JT2 | Nowadays, Career Growth Is Like Rock Climbing

Once upon a time, you finished college and joined a large, respectable institution and then all you had to do was work hard for 40 years to earn a well-deserved retirement. Well, my friends, that world is long gone. In its place is a new kind of work-life – unstable, unclear and sometimes merciless. And yet, potentially magical and vibrant and infinitely rewarding, for those who learn to navigate it. So, how do we make sense of this new world? Today we discuss ways in which you could prepare yourself for a career of unlimited opportunities that helps you in climbing the corporate ladder.

Discussion Topics: Nowadays, Career Growth Is Like Rock Climbing

• This is not the workplace of our grandparents – or even our parents
• There is no straight path to success, so you need to think like a rock-climber
• First, pick your destination; where you see yourself in a few years
• Next, pick a path; make sure it is true to yourself and not just following the herd
• Figure out what you need to navigate that path, and build the skills that you need
• Work with the relevant people to make sure they support your journey
• Have an accountability partner
• Use our career planner to get started

Transcript: Nowadays, Career Growth Is Like Rock Climbing

Hi there and welcome to JobTok, My name is Amit Ray and over a 20-year career, I’ve have the privilege of contributing to many employers in multiple roles while also observing and enabling the career trajectories of literally hundreds of talented people. Thanks to this extraordinary variety of experiences, I’ve developed a pretty good behind-the-scenes understanding of what it takes to succeed in the corporate world. Through this show, I hope to share those learnings so you can shape your career as per your own aspirations.

And, before we begin, a quick reminder that notes and resources related to this episode are linked in the episode summary so feel free to just listen in for now and click through later for a recap if you need one.

It used to be that you finished college and went to work for a big-name large corporation. From day 1, your life was mapped out for you. You worked reasonable hours for reasonable pay. You took two vacations a year and relaxed on weekends. Like clockwork, you got promoted every few years. Your career was like an escalator, rising gently to the top. You served the company for the best part of your life, and the company took care of you. And at the end of your time there, you stepped off the escalator with a handshake, a gold watch and a pension so you could while away your last decades weeding your garden or cruising the Bahamas.

Things changed for Gen X. Employment became a ‘job’, no longer a livelihood. People became disposable. Loyalty was replaced with ‘merit’, continuity with the competition. No longer could you expect just to work fair hours and rise up the ranks on a schedule? You had to work harder, smarter. You had to learn to present your work and ‘manage up’. In a world of limited jobs and limitless ambition, you had to out-compete or fall by the wayside. You had to set your sights on the top and pull yourself up on your own merit. The escalator was gone. You now had to climb the corporate ladder.

Enter the Millennials. Everything is being disrupted and reshaped at a rate we have never seen before. People work not just for money but to pursue their passion. Jobs are being replaced with gigs. It is easier than ever to start something on our own, but harder than ever to make a living from it. We are in uncharted territory, and there is no line of sight to the ‘top’. the corporate ladder is gone.

So how do we learn to navigate this new world? How do we succeed and thrive in this new economy? We’ll cover a pretty comprehensive strategy for how to approach this issue. But strategy is no good without execution. And at the end, we’ll also spend some time discussing one way in which you can ensure you stay the course. So stick around to get the full picture!

Your Career Is A Climbing Wall

The best way to visualise your career today is like a climbing wall – or ok, if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you could think about it like bouldering. I feel like this is a great analogy because in today’s working environment, your organisation takes no responsibility for your future and nothing is spelt out for you. You alone are responsible for your career success. You create your own definition of success; you set your own direction and you find your own path through trial and error and personal initiative.

For the adrenalin junkies amongst us, this is liberating – and exhilarating. For the rest of us, it is worrying and dizzying, and frankly quite frightening. How do we manage our career without guideposts? How do we know what to do now when we don’t know what the future looks like? What if we make the wrong move?

But what are we really worried about? Sure, earlier generations had their future mapped out for them, but no control over it. My parents had the escalator career, spending their entire working lives as bureaucrats and retiring at the top to a steady pension. But dad was an inventor at heart, cooking up interesting little devices on reams of graph paper. And mom talked about setting up an NGO to help children. Could they have quit their jobs to do that? Almost certainly not – they didn’t have the resources to get it done, YouTube and blogs to learn how to do all these things or even the social acceptance for making such a dramatic change.

