,
because even when it was a time where I wasn't enjoying it
I was learning something about myself
and it allowed me to arrive at a place
where I was both accomplished and happy.
Things can change on a dime,
so don't focus as much on the destination
as you are on the journey.
Lean into what you want to learn
so that you can make sure you find value along the way.
I wish you all the very best,
I'm impressed by your generation's focus on authenticity,
on sustainability, on personal responsibility,
on inventiveness, please go do something with these gifts
and enjoy your journey.
Congratulations.