I've had a bunch of friends asking for career advice recently and my advise is always some version of the same message:
Don't treat your career options as a deterministic path from A -> B
Don't treat your career options as a deterministic path from A -> B
It's a category error to think that you can equate your current identity and label with a future identity and label.
Even a known label like "vp marketing" is a wildly different situation and reality depending on company, size, industry etc.
Even a known label like "vp marketing" is a wildly different situation and reality depending on company, size, industry etc.
The failure mode here is to try and do some hard thinking to "figure out what you want to do"..
When reality has a funny habit of being more chaotic and unpredictable.
When reality has a funny habit of being more chaotic and unpredictable.
In reality any career change is a negotiation and exploration of different identities, labels, skills and (importantly) ~networks~!
We think of the job market as being legible in the sense of job search engines and job titles.
But there's a ton of dark matter involved in getting a new job.
People get jobs that are poorly defined & only loosely map to the title. And they get them through intros and referrals
But there's a ton of dark matter involved in getting a new job.
People get jobs that are poorly defined & only loosely map to the title. And they get them through intros and referrals
All of this boils down to a situation where you should be creating the conditions for a new job to emerge, not chasing a single idea of a job title (or company).
The book Working Identity by @HerminiaIbarra really helped me understand this idea: 
But here's the punchline:
Blogging is by far and away the easiest, fastest and most effective way to cultivate this open ended iterative career change.
Not blogging in the sense of viral LinkedIn thinkfluencer, but blogging in the small b blogging sense.
Blogging is by far and away the easiest, fastest and most effective way to cultivate this open ended iterative career change.
Not blogging in the sense of viral LinkedIn thinkfluencer, but blogging in the small b blogging sense.
Networked writing and blogging enable this kind of iterative exploration of your own identity while *also* creating new networks, connections and surface area.
In effect blogging is the way to create fertile conditions for a new career to "appear out of nowhere"
In effect blogging is the way to create fertile conditions for a new career to "appear out of nowhere"
More to this whole idea here: littlefutures.substack.com/p/lf10-permiss…
I like this visual but it doesn't quite capture the idea of *how* to navigate and move across the map... How to bring a sense of agency to a random walk
https://twitter.com/pesa_africa/status/1402716172089532417?s=19
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