My mission as a Career Advisor is to help people define their value and advance their careers, and commonly client meetings involve a discussion about what defines career success. For individuals who are ‘mid-career’, these conversations may stem from dissatisfaction with their career trajectory: people feel they aren’t challenged or reaching their true potential. For younger individuals embarking on their professional careers, a narrow view of what a successful career looks like can be frustrating, confusing or de-motivating.
I have to admit that coming from a background in recruitment, I am guilty of holding a pretty narrow view of success myself. I screened and interviewed candidates with a very specific idea of career success, often defined by the following:
Strong educational credentials
Progressively more senior roles, with career moves that intuitively make sense
Team leadership experience
No unexplained ‘gaps’ on the resume
In addition to the qualifiers noted above, we also tend to define our success based on the metrics we learn in life:
Grades in school – did you graduate with honours?
Compensation – how much do you make compared with your peers? Your friends? Your family?
Prestige – are we working for a notable company? Does your employer have ‘brand recognition’ that makes you puff up your chest just a little bit?
All these criteria may fit closely with your view of success. But what if they don’t?
The thing is, success, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
Maybe you love working ‘in the weeds’, leveraging your technical expertise to deliver value for the organization, but would cringe at the idea of leading a team.
What if you find your true passion 5, 10, or even 20 years into your career, and make a big change? Does the abrupt change on your resume lead people to assume impulsiveness?
While money is important, for many it’s not the ultimate measure of success. What if you live within your means and seek career satisfaction over a progressively bigger salary?
Ultimately, we have to be our own judges of success. Asking yourself a few key questions will help shape the vision for your career:
What motivates me?
What are my proudest career accomplishments? Why?
What do I love most about my job? What do I like the least?
Answering these questions honestly for yourself will help clarify what truly matters to YOU professionally. We can easily get lost in the noise of what others think is important, or what our employer, or family, or friends believe to be ‘success’.
Case in point – when I googled “career success quotes” to find something fancy to include in this blog, the results were endless and all over the map. Ultimately, I landed on one that resonates:
Ask yourself if what you’re doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow - unknown
With this in mind, here are a couple of good reads to help you articulate where you actually want to be ‘tomorrow’, based on what truly matters to you:
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*c$ - Mark Manson
Girl, Wash Your Face – Rachel Hollis
Happy reflecting - drop me a line if you want some feedback!