The Playground and my career

I took my 2 year-old daughter out to a playground a few days ago after arriving from a business trip. As we climbed and ran around the playground, I saw her wheels spinning as she was thinking of where to go next. She would see a spot in the playground where she wanted to get to, and then she would make an attempt to get there. Sometimes that worked, and sometimes, it didn’t, so she had to find another path better suited for her.  

In the past 3 years, I have had 3 different roles in the company. One of those changes was voluntary. The other one happened due to some company changes (the split of a fortune 50 company into 2 different companies). For some (mostly baby boomers) this is a lot of changes; but for other (mostly millennials) this is normal (interesting article). Personally, it’s been the right moves for me. I started as a supervisor right out of college supervising 30+ employees, both HP employees and contractors, and then I made the move to an individual contributor. I didn’t see this a step down, but more of a lateral move, and it has certainly been an awesome ride so far.

Think 2 roles ahead.

I had the rare opportunity to be in Sweden with the VP of our organization for an event. Due to some ride circumstances after a team dinner, the VP and I were left to wait for a taxi. This gave me a great opportunity to get to know him better and also learn from him. We spoke about cars, motorcycles, and even roller skates! As we were on our way to the hotel, he said that he invites his direct reports to think of what role they want to have 2 roles from now. He then explained that knowing what role you want to be in 2 from now will give you some direction as to what your next role should be. This may be a simple advice, but to me it was a nugget of gold.

In the playground, my daughter had a specific place she wanted to get to. As she saw her destination, she looked for the best way to get there. Same as with our careers and this advice. If you know where you want to end up, at least 2 roles from now, it will give you a better vision of what you can do next to prepare you. Most of us don’t know where we would like our careers to end, but having this short term goal will allow us to make the right moves.

Shine where you are.

My current manager and I were having a conversation, and as we were talking, she encouraged me to “shine in my current role” and not worry about what comes next. To become a catalyst for innovation, “add value” and be an asset to the sales teams we support. This is something that my mentor often tells me, “Do your job well, and everything else will come”. I have seen this to be true. 

Sometimes we get caught up in the concept of time: “I will be in a role for X amount of time, and then I will look for something else”. A few months ago, I would have agreed and encouraged that. However, I heard an HPE Executive put this in a different format. She looks at the challenges ahead and says to herself that she does not want to move on from her role until she accomplishes “X, Y, and Z”. This is a bit different concept than what I was used to thinking, but I think there is a lot of value in her advice.

I could make the connection of this advice to the analogy of my daughter and I on the playground, but I will leave it up to you to connect the dots.