We all have moments during our careers where we become restless and think:
I am ready for something new, but I have got no idea what this next job
looks like!
This can be quite daunting or can even cause outright fear.
Sometimes, we trigger this event ourselves,
while at other times, other people make the decision for us - for
example in the case of a job loss after a restructuring.
But, making career choices is a continuous process
during our whole career, rather than just a one-time event.
As we are learning and developing ourselves, we will want to move on to new challenges.
In addition, our work-context is continuously changing
around us and we may decide at some stage that our current work environment is not right
for us anymore.
Career changes therefore can be gradual moves to a next step or a complete departure from
what we were doing before.
As our life expectancies go up and the work context is more dynamic than ever,
we can all expect to make more career choices during our lives than our parents have ever done.
I do not believe in precise career planning.
As writer and cartoonist Allen Saunders has dubbed:
“Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans” In his commencement
address at Stanford in 2005, Steve Jobs likewise said:
”You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.
So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.
You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny,
life, karma,
whatever.
This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
So does this mean that it does not make sense to have a plan at all?
I believe that it is still helpful to have a plan,
as it gives a sense of direction in your work life,
even if you know that it will probably never play out the way you hoped it would.
You may actually be positively surprised!
We have developed a simple framework that will help you think about your next career steps.
Let us now share the framework.
There are four pieces to it The first box is your Edge.
This is everything that makes you special when you compare yourself to your peers.
It is up to you who you want to compare yourself to.
Your Edge are those strengths that make you special and differentiate you from others.
They make you you.
The second box is about Flow.
Being in flow means forgetting the world around you because you are fully absorbed by the
task at hand.
Flow is a joyful situation of energized focus.
When you are in flow, your work feels effortless.
The questions for this second box are: • In which situations over the last few
months have you been in flow?
• What’s the common theme in these situations?
In the second part of the course, you reflected on your passions.
You may want to have a look at your workbook again,
as your passions may guide you to your moments of flow,
they may even coincide.
The third box is about Context.
The key question here is: what’s the context you need around you in
order to be successful?
The assumption here is that a context that supports our development will ultimately make
us more successful.
Let us reflect on this for a moment.
A context that supports our development is not necessarily a pleasant context.
Edgar Schein – former professor from MIT- argues that all learning is based on coercion
(i.e.
you have to be forced to do it) and even pain “because you either have no choice,
as is the case for children, or it is painful to replace something that
is already there with new learning.” I still believe that the optimum is a pleasant work
environment with significant, but healthy challenges.
Examples of specific questions to consider in the Context box are:
• In what type of organizational culture do I want to work?
• What are my colleagues like?
• How much money do I want to make?
• How important is career growth to me?
What are the opportunities for advancement?
• What does the work environment look like?
• What’s the ideal location of my work?
• Where do I want to live?
• How international should the environment be?
Are there opportunities to travel?
• What’s the work-life balance like?
• How important is autonomy to me?
• With which types of stakeholders do I want to work?
• And last but not least: What do my loved ones (e.g.
my partner, children,
broader family, friends) need from me in order to be happy?
The fourth and final box of the framework is Legacy.
You have defined your Legacy when putting together your Personal Charter in the second
part of this course.
Legacy is what you want to do for others .You now have all the pieces of the framework.
So perhaps you can create a first draft?.
I would encourage you to not overthink this.
Just make a first version.
You can always change things later, as you learn more about yourself.