The career conundrum

I was working on a presentation on the evolving concept of careers for a conference, and I realised that this is one idea that could undergo a big change in the future. Here are my slides! As we think of the evolution of careers, and how we as individuals choose (or rather, stumble upon) a career, here are some insights that struck me.

How do we end up with a particular career choice? Maybe some more research is needed to understand factors that influence early career choice. One's interest or passion, often fuelled by being inspired by someone, could be a big driver for our career choices. But there are many other determinants- individual aptitudes, opportunities available, socio-economic and cultural influences, including peer-pressure, and of course serendipitous, chance events. Many of these choices happen in high school- so it might be interesting to understand these factors in greater depth!

So what drives our career in an organisational context? In my opinion, there are 3 core drivers of careers within an organisation- our Capabilities, the Opportunities that are available, and our Ambition! Our Capabilities are shaped by our work challenges, the continuous learning on the job, training, and what we learn from peers and mentors- and we can take ownership for most of this. (Personally, I think we underestimate what we learn from our peers and mentors- but if we have a conscious plan, we can accelerate our capabilities leveraging them more!) The Opportunities available in an organisation are driven by the growth of the organisation, internal talent management processes like open job postings etc., and networking which could open up not so obvious openings within an organisation. Finally, our Ambition is determined by our motives (the more fashionable word these days is 'our purpose'), our role-models and the rewards and recognitions that spur us. I find this 'C-O-A' a useful framework to think about how careers can grow within organisations.

So what should we do to grow our careers? Ask these questions of yourself every now and then.

1. How can I build my capabilities- skills, experiences- for the future?
2. How can I identify the right opportunities for my career growth?
3. What is my purpose? What drives me?

And as organisations, I guess we need to ask the following questions of ourselves:

1. How can we build the capabilities of people to take the organization, and our employees, to the future?
2. How can we provide opportunities for career growth- relevant ones, and at the right time?
3. How can we reinforce their ambition and motivate them?

But the debate on how much of this should be owned by employees themselves, or organisation-led, continues. Organisations have a plethora of choices to make in the career/talent management area, often led by their unique circumstances and industry dynamics. For instance, is learning fully led by the individual or company-directed; open internal marketplace or company managed internal staffing through identification of hi-potentials; clear career principles and guidelines that are used in staffing or loose career principles, left to manager discretion? I am not sure if there is conclusive evidence of what really works! Any thoughts?

And finally, what does the future hold for the concept of careers? The contemporary concept of careers entails moves across many organisations, is boundary-less, with choice, flexibility and lifelong learning as its core pillars. Technology will further empower people, and ideas like gig-working will be an expression of the flexibility that people would like. Thus, we would see more of the nonlinear, discontinuous paths which are more flexible and dynamic, giving people a greater choice. Watch this space!