Building Your Career Curriculum: The Later-Career Years
As another school year winds to a close, so, too, does my three-part series on Building Your Career Curriculum. Just like a school year unfolds with a curriculum planned for optimal learning over the course of a school year, so, too, can a career unfold with optimal outcomes if you’ve been thoughtful about how you go about your working life. In the first stage of this series, the Early Years, I wrote about how the first five years of your career are about learning the basics: learning to work hard, learning to work well with others, and learning how to work in a focused way. In the second stage, Mid-Career, I wrote about widening your lens within your company, focusing on your own growth opportunities, and setting the stage for what’s to follow. Now, in Later-Career, you’ve effectively “made it” -- so what’s left to learn?
Plenty! Growth doesn’t stop, even when you’re atop your game. There is still lots to do in front of you! It remains important never to become complacent, to continue to feed your curiosity, to preserve your willingness to learn and improve, and to be willing to evolve as a person and as a professional. In fact, I’d argue that the farther along you are in your career, the more responsibility you need to take to make sure that you’re challenging yourself in new ways. Look to leaders you admire for examples: it’s likely that they didn’t get into positions of leadership just by putting enough calendar-time. Rather, they achieved their successes by remaining able to expand their creative energies and influence in meaningful new ways.
Learning in the later-career stage takes many forms. Industry learning doesn’t ever stop. Change happens at such a fast pace that everyone, from the C-suite to the ground floor, has to stay informed and current on trends. One way in which I do this is by reading voraciously, and not just in one narrow area. For example, I recently read The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis, which is about the birth of behavioral economics, the importance of collaboration, and how we perceive reality. It doesn’t have anything to do with my job specifically, but it challenged me to think in new ways about how our minds work, intuition, and decision making -- key ways in which we can expand our knowledge. Also, we can learn from other people in ways that we can’t learn from books. For instance, 360-degree feedback reviews contribute to both personal and professional development. We all have room to improve, and oftentimes, others reflect those growth opportunities back to us in ways we haven’t considered. When it comes to learning in any form, perhaps especially in tech, we never reach a level where we can put our feet up and relax, comfortable that we know everything that there is to know and can put the ship on auto-pilot, so to speak. Time doesn’t stand still once you “arrive.”
When you reach these later stages of your career, giving back becomes very important. It’s important to be generous with your time even when your time may be in more demand than ever, and giving of your time is one way to stay humble no matter how much you’ve accomplished. Sharing what you’ve learned with others matters. Mentorship is one way in which to do this, as it helps others to grow in new and exciting directions. I consider this to be an important responsibility for those who’ve achieved success. Mentorship is like watering seeds in a garden that you’ve thoughtfully planted; people, like flowers, will bloom before your very eyes. Being a mentor and a mentee never needs to stop, either; I’ve been a successful founder for many years, and I find value still in being mentored myself, as it’s another way in which I learn and grow.
Writing, speaking, and joining advisory boards are other ways to give back. I share my own thought leadership regularly on blogs and throughout industry publications, and I regularly accept invitations to speak. I see it as a duty to share what I’ve learned. These later-career years are also a time to join advisory groups and boards, which is another key way to share your wealth of knowledge and experience with the world beyond your company doors. Helping not just people, but other companies to grow, benefits the whole landscape. It’s a well-earned, true honor to be appointed to boards as an expert later in life.
Challenging yourself, continuing to be challenged, and continuing to respond to challenge are all important aspects of later-career stages. Ongoing learning, mentorship, and sharing the lessons you’ve learned in various ways are things to look forward to in these later-career years. A well-crafted career will culminate eventually in you being able to look back and say: I was fortunate to have learned a lot, and I’m grateful that I was able to share what I learned for the benefit of others. Learning and sharing never stops.
Originally published on LinkedIn