Recently, my boss shared this thoughtful article on career planning. Despite the unwieldy title, “Career Rocket Fuel: Whether You’re A Millennial Or Eyeing Retirement, Here’s What You Really Need To Get Right About Work,” it opened my eyes to a longer view of what constitutes a career.
The key takeaway for me is the thought of pacing. Author Brian Fetherstonhaugh suggests thinking of a career as a three stage process, with each stage spanning roughly 15 years. These days, people don’t stay with one company for their entire career. The article points out that it isn’t necessary to remain in one place if you have the structure to build toward something.
Stage One is a time to acquire valuable skills and experiences that are transportable to all types of work. These are the skills we are working on this summer—problem solving, communication, working with teams, reasoned decision making—not purely technical skills. Another goal in this stage is to build enduring relationships with people on all sides of us. Stage One is a time to figure out what you find interesting and what you could devote future years pursuing.
Stage Two is a time to focus in on the interests and hone the skills discovered in Stage One. It’s a time to elevate those skills to a level that differentiates you from the rest of the field. This is the time to take the skills with which have the most proficiency and become most proficient in your department, company, industry, etc.
Stage Three was the most revolutionary part of this article for me. This is a time to mentor the next generation and pass along the wisdom (hopefully) earned over a nearly full career. Thinking of coworkers in this stage made me realize how much value there is to gain by listening to people near the end of a successful career.
This article concludes with an interesting breakdown of how you might invest your time in each career stage if you wanted to optimize your return in each segment.
Adam this is a great article because I haven’t really been able to take my career and put it into stages that are descriptive no matter what path I take. This is really helpful and one of the best frameworks I’ve seen thus far. I see my career in stage one and slowly transitioning into stage two because I am utilizing my strengths now and strengthening my weaknesses.