What’s the best career path for you?

What does your route to the top look like? By now you probably know that it looks different for different people, so what does it look like for you??

I will let you answer that in the comments.?

But here I want to talk about something a little less talked about. About how that route sometimes holds you back.?

A friend of mine works in the HR industry. Worked. Here general direction in life was almost the same as most of us. Education - good job - better pay - better job - accompanying titles - even better pay - maybe stock options - a seat on the board of Fortune 500/ 100/ 5 and so on.?

That said, she didn’t stay that route. She had a larger general direction working for her. She wanted a job where her role would be ideating how content can be used to further the growth of brands. When her HR role stopped doing that for her, she switched to doing something of her own, and then she switched to taking up a more mainstream content marketing role. All the while she’s kept upgrading her skill set by writing and reading across industries, being in conversation with people across the value chain and such.?

Of course, each choice that she made in the general direction had an opportunity cost in the more ladder-like career flow.?

She earns less than what she might have made had she stuck to the HR ladder. And she has more control over her time and energies in the current context.?

Even after 10+ years on the job, her designation isn’t some VP/ or VIP/ or GM, it is a humble senior something or the other. And she has more accountability for what she works in, she gets to choose what she wants to do and such.?

There are some or many material benefits that she gave up, to have more of the intangibles. But she didn’t know this when she started out in her general direction.?

When you don’t have a fixed career ladder, you reserve the choice to pretty much move in any direction that you want to. If you are at a point today, where you are wondering about the substance of your career so far, I have three questions for you.?

Have you explored opportunities - not based on what you've done before??

Does your career graph describe your experiences and your aspirations??

Will you be happy seeing yourself on this path in five years down the line??

If 2 or 3 out of these 3 questions are a yes for you, I say you don’t continue reading. It mightn’t be relevant for you. Otherwise, read on.?

The next question is how do you get off this ladder now.?

Redefine your relationship with learning at work (and in life)

Curate your own curriculum is what I believe in with all my heart and mind. Twitter has been a great medium of instruction for me. Sometimes I find my knowledge in Instagram posts, LinkedIn newsletters, and also a nugget of wisdom from my daughter.?

My daughter was telling me the other day that one of her friends Rahul bhaiya was upset about some stuff going down at home. The kids have limited vocabulary with this, and Meher couldn’t completely tell me what was bothering Rahul. I asked her - what did you do Meher? She said, I stopped playing to listen to him and we played on the swings after.?

Meher in her beautiful way just taught me presence. I leave my phone in my office now when I am scribbling with her.?

The more you learn through the resources that you choose, the more your mind opens to the possibilities of life.?

Also one of the ways I learn is by doing this LinkedIn newsletter. The more I put my thoughts into words, the more I learn about a lot of things.?

Redefine your career graph; move away from the ladder?

Ladders only go in two directions, and they are the safest when you move one step at a time. Also, ladders need to be rested solidly against something to make it safer for you to move.?

Those are all the reasons to move beyond the ladder.?

Instead, make your graph based on what career possibilities I think I will do good at, and what am I curious about. My friend, for example, quit being an HR manager and went on to become a content manager for companies that worked in HR and B2E content.?

She was curious about how her HR stint would help her progress in a completely content-driven role.?

And she thought she could be good at it.?

PS - she did have to take a pay cut to explore this curiosity. There was some uncertainty there for some time before she found solid ground again.?

Redefine your time?

Agreed that many of us can’t get off the ladder this easily. We have responsibilities and enjoy that comfort and yet we feel like that oomph factor is missing from life.?

Take a look at a parallel career or hobby graph. Fitness feels like my alternate full-time occupation at the moment. I am progressing there from being an executor to now speaking with people who want to get started and I am in the process of getting mentored by so many.?

Being reasonably at peace with my career graph, I looked for the one place where I had some dissatisfaction and worked my way in from there.?

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The point is doing anything is tough, and not doing anything is also tough. You need to figure out what kind of leeway you have in life and take it from there.?