Anh in front of Temple of the Jade Mountain, which commemorates a Vietnamese leader who defeated the foreign invaders from the north. Credit to Phan Tuấn Nam (Anh’s dad) If you asked me 10 years ago if I loved my country, the answer would have been NO. I am from Vietnam, and from the day I was born, my parents gave me a goal: “Get out of this country! Your future is abroad.” My name has only two words and no accents (compare my name, Phan Anh, to a typical Vietnamese name like Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân) because my dad thought it would be easier for Westerners to pronounce. This West-ward mentality ..read more

Looking thoroughly lost. Credit to Anh Phan. giving people advice when I don’t even have myself figured out I consider myself a professional at getting rejected for things; I’ve seen it all. Take my growing collection of hundreds of rejection emails. Some of them lead me on for a bit: “you impressed us and we are very happy to offer you our best wishes for the future...” Some of them get right to the point: “you were not the strongest candidate for the role”. I often have one in my inbox at the start of the week. You can imagine how it felt, then, when I found myself drafting rejection emails ..read more

Taken in Northern California, when I was visiting friends against whom I’d compare myself. Credit to Natalie Chiang. Last week, we set out to define what a “quarter life crisis” is, and Hunter told us about his. This week, we continue with Natalie’s story. Natalie – a quarter life crisis in career clichés It’s common to read about the desirability of a growth mindset, as opposed to a fixed mindset, in today’s career literature. The tldr is this: a fixed mindset assumes static intelligence, implying that at any point in time, the best you can do then is the best you can ever do. This has impor ..read more

This school felt so big when we started there, but seven years later, it just looks cozy and sheltered! Credit to Natalie Chiang. What is a quarter life crisis? We somewhat deliberately posed this question when we named this project QuarterLife, a reference to the well-known midlife crisis. We’ve been thinking about the answer for over a year now. People our age seem to share a common experience: a period of confusion, listlessness, even dread around their early twenties when they’re figuring out what to do with themselves – professionally and otherwise. Our own quarter life crises came at a ..read more

Long-lost love. Credit to Hunter McGuire I first met the traditional office at my first “real” job; I was working in an older building that was decidedly buttoned-up in its approach to working space. I didn’t know what to make of its traditionalism when I first laid eyes on its four walls, on its coat rack all my own, on its sunny window, and most mysterious of all, on its door, with hinges, a handle, and – I gasped – a lock. By the time I sat down in the chair (which I adjusted to my height and which, to the best of my knowledge, no one else ever sat in during my time working there), I was i ..read more

“Okay take my picture while I pretend to be busy” If you’re not a regular on this website, welcome, stay a while! If you are, you’ve probably noticed that the frequency at which we publish has fluctuated, and that recently it’s been pretty low.  Writing and sharing these stories and observations about my career has been one of the highlights of my past year and a half. It’s something I always look forward to, and even when we don’t have content to share, talking with the QuarterLife team about whatever is going on in our lives is a joy that I don’t get tired of. So why haven’t I been wri ..read more

Natalie, five years ago. Credit to Darren So We at QuarterLife are all turning 25 this year! We’ve grown a lot in just the past five years: studying, graduating, and starting our careers. In this series, we reflect on the most important pieces of advice we’d give to ourselves five years ago. Dear five-years-younger Natalie, Yesterday, I was at a picnic celebrating our friend C’s birthday; I picked up a bouquet of balloons and a card, while the other girls picked up flowers and a cake. We gathered at a park with a skyline view, and the five of us laughed uproariously and chatted enthusiastical ..read more

Thank you for attending your recent interview for the position of Flower in Pot. We regret to inform you that you were not successful at the interview stage this time. Unfortunately we will be unable to provide you with any additional feedback. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest you have shown in working in this pot and we would encourage you to apply for future jobs on our site and register with our talent pool so that we can update you on any upcoming vacancies that match your interests. We wish you success with any future applications. professional in pro ..read more

Credit to Levi Clancy on Unsplash. This is not the piece I expected to write for QuarterLife. I often feel that career advice always needs a positive oomph to it — a takeaway, so to speak. Career advice should be inspiring and uplifting. It should energize, not demoralize. It should come from a place of experience and wisdom, rather than one of learning or, at worst, disorientation. For that reason, I’ve hesitated for many years to write this piece. I’ve hesitated, in simple terms, to talk shit about my own career. I’ve realized in the course of writing this that I have no positive takea ..read more

True colours! Credit to Natalie Chiang I’m a deeply private person – so I don’t talk much about “coming out”. What does the term bring to your mind? Maybe someone like Ellen DeGeneres, or another celebrity pioneer whose version of it made headlines. Maybe you think of your own experience, or that of someone you know.  For me – especially as it concerns the workplace – I try not to think about this loaded term at all. coming out  Let’s back up a bit. I think that the 1990’s coming-out ritual remains how we, as a society, think about sexual orientation, especially in the workplace. It ..read more