Career Morphing Part V – My Real Case Study – The Curse of “Path Dependence”
Jarek Michalski
SVP Human Resources - Digital Transformation, Organisational Development, Culture Change, Agile Business Transformation & Talent Acquisition
First the good news: I proved to be one of those “mature-age” students that all the young people hate – I did well in my degree without giving in to the temptation of thinking that my whole future depends on the grade I’ll get at the end of the degree. I learned A LOT and I’m happy with the grade I received in, after all, one of the most competitive educational establishments on this planet.
Now, not so good news: Path Dependence. It is in fact one of my favorite economic academic terms used in reference to innovation, but it proved to be a personal curse. Let me briefly explain. My personal interest is not so much in entrepreneurship, but intrapreneurship - driving innovation within large organisations. Yet, because of my lets say politely "extensive" background in HR and Organisational Development, I’m getting “pigeon-holed” into that space when looking at future career opportunities (clear example of Path Dependence). Please don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the standard HR field, I just don’t believe that it is the part of the business that truly drives innovation within large organisations.
Many previous authors on Linkedin have commented to on the fact that most recruiters and headhunters scan CV’s that feature previous experience in whatever the job title they happen to be searching for contains (again, forced Path Dependence), so breaking into the innovation management field from HR is proving to be a challenge. Hence the Catch 22. Did I drive innovation within organisations I worked for? Yes, and did it well. Was it in my job title? No.
To be honest, I still don’t know what to do with this dilemma. One thing I know, I don’t want to give in to Path Dependence and give up on my career morphing journey just yet.
Any thoughts, comments, and feedback on this topic will be sincerely welcomed.
Coherence
8 年From my own experience, the path dependence seems to come from our own program. When I worked in corporate I would be asked if I was interested in changing jobs in the company, or people would say what they thought I was good at, but because I was quite narrow in what I wanted to do or thought some roles were beneath me due to my pride, I would not accept these suggestions. But now I think something was guiding me to take a new course, but I was not listening. I think we need to prove ourselves before we can be given more complex tasks. For example I found out recently I really do not know how to clean my bathroom properly. But if I can clean my bathroom properly, then I can be given the next task on my path. So we all do have a path, but maybe we tend to try and go in a straight line. It seems life sometimes give us opportunities to learn in what we can think are strange directions. But if we can doubt ourselves more and trust life more, then maybe we can truly learn what we need to, and progress Thanks
Government & Politics Partner @ Meta in CEE | ex-Google | ex- P&G
8 年Jarek - you were one of the most admired students in our cohort ! Going back to path dependence - I align fully with your remarks. I experience very similar challenges while looking for the job. My strategy is to position myself on a bit meta- layer of my previous experiences while leveraging LSE as a booster. We will se how this will work. Fingers crossed for your new paths and hope to see you next week at the graduation ceremony!