When careers were based more on hierarchy, and work was more about getting a paycheck than knowledge, it didn’t really matter what you did. But today’s worker no longer desires swanky salaries or titles (although those don’t hurt, certainly), but instead searches for work experiences that can contribute to their lives.
Today, experience is the product. And smart workers are building their careers in the same way innovators build businesses. For example, trendy Barcelona shoe company Camper diversified it’s offerings by plunging into the hotel business. People rightfully asked, “Why?” To which Camper replied, “You misunderstood what we’re all about. We don’t produce shoes. We produce comfort.”
And that’s good career advice. That is, you don’t produce marketing plans, you create connections. You don’t create paintings, you evoke emotion. You don’t deliver newspapers, you spread information.
It’s time to stop looking at your career as a set of skills applicable to a single position. You probably won’t use the major listed on your college degree. You’ll change jobs six to eight times before you’re thirty. And you’ll eventually get the urge to change the world, which doesn’t happen from a single pressure point.
If you can’t talk about how your waitressing job applies to architecture, how teaching kindergarten makes you great for customer service, or how your blog has prepared you to be a circus manager, you lose.
Instead, look at your career as a set of experiences in which there exist core ideas that can be widely applied across disciplines. In A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink argues that the majority of professions (doctors, lawyers, even MBAs) can either be automated, outsourced to Asia, or are abundant (it’s easy to make quality goods and services).
“The only thing these three A’s as he calls them cannot yet do well,” Bret Hummel reports “is bring ideas from multiple disciplines together. [Pink] argues that the person who understands the big picture, how to bring people together, and create a unique idea are the ones who will succeed in this global economy.”
Gen X and Y thrive in this regard. Occupations are no longer siloed, but instead individuals are cultivating multiple passions, talents and income streams to create meaningful work lives. Marci Alboher calls this becoming a “slash.” Being a Musician / Engineer / Bartender is encouraged and admired. I love design, marketing and database spreadsheets myself.
Working across disciplines “rather than climbing the career ladder within a corporation, facilitates flows of information and know-how between individuals, firms, and industries,” Wired reports.
Everything is connected. HR people call this transferable skill sets, theorists describe it as systems thinking, and poets recognize these ideas in the words of Walt Whitman in Leaves of Grass.
Worker mobility gives flourishing industries “fluidity, velocity, and energy,” Wired continues. “It creates a culture in which people routinely jump from one job to another… And that lack of loyalty has been a key driver of the rapid innovation over the past three decades.”
Innovation isn’t a stickler for tradition, you see. It only cares that you bring it. In summary, to innovate your career:
1) Collect experiences, not titles.
2) Realize connections.
3) Apply those core skills and ideas across disciplines.
Are you talented in more than one area? Do you apply lessons from one place to the other? What’s your advice to bring it?
37 replies on “How to innovate your career”
I wholeheartedly agree with you. I can’t wait to see the rest of the world take hold of this idea. At this point in time, I think areas with limited talent probably do. It’s unfortunate that this would still be considered idealistic thinking in most professions, especially during the recession.
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Your point on collecting ‘experiences’ over titles, is spot on. A recommendation I would throw into the mix is to keep an open mind to trying new things and as you said, building on new experiences. For the most part, you give value to your work, you define your role and you make it what it is. Look at any opportunity as more than ‘just a paycheck’ – learn something, grow from it, and when all is said and done, move on to something else if it makes the most sense. Good thoughts as usual Rebecca.
@ Monica – Yeah, I think it’s up to the individual to make clear their career path and how that’s valuable to whatever they want to do next. Most of us are conditioned not to think this way though.
@ Matt – Totally. Even the jobs that I have hated helped me learn and can be applied in later situations. Trying new things is so essential to growth and satisfaction. Thanks for the comment!
Another great post, Rebecca. We learn by doing, so your summary point #3 is right on. Find what you are good at, leverage it in a number of different ways, and you will get even better at it.
Keep up the great work!
Bret
I totally agree with the points made. However, the challenge for many job seekers, especially Boomers, is the need to obtain a title or status. Boomers could learn slot from Gen Xers. I know I have.
The next challenge is to change the mindsets of Boomer Hr execs and hiring mgrs. Some remain vey much entrenched in old school thinking or report to bosses who have yet to embrace the new paradigm.
Good article, especially right at the time when securing a full time job is really difficult for fresh graduates (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/nyregion/27interns.html?_r=2&ref=business).
Even with recession or not, you always have to innovate your career with various ways. As you said experience is the product and based on your previous experiences, you have to build a final product and reach your destination by connecting different types of building blocks. You don’t have to define your job as small or big. Every job teaches you something which can always be transferred to the next one.
