Advice on Navigating Your Career Options
If you are anything like me, when you think about your career, the opportunities are endless… “I could do this” or “I could do that.”
One day when I was fretting about a decision related to my career, I decided to take a top-down look at all my options to ensure that I was narrowing the scope of my decision from “If I can do anything, what do I want to do?” to “What can I eliminate from the list of anything so I can focus in on the industries I want to serve, with the products/services I want to be associated with, and the roles I want to play to make an impact?”
Ultimately, where I arrived was the fact that my career options were actually not endless. They were finite. And when I looked at what I could easily eliminate from my list of options, I was left with a much more manageable range of options to pursue.
This exercise gave me so much peace, I passed it along to a colleague I knew was struggling with a similar career reckoning. It helped her too!
Given this, I’ve decided to share my rough ideas on the topic in writing in hopes that it helps one of you.
My process started with the goal of narrowing down the seemingly endless universe of possibilities to finite lists.
With this as my goal, my process resulted in this realization: one way to think about your career is the intersection of three finite lists of possibilities.
What are your industry options? Defined by the GICS (The Global Industry Classification System).
What types of goods and services does the company you want to work for/create provide to their customers? Defined by your company’s IC (International Class).
What role does your work play within the company you are operating? Defined by the SOC for your role (Standard Occupational Classification).
As these are all finite lists, you can approach each of them with one of two mindsets:
What on this list interests me so much I would like to spend my precious time working on it so that I can make money and make an impact on the world?
What on this list can I eliminate because I have literally zero interest in spending my time working on the problems being solved in these industries, at these types of companies or in these types of roles?
To give a concrete example of how this works, here’s two looks:
This is the Venn diagram of a CEO for a CPG company that provides soda to the market:
GICS = 30201030 (Soft Drinks)
IC = 032 (Beers and Beverages)
SOC = 11-1010 (Chief Executives)
Conversely, this is the Venn diagram for a Marketing Manager at a Tech company that provides AI Software to the market:
GICS = 45103010 (Application Software)
IC = 042 (Science and Technology Services)
SOC = 11-2021 (Marketing Manager)
Recommended Actions:
Pull up the three lists (GICS, IC, and SOC) on your computer and print them out. Go through and highlight what interests you (and/or what you are currently doing for money), alternatively (or simultaneously) go through the lists and cross out what you definitely don’t want to do in your career or what you have literally zero interest in.
Start a fresh google sheet and make three lists, GICS’s of interest, IC’s of interest and SOCs of interest. Find a cross-section that lights you up. Perhaps you’ll be like “Oh my gosh! General Manager for a Luxury Clothing Company?!??! that would be freaking amazing!”
Great! This is huge! Now you can go and build a list: Luxury Clothing companies, narrowed by those that have openings for General Managaer positions in the geographical (or remote) locations you’d be willing to work or move to. Apply for these jobs, leverage your network to get in front of the hiring manager, and relish in the fact that you’ve successfully narrowed down the sea of endless possibilities to a path that lights you up!
If you meet the qualifications or come close: Let’s say you find that Prada and Gucci are hiring - this is fantastic - now you have two great opportunities in front of you to pursue.
If you don’t meet the qualifications or even come close: Let’s say that your new goal is to be a GM at Prada, amazing! I love this for you… What could be a good step on the way there? Perhaps it’s an Associate Retail Salesperson at Prada - go and find these opportunities! Perhaps it’s the Luxury Shoe Manager at Nordstrom, a great role on your way to your end goal of working for Prada!
But Stef!?! What if I choose wrong??? I think it’s important to address the fact here that we are human beings and that our purpose on this planet is to evolve, change, and grow. So it’s worth considering how your career ages in the form of career progression…
Perhaps you are someone who wants to stay in their Industry for a lifetime, only working for the same types of companies… Great! You can choose your GICS and your ICs and only worry about the change in your SOC over the course of your career. Maybe you grow from Marketing Manager to Sales Manager to General Manager to CEO over the course of your career…. that’s progress baby!
For others, you may be more compelled by establishing yourself as a leader within an industry, such that you can eventually build your own consulting firm, agency, or investment fund. Also an exciting path! While in this instance your GICS, IC, and SOCs will change, you will have expertise within the industry and company types you came from that will make you an exceptional talent at supporting those types of companies. This is also progress, baby!
Still, others will find themselves on a career trajectory, in an industry, working for a company, and doing a job they decide they want to leave altogether. One example I think of is Ken Cheong a successful doctor turned famed comedian best known for his role in The Hangover as Leslie Chow. This is okay too - this is still progress, baby! You are allowed to evolve, change and enjoy life. Even if that means completely abandoning what you know for what you want. It may be harder to make this pivot, but it is possible! And regardless of how out there it may seem, what you learned in your “past career life” will help you in the “new career life” even if you can’t connect the dots looking forward. This is ALSO progress, baby!
Well-meaning bosses, leaders, and people in your life may tell you ‘pick a lane’ or ‘stick to one thing’ and to some end, I agree with them, picking a lane and sticking to one thing is a surefire way to progress your career linearly until retirement — and there is nothing wrong with this!
That said, I think it’s more important to live a life that you don’t want to run away from and that doesn’t leave you on your deathbed saying “I wish I would have…”
In summary, there is no “right way” to approach your career, but when you feel overwhelmed that there are endless options, I hope this article gives you peace in that:
First, there are not actually endless options, the options are indeed finite.
And second, you may choose one path now and find that over the course of time, you want to or have to evolve how you were thinking about your path or abandon it entirely — either is fine and may simply be part of your unique and beautiful journey through life.
I hope this helps you love! If you’d like to go deeper on any of this, I do 1-1 mentoring sessions and I’d love to help you think further about your next career move.
Xo.
Stef
