If you’ve ever worked for any company, you’ve probably had one of those career development talks with your manager. It’s great if a company that you work for cares about your development and not just about your deliverables. You should definitely appreciate it. However, the career development within a company is, of course, focused on the company. How can you grow so that the company can get more of you? The best companies out there will try and focus on your strengths, passion, interest, past experiences, and so on. They get it that if they provide an environment where you can grow more and more into what you love to do, you’ll be motivated to produce, innovate, and motivate others to do the same. But still, even with these very intelligent organizations, thinking about your career development is somewhat constrained.
What if you are a school teacher and you’d like to grow into a people development specialist? Can your company, in this case the school, help you get there? Or, imagine that a company hired you as a localization project manager and you’d like to one day become a marketing consultant? You may think these are rather strange examples. Believe me, they are real examples. Actually these are about me and my husband. And I have many more when I talk to my friends and family. For example one is about a software engineer dreaming about becoming a movie music writer. The career development discussions, tools, opportunities that are available to you where you currently are may help you a little, but it’s very likely that they will not make your dream come true.
I remember taking to my manager about what kind of work I’d like to do. She listened, and then asked me “OK, so what job title are you talking about here?” As many in her position, she was trying to fit my dream into the company’s structure. Into the current company structure, to be precise. She didn’t even consider that maybe I’m talking about something new that may not exist, but that I can create if there is a need. Have you heard 10 years ago about a “social media specialist” position? Yet, it exists today.
So, what’s the point? Have all those career development talks with whoever is interested to talk to you about your career and your future. Use all the tools that make you think about possibilities, your passions, interests that you’ve never considered. But don’t be constrained by what a company you are in has to offer.