If I look at my previous jobs, even some of them I didn’t like, I have learnt a great deal about each of them. Every job I have done so far have taught me some lessons I have effectively used in my next job. One example is when I interned a small beverage company, even though my work was into computers, I learnt a lot more about its operations and various parts of how a business should work. I learnt many things about internal operations, management, shipping, finance, customer service etc. This experience helped me to get an offer from a multinational company even though I didn’t have much experience in the same field. I know how various departments of a business should work closely and effectively to achieve a common goal, this knowledge alone has helped me to succeed in every job I have held so far.
Sheila Blair, Chairwoman of Federal Deposit Insurance recently said in NY Times that she started her career by working as a bank teller and gradually learnt what it takes. Even her past experiences taught her quick decision-making skills which helped her in current position (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/jobs/26boss.html?_r=1&8dpc).
Great post, Rebecca.
Cheers,
Pritesh
http://twitter.com/mehta1p
Nice one, Rebecca! I listen, agitate and empower the masses to create change myself… That’s what it SHOULD say on my business card!
So I made the hard choice of not finishing college to pursue a more focused concentration in interactive web development. It ultimately led to me teaching 3 years of a comp sci class and now working for a marketing company? Your post gives me hope. Every once and awhile I’ll regret not just sucking it up and getting the degree but I wanted my degree to actually mean something and at the time I still wasn’t sure what I was doing. I can see myself changing direction again very soon as it seems right now I’m averaging 3 years before I get bored and move on.
I think the main culprit for this, well at least for me, is the ease in which I can obtain new information now through the internet. I guess it’s pretty obvious, but I’ve been able to learn so much through the exchange of information in this space. The one thing that keeps me ahead of my peers is my experiences doing what I love. Question is, what will I fall in love with next.
Loved this article. As someone who also has many different interests and a short attention span, it’s discouraging to get pressure from other people to “just pick one thing and stick with that for the next 40 years.” It feels like a death sentence to do that. It has been hard to try and combine all my interests into my own little niche but I’ll give it all I got.
It’s going to be interesting to see how exactly this shift in attitude will change the job market over the next 10, 20 years after the Boomers retire. As Monica said, it’s still in its newest stages even among Gen Yers. Most of my peers are still following the traditional one job, 40 year path.
I’m going to show this post to every student who comes to see me who says they don’t have any relevant experience for whatever field it is they want to pursue but is involved on campus, holding down a part-time or summer job, running their own business, blogging, or whatever else it is they do. It’s sometimes difficult to get students to move beyond titles and to look at their entire collection of experiences and the transferrable skills they gained from each. Thanks for outlining it all so clearly!
Amen Rebecca. I am actually trying to learn web design. I don’t plan on working as a web designer ever, but it’s not because of the potential money that we can get from new skills why we should learn them. It’s because the potential idea and big picture comprehension.
You see what’s the problem with this idea, right? For people to actually do that, they need to step out their comfort zone. It’s much easier to be an accountant or a lawyer, that to be a “problem solver”.
@ Bret – Not only that, but find the multiple things you’re good at and discover how they can come together to help you build something bigger : ) Thanks for the comment!
@ CY – Ah, I agree, but I’m not so sure how easy it is to change the minds of those so entrenched in the old ways of doing things.
@ Pritesh – Thanks for sharing all those wonderful examples and links! It’s a great mindset to believe that every job you have will benefit you in some way and I appreciate you making this point come alive in your comment.
@ Darcie – Business cards would so much more interesting – and descriptive! – if we listed what we REALLY did… : )
@ Jon – Thanks so much for sharing your story so honestly. I love that you’ve had varied experiences and have been successful even without a college degree. While we all experience moments of doubt, it sounds like you have a great future ahead of you… can’t wait to see where you end up next.
@ Valerie – I too have a short attention span : ) Although I’m not even sure it’s that as much as it is the fact that I want to experience and learn so much in the world. I hope the Gen Yers will not follow the traditional 40 year path, but it will be interesting to follow for sure!
@ Kelly – Fabulous! As I mentioned in another comment on Brazen, I’ve always believed that if you can talk about how one experience helps you for a future opportunity that you can “do anything” that you desire. I hope more students can believe that as well.
@ Carlos – Amen to you! I totally agree that many times it’s often easier to settle than to push past boundaries. But that’s why this post isn’t called how to have a normal career, but how to innovate : ) Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I read this the other day in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers:
“Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning”
Your last three points summarize your post and I think will always stay with me. Experience is so important and sometimes the title is so vague (my boss laughs at his title, VP of Market Development, he goes, “What does that even mean?”). Wearing many hats, jumping into experience and job hopping all incubate experience.
And I will remember:
1) Collect experiences, not titles.
2) Realize connections.
3) Apply those core skills and ideas across disciplines.
It is refreshing to be reminded that varied interests or job experiences are no longer a death sentence in today’s job market. The accumulation of diverse knowledge will undoubtedly help people to not only add value to the workforce, but to assist in helping them figure out what they really want to do with their lives. After all, how will we know the answer if we never create opportunities for ourselves to continue learning?
@ Johnny – Great quote – thanks for sharing : )
@ Grace – I don’t even really have a title… so yeah, I’m with you there! I love that term, “incubate experience” by the way. Thanks for the comment!
