As I indicated in earlier posts, the interview of Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo, revealed some of the best personal and career insight that I've seen over the past few years. Asked for her career advice, she responded with a 21st century answer:
You need to build your career not as a ladder, but as a pyramid. You need to have a base of experience because it's a much more stable structure. And so that involves taking lateral moves. And it involves getting out of your comfort zone.
Start with Bartz' notion of a base of experience. Whether your job's in retailing, marketing, finance or manufacturing, in order to protect your future you need to understand that function in both depth and breadth. Although your work may be in a single section of finance, say cash management, once you've gained expertise there, move on into another area such as credit, capital, management of fixed assets, or even portfolio management. Whatever your ultimate career focus, whether manager or exec, or even a specialist in financial technology, both breadth and and depth are needed for long term success. Business today and in the future will be marked by a significant degree of unpredictability and ambiguity, and companies want people with a solid experience base. As a general rule, it takes a year to two-and-a-half years to develop expertise in a small segment. Once you have that expertise, move on and keep building your portfolio. If your firm can't provide the opportunity for you, look elsewhere. Getting caught in a single small function has the potential for a career death sentence.
Don't tell me that you like that job, and you'd like to stay in that position. That's naive. Narrow expertise is always risky and even more so in this economy. Always recognize that you are 100% responsible for your career and your company is not going to take care of you no matter what you hear.
Building a career as a pyramid also means that you'll take lateral moves. The traditional approach to career is up the ladder, however, that approach in today's unpredictable, ambiguous market leaves you with far less functional expertise. As a consequence you're liable to lack the options that an organizational change might require. Organizations often outsource segments of finance when strategic opportunities present themself, such as cost savings or efficiencies. What's true of finance is true of all business functions and the only way to protect yourself is to make certain you have a broad base of expertise in your function.
Anxiety-neutral situations are a signal that you're not learning or growing. Building a pyramid-based career inevitably requires getting out of your comfort zone, so make that experience the norm rather than the exception. Anxiety increases performance and focus. To put it another way, get used to feelings of vulnerability. They're merely the announcement that you have something to learn, nothing more.
One more: for career success build a pyramid not a ladder.
SEE ALSO: