A career is a marathon, not a sprint

No, this article is not about older retirement ages. Those few extra years don't really matter that much, at least not for knowledge workers anyway and that's what this article is about. Every career, especially those were your brain matters more than your physical capabilities is a marathon, not a sprint. Or maybe even an endurance race, like a 100km or a 24 hour run, yet many seem to treat it like a series of sprints.

Sprint based career approach

The cue to running a marathon I'm told, I'm more of a cyclist myself, is a steady pace that you can keep up all race long. Of course, the really good ones can have intermediate sprints, but most are happy just to finish and finish without 'dying'.

A sprint is 'let's start as hard as I can, burn everything I got and see if I have enough headway to stay in front of the others when I run out of energy.

Although the sprint approach to careers still works in some cases, this is the reason there are so many incompetent managers out there, in the faster and faster changing world this is working less and less. Less and less organisation trust fully on a resume (the reason the head start is so advantages) and mandatory career switches, in part because of faster failing businesses, are more and more common. So keeping your advantage because you once got the promotion is less and less likely.

Marathon based career approach

So how do you do a marathon based career approach? And how can you test for this as a recruiter if someone will stay fit for a longer time, if you are hiring for the future?

1. Physical fitness matters. Although this cannot be a disqualifier for candidates, in practise it often is, we do tend to make looks and physical fitness count in interviews, it does matter. Academic research has shown that fit people (and with fit I don't mean BMI fit, but stamina) learn faster. There is a direct link with physical fitness and learning ability. So stay fit. There is always time to work out a little, even in busy times.
2. Stay frequently updated. For example read some articles every week. For me it's the recruiting brainfood newsletter as well as the exponential view newsletter. I also highly recommend listening to several podcasts, including again exponential view (for me during my walks or in the car). Important, don't stop this habit even in busy phases, like recent parenthood or busy work times. That's what sprinters do.
3. Go to events. At least a few times a year you should visit an event and learn, listen to the cases presented and debate them with other visitors. This is important, because only reading lets you stay in your bubble. The shared experience and the discussion afterwards, make sure you do talk about it with other attendees, might give you new perspectives. There is no excuse not to. If your boss won't pay, there are plenty of free ones. And no, you do not need to be home for dinner every day of the week, you can mis a dinner or 2, or 4, a year.
4. Take reflection time and learn deeper knowledge. I myself go at least ones a week, this year actually twice, on a 'reading week'. I go away, usually to France, this year to France and Portugal for one week. Read books, usually about 5. Contemplate them. Think about my future. Oh year, and ride my bike, since it's a good way to think and back to point 1: fitness matters.
5. Bonus add on: go once a year to an event you don't belong. I have been doing this for ages and to really broaden your mind it works wonders. I've been to a future of shoes event. I've been to several 'directors and non-executive board member' meetings. I've been to an accountants talking about the just released budget meeting. It's amazing the sort of people you meet there that are way outside your bubble.

Why is this a marathon based approach? Well. Your reflection time means you take time off and use up every vacation day you have, since you do take a week extra vacation a year. And that's not always considered to be a great move. Your time at events will be perceived either very positive or very negative at your employer. Wanting money to attent, having a working day outside the office. You might not get the very first promotion you could. And that's ok. It's not about getting up one rank fast, it's getting to the finish line fit and happy. And it's about being fit for new jobs also after the age of 40 or 50 or even 60 if your employer goes under. It's about seeing the changes in the jobs that are coming your way and being prepared and switching in time.

Recruiting marathon runners

Since I am in the recruitment business. How do you recruit marathon runners?

1. Ask what events the person would like to attent his/her first year
2. Ask what newsletters / websites the person reads and what podcasts he or she listens. Don't judge unless it's none even remotely business related.
3. Ask what books the person has read in the past year. Again, don't judge unless there isn't a single business book in there.

Your career is a marathon, stop treating it as a series of sprints.

Bas van de Haterd is a professional snoop in the world of recruitment and HR technology. He's tested over 25 different forms of new, modern assessment tooling and is willing to test any that will let him. He's also been researching the Digital candidate experience in the Netherlands for over 12 years.

He organises two events per year. Ta-Live (English) and Digitaal-Werven (Dutch)