@ Alicia – Appreciate your comment. Great reminder that diverse experience also helps you figure out what you want to do. I’m a big believer in that and find that the more experiences you have, the more of a chance you have to find happiness at work.
Interesting take on this. I realized early on in my career, when I was interviewing for jobs right out of college, that applying my core skills across disciplines was not really an option but a necessity!
I worked as a nanny for two years while in school, and I had to be able to demonstrate how that job gave me the skills necessary to contribute to any job I was applying for.
I think it’s good advice to take whatever skills or experiences you have cultivated at a job and use those to build your value in whatever job you find yourself going for in the future.
Rebecca, I agree with the sentiments in this article. We get it. However, the ideas that you talk about in your article hasn’t trickled down (or up) to those stuck in the mud HR managers who are STILL in charge of hiring.
Short-term- I think it’s hard for 20-somethings without the right titles on the resume to get in front of the people they need to. Long-term- One day we’ll be in positions to look at the big picture of who a person is rather than nitpicking over resumes and college degrees.
The path of least resistance would be to figure out how to work for yourself. and screw the middle man.
[…] How to Innovate Your Career – Rebecca Thorman (Modite) “Today, experience is the product. And smart workers are building their careers in the same way innovators build businesses. You don’t produce marketing plans, you create connections. You don’t create paintings, you evoke emotion. You don’t deliver newspapers, you spread information.” AKPC_IDS += “245,”;Popularity: unranked [?]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “20 Essential Blog Posts from July 2009”, url: “http://ryanstephensmarketing.com/blog/20-essential-blog-posts-from-july-2009/” }); […]
well said Rebecca. I agree with you on the issue of collecting experience over paycheck. I studied chemical engineering in school but before I got a full time job I worked alot on social media, customer services and so forth. Today having quit the engineering position, those skills I picked on prior have always come in handy as I try to grow my brand and those of my clients.
Ultimately I try to learn as much as I can from past positions, interacting with people and working on project I was not vast with previously, all in a bid to expand my horizon. There’s that feeling that those skills might be my saving grace somewhere down the road.
[…] think of some specific, concrete examples of how the change is good. There’s a fair amount of creative flexibility here, that’s why I used the word “define.” Let go of your assumed constraints. […]
[…] From Modite: How to innovate your career “When careers were based more on hierarchy, and work was more about getting a paycheck than knowledge, it didn’t really matter what you did. But today’s worker no longer desires swanky salaries or titles (although those don’t hurt, certainly), but instead searches for work experiences that can contribute to their lives.” […]
[…] From Modite: How to innovate your career “When careers were based more on hierarchy, and work was more about getting a paycheck than knowledge, it didn’t really matter what you did. But today’s worker no longer desires swanky salaries or titles (although those don’t hurt, certainly), but instead searches for work experiences that can contribute to their lives.” […]
[…] To which you might respond, great! I’d love to make lateral career moves and build up broad experience (or avoid boredom), but how do I convince someone to hire me for a position that’s only tangentially related to my previous experience or qualifications? Usually they’re reluctant to do that and much happier to hire the guy whose last job title matches the one they’re hiring for. Rebecca Thorman, the woman behind blog modite, has a thought-provoking answer to the problem: […]
Rebecca,
I agree with your points. “Realize connections” especially resonates with me.
My question to is this: more and more students have taken out massive amounts of student loans to cover their educations. Do you think people too often make career decisions based on financial need, and stay in the same company too long for the same financial reasons? How do you think your advice can be used to inspire someone to get past the financial hurdle of the debt they carry from their private, liberal arts college student loans (for example)?
Thanks!
[…] order to drive innovation, we need to have an education and career system that allows us the time and space to explore, not […]
Rebecca,
I love this post – especially your emphasis on realizing connections. The company I work for, KODA, was founded to create an environment in which young people can find jobs based on these principles. We love that people are expressing their strengths, life experiences, and wide-ranging abilities on our site – creating a professional identity far beyond a resume for employers to see and reciprocate by portraying their real identities. Check out http://www.koda.us and let me know what you think!
Joanna
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I really liked this quote: “The only thing these three A’s as he calls them cannot yet do well,” Bret Hummel reports “is bring ideas from multiple disciplines together. [Pink] argues that the person who understands the big picture, how to bring people together, and create a unique idea are the ones who will succeed in this global economy.”
I think this has always been true to some extent but is emerging even more so now. Even in a traditional corporation, the higher echelons of an organization understand the big picture and are rewarded based on this knowledge.
Your comments on systems theory as they relate to an individual’s career parth are the first I’ve come across and are intriguing. Great insight!
[…] Thorman wrote a fantastic post over at Modite about how to bring an innovative spirit to your career, so I decided to remix it a […]
Great post. I really enjoyed Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind. As a college student, it gives you a whole new perspective in which to look out from. Excellent!
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