Sharing Advice on the Evolution of a Career

I will be the first to admit I am not a career counselor and while many people love that line of work I do not. However I find myself always being asked by others how do I handle my career and in particular what should they do about theirs.

It is actually a pretty straightforward approach in a career; you start in a junior phase, grow into a mature phase, and hopefully at some point enter the expert phase. The junior phase is most usually when an individual is just entering the workplace and just starting their career in their designated profession. At this point you are new, inexperienced and learning. Many things do not necessarily make sense and as you deliver things, they eventually make more sense. The mature phase is that time when you have moved past the junior phase and are now more knowledgeable and experienced in your profession. While there are some areas that may be giving you some issues, you are learning to advance your skills and tackle some pretty big problems on a normal basis. Also at this point, most individuals are in their budding phase of leadership which is a requisite for the next phase. The expert phase is the last phase of a career cycle. You are confident, having worked through and overcome many challenges, and learned quite a few things from challenges in your career. You have definite traits of leadership, experience and your own style of how to handle things. Also at this point you are sought after for your expertise, experience and leadership.

This all sounds very straightforward but there are a few elements about expectations that I tend to sprinkle throughout this conversation. Namely:

• Age plays a role. We'd like to say everyone is equal but that is not necessarily true. If you appear to young for a leadership role there are challenges there to overcome. Also a more mature professional who has significant experience, may suddenly find themselves being passed over by younger individuals for a variety of reasons. Ultimately people look at how old you are as an indication of skill and experience. Someone with decades in the workplace is looked at in an entirely different light than say someone just out of college. It is up to the individual to make themselves stand out and to convince others why they should be chosen for opportunities regardless of their age. At some point, you will be able to determine your own style on how to handle this issue.
• Career progression. There is no set exact timetable for anything. How fast you go, how far you go, how much you get out of it, is up to the individual. For example take the founders of any company and they all have a different story to tell about success. The same holds true for those lower than a founder in any career. What makes career progression happen is a clear goal, a flexible plan, and a commitment to making things happen.
• Hands-on, hands-off. Personally you need both sort of a balance. If you are too hands-off, you will likely find yourself out of jobs and lacking tangible skills needed in your career. If you are too hands-on, you will be so wrapped up in the details of a particular assignment or project that you will be unable to handle broader scoped items effectively. Usually I look at things as problems very similar to home projects. Is it something that needs to be done? Do I need help? Can I do it myself? etc. Then I either do it, partly do it, or never do it. 
• Make mistakes. Lots of them. The best time to learn what you are capable of is when you fail. Nothing ever goes according to plan and nothing comes easy. Failure is part of the process that can benefit you the most even if it is traumatic because it focuses your skills. If you simply give up after a failure, then maybe what you are doing is not enjoyable. Everyone fails. And everyone works through it. Never do anything easy if you can help it.
• Teach and mentor. The best way that I have found to help test my own knowledge is to teach and mentor others. I do this a lot and it is very rewarding. Nothing is as satisfying as seeing a student come into their own. Also students really push your understanding of anything. However not everyone is good at this as it takes a lot of diverse skills to become accomplished.
• Lead. At some point somewhere in what you are doing you will be expected to take charge. This may be terrifying at first, but ultimately it helps grow the skills necessary to make competent decisions with regards to large projects and how to work with others. Leading is not the same as managing. So do not confuse the two. 
• Manage. At some point in your career you will be asked to manage something. This in my opinion is a good thing to learn in that it is the middle ground between actually leading and following. You tend to be a moderator, balancing several things that you do not have a lot of control over while still making a delivery. Matrix-management is the common form of practice of this skill and while you may not do this very often, it does come up frequently enough to be aware of it.
• Learn. Everything changes. I can safely say that in my years of experience that this never stops and it can be very fun. Most people handle this differently because they learn in different ways. In the end look at how you learn things and find the most effective way to do this on your own that is fun.
• Your plans change. What you want to do now is going to be different as time goes by. What you enjoy doing as a graduating college student is different than someone with 5 years of experience under their belt, or a new parent, or a new homeowner, etc. Change is good. Adjust your career plan as needed based on your needs. Just make sure it is always moving towards your goal whatever that ends up to be.
• Everyone is equal. This is what I have found to be the greatest strength in managing a career. No one is your superior or inferior. There may be hierarchy, there may be communication challenges, heck their may even be skill challenges but in the end we are all equal. Just because someone is your supervisor does not mean they do things better than you do. By the same token, just because someone reports to you does not mean you are better than they are. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. The only reason why anyone does well in a career is because they use their strengths to their advantage while working on their weaknesses. 
• Diversify. Never stay on one thing too long. Everything changes. So by diversifying your skills and knowledge you can have a broader understanding of various subjects that can help you move around. Being a specialist is great and they are needed, however in many cases especially in the technology industry specializing can lead to being locked into certain solutions and technologies that can go into decline. That is not to say that they are not needed. Take COBOL programming for instance. There are still many companies that need this skillset. However, this skillset is not the most desired. Yet the principles of programming, the size of environments, the application knowledge, and even the company knowledge of who uses that technology can be leveraged into other avenures that can grow your career.

Almost everyone I talk to says "Wow! This is a lot of work!" It is and it isn't. It may sound like a lot to juggle but frankly everyone does this naturally in different ways for things that they are passionate about. People who love gardening for example find a lot of energy to do that which they love. Sure they make mistakes and maybe cannot do it all the time they want to. However people with this passion manage to incorporate into their lives. The same holds true for your career. If you find yourself not putting a lot of energy into it, do not be surprised by what comes out of it.

Ultimately how someone handles their career is their own choice. They will naturally seek out advice, struggle through it and find their own way. I am just happy to be able to contribute my own two cents and hopefully make professionals see what they are capable of doing when they put their minds do it.