Are Career Opportunities the new paradigm?
David Shindler
Writer. Mainly. Coach. Often. Volunteer. Sometimes. Learning to Leap. Always.
Metaphors have long been part of the lexicon of career development and management, usually involving some kind of journey and destination like career ladder and career path. According to research, metaphor usage filters how we take in the world. Is it time to change the paradigm?
So many attitudes to careers are changing, it's hard to keep up. Looking ahead any length of time seems fraught with ifs and buts. If you've been working a while, what used to work for your 'career' may no longer serve you so well. If you're just starting out in your working life, uncertainty is the norm.
How do you redefine and reframe your view of what career means today? What metaphor works for you?
Career mobility
Jesse Lyn Stoner of the Seapoint Center for Collaborative Leadership suggests that career mobility will force the organizations of the future to transform. She argues that the traditional career ladder is now more like a revolving door for talent as people move more frequently. The Industrial Age work ethic of staying put for years and years is dwindling. Long, predefined paths or predictable ladders are now likely to be disrupted when stuff happens or you decide you've had enough.
In previous, more stable times, your employer was like a benevolent aunt or uncle - always there for advice and to look after your best interests. Today, that relative has let go and shifted the responsibility for your career to you. That means taking greater ownership of how you learn, develop, adapt and grow. Whereas before our identity came with the job title, now we have to forge our own work identity in an ever-changing landscape.
You are now the CEO of your career and a business of one.
Learning to leap
My own metaphor for career mobility is to see yourself as captain of a sailing boat on the ocean. You can't control the sea or the changing weather conditions. You know there will be rough and calm periods. However, you can choose the direction to sail and develop your abilities as a sailor.
Like sailing on the ocean, the world of work today is unpredictable, volatile and uncertain. If you want to survive and thrive, your abilities to build, maintain, and sail a robust boat are essential to navigate your career whatever the conditions.
And those conditions include three factors present throughout your working life and converging at a greater pace:
- Chance - being aware of opportunities
- Choice - deciding which opportunities to seize
- Change - acting to alter your situation
I call it learning to leap because that's what all of us must do time and again to stay employable and ride the waves of change.
Some people set sail aimlessly. They only see the current wave (today's work), don't look up and wider to see what's looming on the horizon (like industry trends). They don't check the weather forecast until it's too late and then sink when a bigger wave hits them (like redundancy).
Transforming attitudes
Stoner identifies six ways organizations must transform to address career mobility. One of those is to change attitudes:
What would it mean to change from thinking about “career paths” to “career opportunities?” How can we change our norms and beliefs to view frequent job change as desirable?
The idea of frequent job change as desirable freaks some people out and excites others. Much is being made of having a growth mindset (the belief that one's intelligence or abilities can be changed) to thrive in this new context, or a fixed mindset (it is fixed or immutable). Carol Dweck coined the terms based on research and says that both are relevant depending on the situation. She is careful to say that these are not attributes of a person or labeling people, but a way of thinking in a particular circumstance.
John Hattie, an Australian academic, interviewed Dweck to glean when a growth mindset is a most appropriate coping strategy. In practice, that means helping resolve the situation, move the person forward, and not lead to resistance, over reaction and fear of flight into a fixed mindset. The major situations for growth mindset are:
- When we do not know an answer
- When we make error
- When we experience failure
- When we are anxious.
Having access to growth thinking can help us change our situation if we choose to. However, you may be happy with your lot when in a fixed mindset. Hattie and Dweck make the case for balance:
If you believe you can change the wall and thus try to run through it, you will certainly develop a headache - and that is an example of where a fixed mindset helps.
Change your personal paradigms
We are all going to need the know-why, know-what, and know-how to learn to leap into new opportunities with new or renewed capabilities. It requires a shift in attitude and self-empowerment with the right support and challenge from allies.
A couple of examples from my experience. A couple of years ago, I was unclear about how to present myself in the marketplace. I was confused by the mantra of marketing experts who consistently argued for specialists over generalists. I was happy being a generalist but some growth thinking allowed me to redefine my generalism as a specialism. In a similar vein, making an income purely from one-to-one coaching didn't make economic sense until I read Andrea Lee's Multiple Streams of Coaching Income. That breakthrough allowed me to see coaching as the thread across a portfolio of different income generators.
You too can tap into growth thinking if you face a career dilemma or are in confusion. For example, many job seekers get into fixed thinking by spending hours searching job boards. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack. You can also be the needle and post your generic resume/CV on job sites for employers to find you. But it’s very difficult to stand out from all the others.
Differentiate yourself and become more visible so employers can find you. You are unique – just like everyone else! Become a magnet instead of a needle. Attract employers towards you. They seek a solution to a business need with criteria that reflect what they want. The power of online search engines means they can find you and identify an initial match if you wave your virtual flag.
You can be that magnet and shape the strength of its power by how you present yourself both online and offline. As part of your thinking as CEO of your own career, ask yourself: What do I stand for? What do I want to be known for? What do I want people to say about me when I’ve left the room? Think of the Internet as a virtual room. You are creating your digital footprint every time you engage online. Shape your reputation before others shape it for you. And that applies to the impression you create face-to-face. Get out there and meet new people. Become savvy with social media, write your own story and engage.
These are ways to tap into the hidden job market, the ones not advertised commercially. Develop relationships, take some risks and become more curious through your current job and alongside it. Who do you know who…? Who do they know who…? Who knows you? Chance is a significant success factor in careers, so increase your chances by using serendipity.
Career opportunities
Given the above, I'd argue that growth thinking is helpful for breaking free from the paradigms of career paths and ladders to one that embraces multiple, ever-changing career opportunities. Develop your antennae for spotting and seizing them, learning and testing in new ways as you go along so you ride the waves of change and stay afloat.
What personal paradigms hold you back? What are alternative ways of thinking that could help release your potential?
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David (@David_Shindler) is an independent career coach, author, blogger, speaker, and associate with several consultancies. Check out his online courses at Career Navigating for Young Professionals. He is the author of Learning to Leap: a guide to being more employable, and co-author with Mark Babbitt of 21st Century Internships (nearly 250,000 downloads worldwide). His commitment and energy are in promoting lifelong personal and professional development and in tackling youth unemployment. He works with young people and professionals in education and business.
Visit the Learning to Leap blog to read more of his work and check out his other published articles on LinkedIn:
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How to Be a Vulcan in a VUCA World
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Employability: Do You Know How To Dance In The Digital Age?
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New Graduate Hires: Why Managing Up Is Important
Work Readiness: Are You Lost in Translation?
Job Seekers: Test And Learn To Be A Game Changer
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The Unwritten Rules Of Graduate Employment
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Solutions For Closing The Gap From Classroom To Career
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Purposeful Leadership To Create The Life Of Meaning
The Uber Effect: Opportunities For Job Seekers And Employers
Hierarchies are tumbling as Social soars
The Emergence of the Holistic Student
New Graduates: Following Is A Rehearsal For Leading
How Redefining Success Helps You Succeed
Why Developing Yourself Is A Matter Of Life And Death
Generation Now: The Imperative Of Intercultural Skills
#If I Were 22: Choose Insight Before Hindsight
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