Today so many of my MBA peers have left their high-paying jobs or side-hustled their way to become counsellors, writers, political crusaders, social workers, playwrights, entrepreneurs the list is endless. It might not be easy, but it’s not impossible. And that’s a big thing. Because we can now build not just a career of sustenance but also one that is enriching and fulfilling and rewarding in more ways than just money.

It is truly an extraordinary time to be a professional. Embrace it. But how? Well. Why not take lessons from those that do this for a living – the rock climbing pros?

Pick The Destination

I’m sure few of us have ever sat down to think about what we want out of our careers. Other than during interviews when we’re asked where we see ourselves five years later. And we’ve obviously lied and said we want to stick with the interviewing company forever. But if you really want to conquer this cliff, you need to have a decent sense of where you want to be in the next few years.

Otherwise in our current environment of extreme flexibility there are only two possible outcomes:

1. You’ll just do more of what you’re doing right now, which is fine if you love doing it but most likely you believe you can do more.
2. You’ll meander all over the place, postponing career fulfilment only for fancy job titles or more money when actually you could have perhaps had all three or at least more fulfilment.

I know I did my fair share of job movements without any real purpose or motivation other than title and in most cases curiosity for new experiences. At least I somehow managed to get new experiences in the process, but not everyone gets that opportunity if you don’t have a plan.

Now it’s the rare person that knows clearly what they want over their entire life and never needs to change their mind. More likely, we’ll head in one direction and then change our mind every so often as our circumstances and interests evolve. So it’s not necessary to have a grand plan. But we do need to know what we want over at least a few years so we can work towards it

Be planned about what you want out of life, not just from your career, in the next few years. Why few years? Because what you want out of life will change over time so it is better to plan for the medium rather than the long term. What inspires you? What gets you excited and, just as important, what do you definitely not want to do? What are your life priorities and in what order? Money? Relationships? Career growth? Health? Free time? Write them down where you can periodically review them against where you are.

If you can, sense check your plan with people further up the cliff. People who’ve done some of what you want to achieve and have a good sense of the tradeoffs to be made so you can get a realistic sense of what it’s going to take.

Pick The Path

Once you know approximately where you want to be in a few years, pick your path based on your priorities. Targeting a fancy job title? Perhaps you’re aiming for quick promotions and willing to sacrifice weekends and perhaps some relationships to build credibility, outperform your peers and rise to the top of the heap. Or maybe you just want to move around to where you get paid the most. Or perhaps at your stage in life relationships come first and stability is what you are seeking for the coming few years. You want to do just enough to remain a valued team-mate while hoarding every spare moment for family and friends.

One of the writers I follow on Medium actually prioritises work-life balance. He does enough to earn a reasonable living part-time, while using the rest of his time to live life. Kind of a semi-retired lifestyle that allows him to enjoy what he wants out of life while also maintaining a reasonable standard of living

All of these are valid career paths depending on your individual circumstances. The only things to keep in mind are:

1. Be true to yourself. Don’t pick a path because it sounds cool or because everyone else is doing it. It needs to be something to which you can commit.
2. You need to clearly acknowledge the trade-offs in any path that you pick. If you say you want family time, there’s no point being jealous of the job hopper who’s moving around like a honeybee collecting pay hikes rather than pollen.

Or resenting the climber who’s working 12 hours a day to earn their annual promotion. On the other hand, the climber can’t expect to enjoy the same life as the semi-retired writer. Like with everything in life, choices come with trade-offs. The good news is that at least now you are in charge of the choices and hence the trade-off.

Fun Fact: Did you know you could burn 500 to 900 calories an hour rock climbing? You really feel the burn. This is another reason why career development is just like rock climbing. Every hour you’re at work, you can really feel the burnout. OK, just kidding

Gear Up For Your Chosen Path

The best rock climbers all have one thing in common. They’re still around and haven’t fallen to their death somewhere. And all of them credit this fact on their level of preparedness. No good rock climber finds themselves running out of rope halfway up a cliff. They ensure they give themselves a long rope, in the most literal sense of the word.

In the same way, you need to have a good idea of the skills, talent, knowledge and experiences you are working with and what gaps you need to fill as you move along your chosen path.

