Defining Career Lanes: Strategic Steps for High-Potential Professionals
Pursuing career growth or conducting a job search can be overwhelming in a world of endless opportunity. The next decade’s demographic trends highlight the urgent need for diverse talent across industries. As a high-potential professional, you face countless choices that may seem daunting. Yet, this is the reality we must confront head-on.
Our objective is clear: to help you strategically organize the job market in a way that aligns with your skills and personal goals. This exercise aims to empower you to apply your professional competencies effectively, make informed choices, and proactively identify and target organizations that align with your career aspirations. By doing so, you will be equipped to make strategic decisions that propel your career forward and allow you to leave a meaningful legacy.
Organizing Career Opportunities into Lanes
We aim to help you organize the market by synthesizing potential career opportunities into specific “Lanes” that allow you to maximize your skills and achieve a meaningful legacy. A career Lane consists of similar parameters that enable you to accelerate your unique career during a particular phase of your life.
Road and Guardrails: Key Dimensions of Career Lanes
- The Road: Represents the application of your professional skills and experiences, propelling you forward. This becomes clear through building your career plan and conducting Professional Inventory exercises that highlight your STAR experiences—wins and learnings, technical mastery, and leadership mastery.
- The Guardrails: Provide structure, allowing you to shape your career Lane. They represent the personal choices and constraints you set based on your goals and values, such as desired income, work-life balance, and growth opportunities.
Defining Your Guardrails
The guardrails define the width and shape of your career Lane. These guardrails represent the personal choices you make about your career today and in the future. You decide how to use your time and the rewards you seek from your work. Consider the following questions: How much money do you want to earn? How much training do you need? Are you willing to take on higher risks? How much travel or commuting are you comfortable with? What personal sacrifices or changes are you willing to make to achieve your career goals? Remember, every opportunity comes with its own set of trade-offs. These are essential elements of your Personal Inventory in your CareerTruth Career Plan.
Conducting Market Research
In the “Market Research for my Career” exercise, you explore various organizations that align with your needs. Start by investigating opportunities within your current company and industry. Your greatest value is where you are now until proven otherwise. Be proactive and conduct thorough market research internally to uncover potential opportunities. Next, expand your research to include your entire industry. This approach is more strategic than a random job search, allowing you to apply your core talents to different markets, industries, or companies.
Key Considerations for Constructing Your Career Lanes
As you start considering different types of companies, several major factors will significantly impact your decision-making.
Business Lifecycle Stages:
- Entrepreneurial or Startup: Exciting and fast-paced, but often lacking stability, annual cash compensation, and real training.
- Collectivity (High Growth, Missional): Offers rapid growth and a strong mission, but may come with high demands and intense work environments.
- Formalization (Best Practices, Stable): Provides stability, well-established best practices, and excellent resume value, but can feel limiting in scope.
- Elaboration (Leading, Successful Innovation): Rewards innovation and leadership, offering stability and growth opportunities, but may constrain your business impact.
- Exit-Focused/Decline (Short-Term Focused): Intense and challenging, but often short-lived with a focus on immediate results.
The lifecycle stage of a business influences how your talents are utilized and the personal implications of your choices, including time commitment and risk/reward balance. Understanding these stages helps you evaluate which type of business aligns best with your career goals and personal preferences.
Educate Your Passions
When considering a career change and selecting a Lane to pursue, it’s crucial to research new markets or industries. If you’re tired of your current role and want to follow your passion in a different field, that’s commendable. However, blindly following your passion without proper planning is unwise.
Understand that your market value is linked to your past experiences. While a company might offer lower pay initially for a career switch, your passion and skills can help you excel and recoup those earnings. Consider the immediate need for cash compensation, but also keep in mind the significant differences between various organizations and roles over the mid to long term.
Constructing Career Lanes
You can create multiple career Lanes, each with 15-20 target companies or organizations. Start by applying your highest priority criteria:
- Role or Type of Work: Example – Sales Leader
- Industry: Example – B2B Software or Tech
- Business Lifecycle Stage: Example – Collectivity (high-growth, emerging business)
- Location/Travel: Example – Willing to commute, preferring proximity to headquarters for learning and promotion opportunities
By thoughtfully considering these factors, you can strategically plan your career, ensuring it aligns with your goals and values.
Exploring Career Options
This approach likely identifies up to 40 potential targets within your career Lane. You can now research the alignment of these companies with your career goals, proactively connecting and arranging meetings to advance your professional growth.
You might prefer to work as a consultant for more freedom, join a larger company for better training and lower risk, or even start a B2B business with a big idea. Another option might be relocating to a different city to explore new opportunities there.
In today’s business climate, options are endless, but organizing them into Lanes helps in making informed choices. Learn about your options and eliminate any Lanes that don’t suit you today. Depending on the urgency of securing a new role, focus on one Lane at a time. If you can’t find enough targets, broaden your Lane by relaxing requirements such as commute, travel, flexibility, or industry type. Consulting with advisors, coaches, recruiters, or peers can also provide insights into your Lane possibilities.
Taking Ownership of Your Career
It’s ideal to do this work when you’re not under pressure. Conducting thorough research and discernment is valuable for your career, but it can be time and energy intensive. Align your potential employers with your purpose and career plan, even as your life evolves. By considering various Lanes, you gain perspective. Focusing on a specific Lane ensures your “Story of You” is consistent and well-informed. Your STAR experiences, purpose, growth plans, personal goals, and vision of success will align with your chosen Lane, making your networking and interviews more effective and authentic. Take ownership of your career.