How to Stay Relevant
Most people think about their careers with an achieving and a linear mindset. We get a job, pay the bills and do our best to climb the ladder, either in the same or multiple companies throughout the years.
We all know that baby boomers built their careers based on stability and loyalty to the same organisation. They worked and, some still work, long hours, dedicating (literally) their lives to their employers.
The following generations borrowed some of boomers’ approach such as completing intern and traineeships and working hard to get job promotions. However, as times changed, new generations also switched strategies to fulfil their career needs. Consider millenials whose search for purpose and flexible working saw them willing to sacrifice pay and perks for the right cause and working environment. They will move jobs to find meaning and purpose, but off to climb the ladder they go. Some build side hustles, but their notion of career normally remains the same, i.e. spending most of their time working in full-time jobs or fixed contracts.
Every person has a slightly different motivation and way of moving up in their careers, but fundamentally the way we think about our jobs is very similar: one line that goes from junior to senior roles that pay the bills in order to satisfy our motivation, purpose and personal goals.
The Great Resignation has now been shaking the job market, with more vacancies than job seekers as employees review their dream job and organisations tighten their safety policies and people requirements. As people leave their roles in search for more cultural and ways of working alignment, it’s time to redefine the way we manage our careers.
What if we told you that your career is not an upward line, but an elastic band? That it has a wider and more adaptable spectrum than most people think?
What if you could achieve stability as well as purpose by disrupting your career trajectory?
In this model created by our Director, Gus Balbontin, we explore what we call the ‘career spectrum’.
First, let’s imagine that your career is like a product portfolio. Your main role as a Career Architect is to design and balance this portfolio, while managing the time spent in each activity, keeping in mind that what sustains you now (your anchor role aka your full-time job) might not be the same in the future.
Think of your anchor role as your past and present, but most certainly not your future. Why? Think wild cards like pandemics, financial crisis and technology disruptions as well as the natural decline of certain product and services.
The future is unknown and the possibilities are endless, so it is critical that you push yourself to commit to continuous learning. What we call the push is your ability to upskill and work on self-improvement. This doesn’t necessarily mean expensive training courses, but self-pace learning, reading, meet-up groups, working on personal growth and emotional intelligence, just to name a few. When it comes to learning, let go of the expert mindset and embrace not knowing everything. And as you explore new ways of thinking, being and doing things, we’re confident that ideas will emerge for you to test. And that’s when the side hustle comes in.
You don’t need big plans and VC funding. All you need is passion, a vertical and people that matter to you to get started. You might even realise that your side hustle is fuelling or improving your anchor role in a way that it extends its lifecycle. Even better, your anchor role could be your platform and/or the funding you need to make your side hustle fly. Win-win.
Now, let’s not forget about play. The understated need for humans to interact, discover, tinker with and venture into the unknown. Play might be what stretches and propels your career portfolio forward and gives you momentum and energy, igniting your passion and maintaining you relevant in the future. It could start as a class you never thought you’d take, a new hobby, an instrument you’ve always wanted to play, or a reading topic that is unrelated to your anchor role and side hustle. Think big with play and explore the edges of our understanding of the world.
Your job is not your anchor role. Remember: an anchor might bring stillness to a ship, but it can also hinder the ship’s ability to navigate in turbulent waters. Your number one job is to stretch, balance and play with your career portfolio to keep you energised, engaged, happy and connected into the future. The time spent in each activity (anchor, push, side hustle and play) is up to you, but we encourage you to spread your time as much as possible. Why not reduce your work hours in your anchor role while exploring other areas? Nothing is fixed, so you can always revert your ratios depending on your personal circumstances.
The future you create depends on how elastic your career portfolio is. The stretchier it is, the more futures (alternatives) you can tap into. Rethinking and deconstructing your understanding of your career may be the exact move you need to actually bring more stability to your future.
How do you know that you’re stretching your career as much as possible? You might feel unsettled yet energised, and confused yet confident that you’re at the edge of something great.
