Name: Candice Olson
Job Title and Description: Co-Founder and Co-CEO of The Fullbridge Program
College/Major: Columbia, M.Ed.; Union Theological School, MA; Harvard Business School, MBA
Website: www.fullbridge.com/program
Twitter Handle: @Fullbridge_Inc
What does your current job entail? Is there such a thing as a typical day?
Candice Olson: There is no typical day in my job. I am always working – whether I am at the office in Cambridge, traveling through Jakarta and the Middle East or at home watching Greys with my laptop out – work is one great continuum to me.
What is the best part of your job?
CO: It is a mission that I really care about. It’s revolutionary. I like making a big difference. Work is more fun that way.
Our mission also attracts really interesting people. At our office, I work with people as young as 20 and as old as 60 – and they all work together closely and listen to one another. I get to talk to people all over the globe—from Riyadh, to Shanghai to Moscow. That’s why working at Fullbridge is fascinating.
What was your first entry-level job in your field and how did you get it?
CO: I spent seven years as a NOLS and Outward Bound Instructor. It was honestly the best training I could have asked for. Following business school, I did what so many business school grads do – I joined a large consulting firm in Silicon Valley. I disliked my job at that point in my career and realized I had only taken it because of peer pressure. It wasn’t right for me at all. When I joined that firm, I had made a “default” decision to follow so many of my business school colleagues.
What inspired you to create The Fullbridge Program?
CO: I was frustrated seeing kids graduate from really good schools feeling as if they had such narrow – or worse, no – career choices. Smart, motivated and ambitious students too often choose a default career option or decide to go directly to graduate school, law school or business school without knowing if it is a good fit for them or what they really want out of it. Preventing that was my number one inspiration.
Even for students who know that going straight into law school or investment banking is the best fit for them, The Fullbridge Program will give them a sense of self-awareness that is essential to helping them get the most out of that career choice.
You co-founded The Fullbridge Program with your husband! Do you have any tips for fostering a professional and personal relationship while still getting the job done?
CO: Smart women should never partner with anyone [who is] not their equal. Find your equal. If you do that, mutual respect will follow and all will be good.
Who is one person who changed your professional life for the better?
CO: My boss at NOLS. When I started there, I was terrified of heights (and therefore terrified of rock climbing). But I was good at everything else. One day, I was leading a group up a series of rock cliffs. I was petrified, so I was going slowly. My boss yelled out from the back of the group, “Lead, follow or get out of the f**king way!” Mortifying.
That very day, I resolved to get over my fear and learn to rock climb. I bought a climbing rope, threw it in my trunk and drove to Yosemite. I lived there for a year, and became a big wall climber. I did it. I learned to get over [my fear] and lead. Basically, if you are going to lead, you have to have the juice. Don’t fake it. That’s so uncomfortable. You have to really embrace the skills that allow you to lead.
What words of wisdom do you find most valuable?
CO: People give up too easily. Persevering is scary. I still get scared, but I don’t give up. I won’t give up. You have to keep asking yourself, “What’s a different way around this?”
And, of course, “Lead, follow or out of the f**king way!”
What is one mistake you made along the way and what did you learn from it?
CO: My consulting job and my traditional job at a Fortune 500 company. Both of those jobs had nothing to do with who I am. I wasn’t well-suited for them and they weren’t well-suited for me. Picking a career path without self-awareness is a big mistake. Students need to work with their strengths, but they have to know what those are first. This is why we put so much attention and emphasis on self-awareness.
What do you look for when considering hiring someone?
CO: I want people who want to change the world. People who really think it can, and should, be changed. And people who will have fun doing it—people who think of work as the best kind of play date. I would rather hire competence than potential. I want someone who can contribute right away, starting today.
What advice would you give to a 20-something with similar aspirations?
CO: Live frugally, so that you don’t limit your choices. Be an effective creator, so you can create the life that suits you perfectly.
Be thoughtful about mentors. Find one or two people who you want to be when you grow up. Engage them. Not to help you in the transactional sense, but so they are on your side. The way that I approach my relationship with my mentor is by being thoughtful about ways to make this relationship satisfying for him or her, too. You have to care about your bosses and mentors on a human level.
If you are going to take an entrepreneurial path, you have to practice not caring about what others think of you. This was never easy for me. I am sensitive and I don’t like criticism, but I trained myself to get past it.