Work isn't like school: You don't just keep getting promoted until you graduate. So take control! Be the CEO of your career.
Getty Images/Visual Generation
If you remember only one piece of career advice, I would suggest it be this: Be the CEO of your career.
What does that mean?
It means:
Take responsibility for the direction and progress of your career — for where you are, what you are doing, and where you are headed.
When people enter the workforce, they often imagine that their job and career success and satisfaction is someone else's responsibility — their company's, for example, or their boss's. They imagine that, if they do well, their company or boss will reward them with a promotion. And they imagine that if they continue to do well, they will keep getting promoted — and that this will make them happy and satisfied and enable the life and lifestyle they want.
In other words, people often imagine that progress at work will be like progress at school: If they pass their exams at one level, they will get advanced to the next, and they will get the rewards that go along with that — the sense of achievement and status and the approval of teachers, parents, and peers.
There are some fields in which careers work that way, at least at the beginning. In law, banking, consulting, and medicine, for example, "classes" of hires sometimes advance in lockstep, with steadily increasing pay and responsibilities.
But even in these fields, the school-like progression eventually ends and responsibility shifts fully to the individual.
Also, life has a way of disrupting even the most predictable career paths.
Even if you choose a field or organization with annual advancement, for example, you may find that you don't like it. Or that you're not good at it. Or that your peers are willing to work harder or longer. Or that you get canned by your company in a cutback. Or that your partner wants to move to a different city. Or that your life changes and you don't want to work as many hours. Etc.
So, sooner or later, you'll be making your career decisions again. And you will be responsible for creating a career and life you want.
Most organizations, moreover, don't take responsibility for the direction and progress of your career. In most organizations, you are responsible from day one.
In fact, because the biggest and most important decisions you make in your career are decisions about what to do and which company or organization to do it for, you are responsible for your direction and progress before you even start.
In other words, even if you don't want to be the CEO of your career, you are.
But here's the good news!
As CEO of your career, you'll be in charge of decisions that can increase your satisfaction and help you build the life and career you want. These include:
When, how, and where to work
How much to make (you can have a lot of control over this especially over time)
As CEO of your career, you'll also feel empowered to solve problems that often derail or depress those who think their current boss or employer is in charge of their career. Your solutions can include:
Negotiating with your boss, to improve your job, flexibility, assignments, schedule, pay, autonomy, etc.
Managing your boss, so your boss is easier and less stressful to work for
And, if your boss-improvement-plan is unsuccessful:
Firing your boss, either by requesting an internal transfer or by firing your whole employer and hiring another
So, welcome to the C-suite!
