Career Management

My name is Jeff Zinser. I own Right Recruiting. About a month ago, the nice people at Penn State’s exec MBA program asked me to speak to their graduating class. In that, I got a lot of questions about career management. In that take, one thing confused me. One thing that I said to that 150 person group resonated with them and surprised the. And, it surprised me that it surprised them. In retrospect i think I now understand why and maybe, in communicating this to you, the general public, it will give you a perspective on career management.

When I talked to that group, it became clear to me that they saw career management as an organization chart challenge. i am here. i want to get to here. And to do that I got to find a way to get here, there here and then here. It was a problem they needed to solve.

That’s an incorrect assumption about career management because to get from here to here, there are son many variables and things that can get in the way of the journey- a new boss, an acquisition, a  downsizing – that it’s an exercise in futility.

But there is one thing that you can do to get your career moving forward and it’s one thing none of those very smart people thought of. You work for a growing company.

If you work for a growing company your career will advance. A rising tide lifts all boats and a growing company lifts all careers. Here is exactly what happens.

Imagine a young 28 year old engineer goes to work at a small company that is growing as their first engineer. Two years later they hire their second engineer. A year after that they hire two more.  Now within two years that 28 year old engineer is a 30 year old managing a department. A year and a half later they hire a marketing person, a Product Manager. The Engineering Manager inherits that Product Manager. Now, that Engineering Manager is a Manager of Engineering and marketing as this growing engineered products company. Five years later, that person has a Marketing Manager reporting to them and a Marketing Manager reporting to them and is now a 36 year old Director of Engineering and Marketing.

Now is the time that person says “I’ve run out of runway at this company. My career management plan

requires me to move to another growing company. They make a jump as a Product Engineering Director at a larger firm where they have 15 people reporting to them As that company grows, 5 years later, that person becomes a VP.  So within that 15 to 20 year span, that person has done all of those tings but it has not been a designed plan that involves OK, this person is going to retire in 5 years, I will take this job under them and move into that role. It was all about working for a company, doing your job well and letting the company’s growth move your career upward.

It’s a perspective that a lot of people in corporate America don’t get but it’s a perspective that can really move your career forward quickly. Hopefully that helps and can give you something else to think about.