by Jill Olsen, former Head Editor, INALJ Nevada
Previously published 8/26/13
Has Your Career Ladder Morphed into a Career Jungle Gym?
I’m sure we have all heard and know about climbing the infamous career ladder. But times have changed and it’s a whole new world out there. Early in my career it felt like I was headed upward yet in the past few years I’ve made some lateral, downwards, sideways and upward moves. How about you? Recently I listened to a talk by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and author of “Lean In” to the Harvard Business School Class of 2012. I thought her advice to the graduating class was spot on and applies to anyone seeking employment and managing a career. Some of her key points were (emphasis on last 3 points is mine)
- Look for opportunities
- Look for growth
- Look for mission
- Move sideways
- Move down
- Move on
- Move off
- Build your skills, not your resume
- Evaluate what you can do, not the title they are going to give you
- Do real work
- Don’t plan too much
- Don’t expect a direct climb
- Move from command and control to listening and guiding
- You won’t be able to rely on who you are or the degree you hold, you will have to rely on what you know
- Your strength will not come from a place on a org chart, it will come by earning trust and building respect
- Communicate authentically
I highly recommend watching/listening to the entire address, it’s less than 23 minutes. At the beginning, Sheryl talks about how after she went to work at Facebook an acquaintance and former HBS graduate named Lori Goler called her to discuss joining her at Facebook. Lori thought about how she should approach Sheryl, how she thought about telling her all the things she is good at, all the things she likes to do, but she figured everyone was doing that. So instead she asked Sheryl “what is your biggest problem, and how can I solve it”? Sheryl had never heard anything like that from the thousands of people she had hired (she had never even said that). I wrote a previous article for INALJ There are no jobs, there are needs to be filled! on this same topic.