Who is Really in Charge of Your Career?

If you read my January post, I mentioned my four core career beliefs that inform everything that I write, do, and speak about. In each of the next four months I will go deeper into each one so that we are speaking the same language in our march toward getting you firmly in the driver’s seat of your career.

No one cares about your career as much as you do, nor should they.

You may have grown up in the era of “30 years at the same company and a gold watch as you exit,” or maybe you have observed that way of thinking in your parents or grandparents. The 90’s and the ongoing wave of layoffs brought a new reality to the workplace, that careers will almost assuredly span multiple employers. Unfortunately, few really understood what that actually meant in terms of how they needed to conduct themselves differently moving beyond the 90’s.

Yes, it is really comforting to believe that your organization has a grand plan for your career, but let’s be honest, your company wants you until the day they don’t. And that’s okay. You need to adopt the same mantra, that you will stay until it is no longer in your best interest to do so. Are you no longer engaged, happy, growing, feeling valued? Are you being harassed, ignored, passed over? Well then, maybe it’s time to consider moving on. If you don’t get what you want in your career, who suffers the most?

The leading of your career cannot be outsourced to your boss, a recruiter or anyone else. It’s up to you, just as it should be.