For example, if you’re aiming for vertical growth, you probably want to be good at making presentations to management. Do you have experience doing that? Can you create opportunities to make such presentations to increasingly senior people? Do you have the presence and authoritative manner to impress them? If not, should you get coaching in this regard?

If you’re trying to get onto the money train, you need a solid professional network that can refer you to higher-paying jobs. Can you attend or speak at industry events to grow your professional network? Should you proactively reach out to head-hunters to get into their databases? Or should you just cold-call prospective hiring managers in attractive companies to introduce yourself and establish a relationship? What training or stretch assignments should you take in order to ensure your skills are worth a premium?

Even the family person needs to prep for creating free time. Are you able to get high-impact work done in reasonable working hours? Have you set expectations around working hours with your manager? Are you in a company that is open to flexible work arrangements and reasonable hours? If not, could you move to one that is?

And the writer? Well he first had to spend years writing and marketing himself full-time till he could start making enough to cut down his hours. Nothing comes easy.

Plan The Route

Now that you know how you’d like to broadly navigate the next few years and you have also figured out the hurdles in your way, draft a plan for how you’ll overcome those challenges, fill the gaps and set yourself up to successfully achieve your goals.

If you want to work 9-to-5, spend a few months developing the right workflows and demonstrating that you can deliver results in that timeframe. Then start some conversations with your manager to structure your work accordingly. Try to pick high-impact projects so your results speak for themselves. Consider also taking some of the spare time to keep developing your skills so you don’t become obsolete over time.

If you’re shooting for the top, set expectations with your friends and loved ones, volunteer for stretch assignments, ensure you notch up some successes in a short time. Then work on getting noticed in the right way among the right people.

Money-makers, plan to build an expensive network of supporters and well-wishers. Secure speaking engagements. Get some press. Author white papers. it will take time to build the foundation, but the work will pay off over a few years

Side-hustlers, learn what makes a good side hustle and how to market it. Get real world insight into how long and how frequently you need to deliver your content or product to get noticed by algorithms and platforms. And then show up – consistently and with a quality product.

Have an accountability partner and role model

Speaking from personal experience, I can say it’s fun to self-reflect and plan for the future but pretty hard to put your head down and just execute day in and day out. After all, just one social post from a friend or arch-rival is enough to make you doubt your chosen path, whatever it may be. The grass will always look greener on the other side. And we’re inundated with such picture-postcard moments from our friends hundreds of times a day. So how do we stay the course?

The answer is in having an accountability partner. Perhaps your spouse or partner, a sibling or relative, a friend; perhaps even an understanding and supportive manager or colleague. Every time you feel the urge to stray from your course, chat it over with them. Of course, life does sometimes throw up genuine reasons to change our plans but at least your accountability partner will help make sure you’re making changes for the right reasons, not just due to FOMO

In addition to your accountability partner, try to also have someone as a role model or ideally a mentor. Someone who’s done what you are trying to do and has real world perspective to offer when you make your career plans and choices

Together your mentor and accountability partners will ensure you stay true to your career vision and direction. They’re your sherpas, making sure you don’t stray far from your course, or even if you do, they are there to ensure you get onto an alternate path that still leads you to your chosen destination.

Summary: Career Growth: Climbing The Corporate Ladder

So in summary, treat your career as a rock climber tackles a new and unfamiliar cliff face. Know where you want to go, have a plan for how to get there, ensure you take time to assemble all the tools and resources you need to make a successful summit and ensure you stay the course. And when all else fails, make sure you have a team of experienced and supportive sherpas to keep you on track or guide you onto the right path

One takeaway

If you remember nothing else from today’s session, please just do this one thing. Go to the show notes page linked in the episode description and open the career planner we’ve created for you. Make a copy for your personal use and, with the help of your family and well-wishers, complete your goal and plan. Let this be a starting point for your personal career journey over the next few years.

[15s] And hey, I have a request. We are a new show and need all the love we can get. If you liked this episode, I’d be really very grateful if you’d recommend it to just 2 or 3 of your colleagues and get them to tune in.

As a reminder, show notes are linked in the episode description and you can also access and download the simple little career planner we made to get you started. Enjoy!