Just as life happens while you’re busy making other plans, your career happens while you’re busy doing your job. When you’re too busy or focused on your job for too long, your career often shifts onto autopilot (see: Business or Busyness?). Although you may succeed in your job, your career progression eventually suffers.
As an executive recruiter, I live in the world of work. Part of my job is helping people achieve success, in their job and in their career. They are not one in the same (see: Achieving Success). I’ve often wondered why some people are willing to invest so much into their job, yet devote comparatively little, if any consideration to their career. They may work 60+ hour weeks for weeks at a stretch, but won’t spend 5 minutes to consider the bigger picture; their career. It’s called winning the battle but losing the war.
Achieving success in your career begins when you’re intentional about defining a career path that moves you increasingly closer towards your ultimate destination. It happens one job at a time, directionally, as you intelligently evaluate your options. It’s the byproduct of every stay or go decision you make in each job, even when you fail to make them!
Effective career mapping is inherent to intelligently managing your career. You wouldn’t get on a plane without knowing its destination. Yet people often accept a new job without knowing where it will take them. Perhaps they were encouraged to take an internal promotion, but didn’t ask the right questions beforehand. Possibly they wanted out of their current job more than they were drawn to the next one. Or maybe a recruiter called on a bad day. The next thing they knew, they’re on their way to someplace else. Regardless, if you’ve skimmed over everything else, don’t miss this: if you don’t map a direction for your career, someone else will do it for you. And their interests are not likely to be in alignment with yours.
Most people’s relationship with their jobs changes over time. If you’re presently enjoying success, it’s probably because you’re good at what you do. You show up every day, work hard and get into a groove. (see: When hard work isn’t enough). As long as you’re successful, you’re not typically thinking about what’s next. But things always change. Sometimes they change slowly, over time. When that happens, you wake up one morning to realize your groove has become a rut. Knowing when to say when requires an awareness that comes from intentional, on-going monitoring.
Other times, things change fast, as in one conversation. If your network forgot about you, or you haven’t kept in touch with the right people (like me), your options are limited. It’s a hard way to learn the difference between a job and a career.
Unfortunately, people often wait until it’s too late. Changing jobs can be stressful and time-consuming. Many people don’t have a plan for their career because they don’t know where to begin. Others may say, “What if I don’t know where I want to end up?” So they procrastinate. By the time they decide to make a move, they want out, yesterday. The risks of mistakes increase substantially.
Regardless of where you currently are, we can help get you started. We’ve been helping people make intelligent, no pressure career decisions for over 25 years. You probably know some of them! During a free, ½ hour phone assessment, we’ll get you thinking about your career in a more meaningful and intentional way. Don’t wait until your groove becomes a rut.
Although your job and your career are related, they’re very different. To a large degree, your career is defined by the progression of your jobs. The individual choices you make about each job add up to define your career.
One unique characteristic that separates the two is that you can succeed in your job, yet fail in your career. That happens when the success achieved in a given job obscures the price your career paid for that success.
Most people know their job and career are somehow related, but they’re unclear on how. It’s not surprising since little attention is spent on career guidance at a college level. Employers are generally more interested in job performance than career progression. So how do most people learn? Unfortunately, they learn the hard way. If you were fortunate to receive sound guidance, regardless of the source, count your blessings. You’re more likely to avoid the some of the pitfalls you’d otherwise experience.
I like to think of your career as a journey. Your current job is one stop along the way. It should tap your strengths and allow you to contribute. Ideally, it should also expand your skills and equip you to effectively compete for the next stop in your journey. Each job should add new tools and capabilities, as well as move you closer to your ultimate destination.
Following the metaphor of your career as a journey, consider the following:
- You can have a rewarding progression of positions, in which each builds on the last and moves you closer towards your final destination. Or you can have a series of jobs (paychecks from different companies) that enable you to pay bills.
- Without mapping a path, it’s hard to tell if you’re off course.
- Without goals or timeframes for your journey, it’s easy to get lulled into complacency. When that happens, your peers will pass you by.
- Lacking any purpose or direction, there are many possible choices. Try to follow all of them and it will be easy to lose your way.
- If you don’t decide which way you want to go, someone else will do it for you.
- Regardless of where you are in your journey, one wrong move can undo years of hard work.
- Where your journey eventually ends, represents the sum total of all of your choices.
As in any journey, missteps and mistakes can misdirect. Some of the ones I see most often include:
- Overstay your welcome.
- Leave before you’re ready to go.
- Leave to get out, rather than being drawn to your next location.
- Being so focused that a good opportunity is right in front of you, but you can’t see it.
- Being so distracted that you’re always looking elsewhere rather than enjoying where you are.
Life is a series of choices. So is your career. You live with the consequences of your decisions, even when you fail to make them. Where you end up in your career is driven by each job along the way. There’s a lot at stake. We can help you achieve success by being more intentional.
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