Careers today are no longer linear. For our (grand)parents' generation, one of the declared goals was to find THE employer where you could spend your entire professional life. A company with the lowest possible turnover rate, the best training opportunities, the best salary. The "career ladder" was a linear straight line, to be climbed in one direction, with the goal of achieving what was just ahead. Like an escalator that automatically took you up to the next floor. Your „eligibility” to this uplift was discovered and discussed with your "boss", your higher-level "superiors", who decided if you had earned it.
Today, the world of work has changed in profound ways. The Corona pandemic has accelerated something that has been apparent for some time. The macroeconomic forces shaping the future of our work require independent, adaptive, and multi-interested thinkers. The massive wave of digitalisation has and will continue to transform our workplaces on such a massive scale, the hybrid work models being lived out around the world, the fast-moving nature of corporate economic instability all make clear that a "successful career path" looks different these days.
We all need to be aware of our own personal career portfolio
Everything you do contributes to your personal career portfolio. Our portfolio is designed by us. It contains our unique individual combination of skills, experiences and values, talents, which gives us multiple opportunities and qualifies us for diverse and different tasks. Volunteering, student jobs, sports club activities, taking care of family members, special skills or hobbies. All of these may not show up on our resume, but we should include them in our career portfolio. To tell a good portfolio story, we need to understand how the different elements in our portfolio complement, even reinforce, each other. April Rinne imagines like the following equation, which I find quite impressive in this context: ”1+1=11".
"Your combination of skills is far more valuable than any of them on their own."
Have you already thought about what your individual career portfolio looks like? What are the skills that are hidden behind all your activities? Are you aware of how you identify your talents? Are you aware of the opportunities available to you in today's job market?
I find this journey of discovery extremely exciting.
Comments