Welcome to Edition #108 of Gorick's newsletter, where Harvard career advisor and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Gorick Ng shares what they don't teach you in school about how to succeed in your career.
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→ Read time: 3 min
STORY
How Karen Kaplan went from receptionist to CEO
If you’ve seen a Dunkin’ Donuts ad from the mid-2010s, it was probably an ad that was created by Hill Holliday—the 17th largest ad agency in the U.S.
But did you know that one of its former CEOs started her career there… as a receptionist?
In 1982, Karen Kaplan was hired as Hill Holliday’s new receptionist. She “didn’t even want to work in advertising”—but, after demonstrating her Three C’s for 2 years, successfully moved laterally from receptionist to a project management assistant.
Then, one day, Kaplan noticed an “accordion-folded, burnt-looking piece of paper” stuck in the office photocopy machine. She pulled it out and looked at it.
It was a page showing exactly what every senior officer and executive at the company made per year.
“I didn’t even know people made six figures,” she later recalled. “I thought, ‘Wow, I could spend some time at this place.’”
And she did.
Over the next 30 years, Kaplan “rose through the ranks”—moving from receptionist to account coordinator to account executive to manager to director to president. In 2013, 31 years after she started as a receptionist, Kaplan became CEO of Hill Holliday.
What does this mean for you?
The next time you feel stuck in place or unsure about what’s even possible for you, remember Kaplan—who couldn’t imagine a six-figure salary until she literally saw one printed on paper.
UNSPOKEN RULE
You can’t be what you can’t see
“You can’t be what you can’t see” is a phrase often used in education, but it applies just as powerfully to grown-up careers. Whether you're 21 or 51, it's hard to pursue something you’ve never imagined—and even harder if no one around you is doing it.
Karen Kaplan wasn’t aiming for the C-suite when she answered phones at Hill Holliday. But one random moment—discovering a salary sheet—flipped a switch. It gave her a glimpse of what was out there—and what was possible.
And that changed everything.
Most people aren’t stuck because they lack talent—they’re stuck because they haven’t seen enough options. Their vision of “what’s next” is limited by what’s visible around them.
Feeling stuck?
- The next time you meet someone, ask yourself: Do I want their job? If yes, ask them, “What’s surprised you most about this role?” or “What helped you transition from [X] to [Y]?”
- The next time you have a free night or weekend, think of a friend you like but who’s doing something totally different in their career from you. Then, ask if they’d like to hang out. And if they say “yes,” see if they’d like to invite anyone else.*
If your day-to-day feels like a loop, it may simply be that you’re uninspired—and haven’t yet seen what’s possible. A lawyer turned wilderness tour guide I met recently put it best: “I needed to get out of my own echochamber.”
*Don’t believe in the power of parties? Just read my edition on the director of Barbie.
Remember: The first step to realizing your dreams... is realizing that it's actually an option for you.
See you on Thursday for my AMA,
—Gorick
What’s an “unspoken rule”? They’re the things that separate those who get ahead from those who stumble—and don’t know why. You can learn more about these rules in the workplace in my Wall Street Journal bestselling book called—you guessed it—The Unspoken Rules.
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