I stunk at sports as a kid. I don’t think I ever got a hit in baseball and avoided contact like the plague in football. But basketball was different. In first grade I joined my school’s basketball team and did not score a single point the whole year. My dad then did something great; he put up a goal in our driveway. I spent all summer pretending I was Michael Jordan or Corliss Williamson out on that driveway. The first game in 2nd grade I scored 10 points! Now I was not some basketball prodigy by any stretch of the imagination but my hard work really paid off! As I went into 3rd, 4th and 5th grade I grew tired of the school league. We all got equal playing time and every team/player got a trophy at the end. I remember thinking this isn’t fair! I practiced all the time and was better than all but two players on my team, so why did the kid who skipped practice and not care get equal playing time and a trophy? My dad explained ‘son you are young and right now it’s about learning the game. Your 
coach has to look out for all the kids who signed up it is not about winning yet.” I eventually moved on to ‘competitive leagues’ for kids who did care. This really woke me up and I realized I wasn’t as good as I thought but at least I knew. Not playing as much wasn’t fun but I couldn’t argue they were players better than me. It motivated me for a few years to get better and eventually let me be at peace with giving up basketball.
Sadly ‘participation trophies’ don’t end in 3rd grade. I have been in work environments where people receive physical awards/trophies for simply doing their job. It can be infuriating. At my last job as an analyst I was trapped in a participation trophy culture and you will likely find yourself in one at some point in your career. The key is GET WHAT YOU NEED AND GET OUT. As a kid I learned the game and then made the leap to the ‘competitive league.’ At my last job I got stuck for 8 months waiting for my clearances to come through and in that time the government (smartly) decided to cut 8 analysts down to 5. I was the obvious choice to be cut since I didn’t have my clearances and didn’t have ‘intel’ experience. As you recall I fought my way into an analyst job and excelled. I did 8 briefings in 8 months while others did 2 briefings in 18 months.
I was called on by our Director for my expertise and received real awards for going above and beyond what any had ever done. This didn’t seem to matter. Our manager did everything she could to make sure we were all equal.
When the opportunity would arise for travel she would insist on others going first since I “had already done a lot of things.” By things he meant go to trainings and classes that were offered to everyone and only I cared enough to attend. This job quickly became not to identify talent and grow our expertise to the government client it was make sure everyone was treated the same regardless of attitude, ability, or effort.
Be on the lookout for managers who want to spend their time protecting weak performers rather than help strong performers. Maybe they do this because there is no upward mobility for them so they are rattled by high performers below them. Usually I think it is the fact they don’t want to admit they made a mistake by hiring someone or they fear if they fire someone they won’t be able to replace them and suddenly they don’t manage as many people.
You don’t have to avoid these places just have a plan. For me I really wanted to get exposed to intelligence and finally begin applying my degrees. That job was perfect. The bar was so low that even my initial failures weren’t considered failures. I was allowed to work independently and learn what I wanted to learn. Within two weeks I was better than 3 of the 4 other analysts. It was quickly apparent that there was no upward mobility, in the 6 years of this contract no person in my position had ever moved up within the company or was hired directly by the client. So I got what I needed and got out. I left with great experience and amazing connections. This wasn’t a place to hunker down and build a career it was the school league to learn the game.
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