#MiPDV – Every Job Will Come To An End

A close friend and I have been having some deep career conversations lately. This friend is considering a big change and is using me as a sounding board for some of their ideas and how the ideas might help them to achieve their aspirations.?

In these conversations, I’ve realized that every job will come to an end. There is no “forever job”.?

Whether voluntarily or involuntarily, at some point you will no longer have the job you’re in today.?

When I write “voluntarily,” that means you’ll choose to stop doing the job. You’ll either quit or retire (which is just a fancy word for “I quit”).?

There are also several ways a job will end involuntarily, such as:?

• You’re fired
• You’re laid off (a fancy word meaning “you’re fired”)
• You expire?

Even company founders face the inevitable end of their job. Whether they sell the company, merge with another company, go public, or shut the company down, at some point they will leave their current job.?

It’s just part of the cycle of work. And I’ve come to believe it’s an important concept to grasp.?

Why? Because it underscores why each of us is responsible for our own careers. If no job is truly permanent, then we need to plan for what happens when it ends … what job comes next.?

That succession of jobs is a career.?

The alternative to taking charge is to leave our careers to the fickle finger of fate. Do you really want someone else to decide what you do? Not me!?

As employees, we need to understand that it is our responsibility to decide what jobs we want, then to develop the skills needed for those jobs, and to build the relationships needed to guide us there.?

Leaders have a dual responsibility: to take charge of their own career and to help their team members to take charge of their careers.?

It starts with helping the team member to define their own view of career success. If the team member does not know what and who they want to become, then any job will do. A great illustration comes from a conversation between Alice and the Cat in Alice in Wonderland, where Lewis Carroll wrote:

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where –” said Alice

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

“– so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation.

“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.””        

Instead, leaders should start by encouraging team members to think through what they want.

Whether it’s to become chairman of the board of a Fortune 500 company, a billionaire entrepreneur, or to have any other role, the definition of a “successful career” will be unique to each individual.?

Once the team member has defined what they believe could be their successful career, leaders need to help them get on the right path, including:?

• Find the right training to develop their skills. Every job requires skills, and in most jobs the skill requirements change often. Providing the team member with training opportunities prepares them for the roles that they will have on their career journey.
• Seek out job opportunities to apply their skills. Training is great, but unless it’s put into practice it will be quickly forgotten. If you’re going to invest in training, then it’s equally important to invest in the right job opportunities to practice and hone the team member’s skills. After all, no one learned to drive a car by reading a book.
• Build the networks they need to reach their goals. No one succeeds alone. It takes an ever-changing network of mentors, coaches, and colleagues to keep each person on the path they have defined.?

What if the team member wants to change their career goals? That’s fantastic! It means they learned something new about themselves and the jobs, and they are willing to make midstream adjustments. The people in their network are in an excellent position to help adjust the course.?

Helping team members to understand that every job comes to an end and that they are responsible for their own career is the most important thing a leader can do.?

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That’s mi punto de vista #MiPDV.