You Go, Girl! Managing Your Career
“What do you want to be doing in five years? In ten years?” You know, the question that people sometimes ask in interviews? If you ask senior executives, while some stayed in the same functional area all their lives, many will tell you that they started out their careers doing something completely different, and had no idea that their career would take the path it did.
An openness to all possibilities, in many ways the opposite of a clear and structured path forward, allows one to notice and take advantage of opportunities. Sometimes this may be off the beaten path from your current True North. Often it can take one in directions very different than the one in which you originally started. Women are often less likely to take risks, less likely to have the confidence needed to make change happen in their careers, but this advice is relevant to men too.
Figure out your passion, rinse, repeat: What do you enjoy doing? What gets you energized? What do people value in you? How do you differentiate yourself? Sounds simple, but you need to find the intersection of these things to understand how to position yourself and to leverage what you do well. It may be that you enjoy a functional area such as marketing or finance, or your passion may be more generic, for example, you are great at growing and scaling a business, or at fixing things that are broken. Also, do not assume that your passion will always stay the same. In fact, ideally you will continue to build on what you do well, which takes you to the next level, where you may need new skills and develop new passions. At points in your career trajectory, you may find that different things drive your energy and become your hallmark.
Look backward and forward every year: Any job is worth doing as long as you are learning something that adds to your skill sets and your marketability. Advice I give fresh graduates: the first job is the stepping stone to the next job, and should be viewed as such. This is equally true of the next, and the next, and the next job. As long as you can add something to your professional toolkit, it is a valuable experience. But how long to stay in a job? If you are lucky, you may be at a company that is growing fast and you have opportunities to move, either up or laterally. It is important to assess, at the end of every year, what you achieved and what you got from the past year, and what you plan to get from the next one. What you need at any point in your career is a very personal decision. I would just urge that you make the decision mindfully versus allowing it to be a passive outcome.
When it’s not working, don’t wait to figure out whose “fault” it is… a.k.a. When it’s time to go, you gotta go. Most of us approach our careers with positive intent and effort. We work to make the companies we are at successful. But things change. Sometimes the needs of the group have evolved, sometimes a new boss has a different view than you do. Clearly you owe it to yourself to give it a good, solid shot to see if you can adapt to make it work, both for yourself and for the company. But if you reach the point it doesn’t feel good to go in to work in the morning, it’s time to look around. There is no point in trying to assess blame or figure out who is at fault. Take charge and fix it; and sometimes the right way to fix it is to make a move.
Stay open to reinventing yourself: Be opportunistic about managing your career. If something exciting comes along, even if you haven’t done anything like it before, consider taking the leap. Do not fall prey to the confidence gap. If others are open to taking a risk on you, be ready to take a risk on yourself as well. Don’t spend too much time agonizing whether it “fits” neatly with the career trajectory you planned. Sometimes, going off the script can be very rewarding. Note that this career strategy is not for the faint of heart. It can sometimes make it hard to position yourself clearly as you are not “just about one thing”.But the broader your experiences, the more perspectives and skills you will bring to every next role and every next company.
Get advice along the way. Talk to those whose insights you value. You will be surprised by how much you can learn about yourself and your choices from others. Always remember, though, that advice from anyone is colored by their own experiences. I was given some advice years ago by a senior executive who had a very successful career running the mortgage business for a succession of banks. She told me that variety in one’s resume was helpful, but to prosper going forward, it really was time for me to develop deep expertise in a specific function. It was advice which was derived from her own experiences, and clearly had been instrumental in her own success. For me, it wasn’t the right path forward. Listen hard to advice from others, and then filter for bias and for fit with your own objectives.
Managing one’s career is all about feeling in control, and not being the victim. Sure, most of us do need our next paycheck, but beyond that constraint, there are many degrees of freedom should you choose to explore them. Stay aware of what you do well and what you enjoy doing, look to be in environments where you feel rewarded and are always learning, and if you are not, then think constructively and take steps to make change happen.
Originally published on LinkedIn