What’s the secret to engineering a fulfilling future?
The answer is surprisingly simple, as Atlassian’s co-founder and CEO Scott Farquhar told us during the Year13 Expo held during National Careers Week earlier this year.
“One thing I’ve been a huge proponent of and spend a lot of time on is self-improvement,” Farquhar said.
“As in, really getting to know yourself. I’ve done that through psychometric testing, residential one day or week-long self-improvement retreats… because I think at the root of all this, it’s about two things: how fast can you learn, and how fast can you learn about yourself?”
Yeah, we know. Psychometric testing and fancy self-development retreats aren’t quite as accessible to Gen Z school leavers as Farquhar with his billionaire’s budget. But what he’s doing in essence is just getting to know himself. And to get started doing this he said young people just needed to ask themselves some simple questions.
“Like, what is it that you like? What is it that you don’t like? What are you good at, and what are you not good at?” he said.
And for the slightly bigger questions, like which career pathway to choose?
Again, it comes down to knowing yourself – and making a commitment to living your truth.
“If you love engineering, go to that. If you love science, go to that,” he said.
“Or if you’re passionate about the arts or creativity or being outdoors is where you want to be… understand what that is, be comfortable with it. That’s number one.”
To choose a career he said young people should find a role which combines their passions and talents along with “things the world cares about and wants to pay for”.
“Where those three things come together is your career,” he said.
Watch the full Year13 Expo interview between Year13 founder Saxon Phipps’ and Atlassian co-founder and CEO Scott Farquhar here.
