Career Advice – Go where others don’t
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Sometimes it’s not the best idea to follow the herd – taking the less-trodden path can pay dividends for your career.
I once interviewed a woman who had driven an impressively fast-track career in one of the world’s major airlines. Most graduates completing the company’s graduate scheme would exit onto a Manager grade, progressing to Senior Manager after 4 or 5 years. This person had been promoted into a General Manager role (managing Senior Managers) only 3 years after leaving the graduate scheme.
Invited to talk at a session on careers for one of the airline’s Early Talent schemes, I asked her for her best career advice for people starting their career.
Her advice was, “Go where others don’t.”
She explained that when she entered the scheme, graduates competed to go into different placements. Some of the placements were regarded as sexier than others – like Marketing and Brand, which always had graduates queuing up to take one of the 4-5 Marketing placements on offer.
This meant that people in Marketing always had several bright-eyed and bushy-tailed graduates running around eager to impress at any one time – so it was hard to stand out and be noticed. So instead this woman decided to take the least sexy placement on offer – in Catering.
Catering is a blue-collar environment with many part-time and unqualified workers. Their job is to ensure airplanes were serviced to remove and dispose of used catering packs and replace these with hot and fresh food in a very short time span, to minimize turnaround time.
“They’d never had a graduate volunteer in Catering before – so everyone was curious and pleased to see me. It meant that I was very visible – and I was reporting to a senior manager who had a challenging project for me. Delivering this successfully gave me great numbers for my C.V.
The Director also offered to mentor me – which gave me a fantastic opportunity to understand the issues, complexities and business priorities. And these senior relationships have been very helpful in finding the right roles to progress my career.”
She was not alone in her experience. When ambitious people are prepared to take on the tougher challenges, this shows they are prepared to get their hands dirty, and that they have both resilience and the ability to create success in a wide range of environments.
Similarly, I’ve seen high fliers ‘pick up the poisoned chalice’ – the role that needs to be done but people shy away from because it’s hard and others have failed before. It takes confidence and more guts than most – and often this willingness is highly regarded by senior sponsors, and rewarded – even if things don’t go perfectly.
The willingness to step up and take on a tough job that must be done qualifies you for senior responsibilities.
THE TAKEAWAY
Are you taking the primrose path in your career – or can you stand out by your willingness to take on tougher jobs and more demanding environments? Even one move into a very different area will speak volumes in your job history.
I once interviewed a woman who had driven an impressively fast-track career in one of the world’s major airlines. Most graduates completing the company’s graduate scheme would exit onto a Manager grade, progressing to Senior Manager after 4 or 5 years. This person had been promoted into a General Manager role (managing Senior Managers) only 3 years after leaving the graduate scheme.
Invited to talk at a session on careers for one of the airline’s Early Talent schemes, I asked her for her best career advice for people starting their career.
Her advice was, “Go where others don’t.”
She explained that when she entered the scheme, graduates competed to go into different placements. Some of the placements were regarded as sexier than others – like Marketing and Brand, which always had graduates queuing up to take one of the 4-5 Marketing placements on offer.
This meant that people in Marketing always had several bright-eyed and bushy-tailed graduates running around eager to impress at any one time – so it was hard to stand out and be noticed. So instead this woman decided to take the least sexy placement on offer – in Catering.
Catering is a blue-collar environment with many part-time and unqualified workers. Their job is to ensure airplanes were serviced to remove and dispose of used catering packs and replace these with hot and fresh food in a very short time span, to minimize turnaround time.
“They’d never had a graduate volunteer in Catering before – so everyone was curious and pleased to see me. It meant that I was very visible – and I was reporting to a senior manager who had a challenging project for me. Delivering this successfully gave me great numbers for my C.V.
The Director also offered to mentor me – which gave me a fantastic opportunity to understand the issues, complexities and business priorities. And these senior relationships have been very helpful in finding the right roles to progress my career.”
She was not alone in her experience. When ambitious people are prepared to take on the tougher challenges, this shows they are prepared to get their hands dirty, and that they have both resilience and the ability to create success in a wide range of environments.
Similarly, I’ve seen high fliers ‘pick up the poisoned chalice’ – the role that needs to be done but people shy away from because it’s hard and others have failed before. It takes confidence and more guts than most – and often this willingness is highly regarded by senior sponsors, and rewarded – even if things don’t go perfectly.
The willingness to step up and take on a tough job that must be done qualifies you for senior responsibilities.
THE TAKEAWAY
Are you taking the primrose path in your career – or can you stand out by your willingness to take on tougher jobs and more demanding environments? Even one move into a very different area will speak volumes in your job history.