As an executive recruiter specializing in communication, I'm able to observe the "career arcs" of many extraordinary communication professionals. In some cases, career moves have been based on offers the candidates received. In others, however, decisions seem particularly crafted, as though the professional had an end point in mind.
This approach to one's career always reminds me of NASA engineers who land vehicles on Mars. When a spacecraft launches, it is pointed away from its final destination. Only through a series of in-flight calibrations—or trajectory correction maneuvers (TCMs)—does the craft land on the intended target. The corrections could be large, or they could be no more than slight nudges that refine the spacecraft's path. The goal is to get the spacecraft where it needs to be, when it needs to be there. The same approach can apply to your career.
Calibrating, or making adjustments (small or large), to your career can start from any point. If your career is in its early stages, you have more time to point yourself in the right direction and refine your path as you proceed. If you have the benefit of experience behind you, your career moves may be more deliberate. If a desired title or position is the goal, you must objectively look at the career decisions you have made, the experience that you have gained, and the gaps that need to be filled, then with patience and objectivity, determine whether your calibrations need to be large, gradual or slight, or whether they are needed at all. Additionally, those transitions—or your professional reasons for them—may not be obvious to someone considering you for a new role, so be ready to explain why you've made the choices you have.
First, consider what you value professionally. What is important to you? Is it a title and job responsibilities, the size of your paycheck, or the staff you work with? If you have a specific goal, like "I want to be a vice president of corporate communication within 10 years," you may need to reassess what is important to you today and how key it is to where you want to be tomorrow. Some candidates at the midpoint of their career intentionally take a position with a more junior title in order to take a role that offers broader responsibilities. It’s a small price to pay for broader exposure and the opportunity to take on additional responsibilities that may position them well for future roles. I frequently see candidates take pay cuts for the same reason.
After you've dissected your past decisions, look toward your future. Determine what type of change is best for your career map. A great gauge is to observe the career of someone who is where you want to be. What did they do, and how did they do it? Should you do the same? Did they make career changes within the same company? Perhaps accepting a move to a different business unit, taking a global opportunity, or taking on additional responsibilities within the same group will broaden and deepen your understanding of the business. Or did they move to a new organization? Sometimes you need to face the stark reality that your role may be a dead end for you (not from the standpoint of your contributions but from the standpoint of mobility). If your goal is the top job, and the person in that position shows no sign of leaving, it may be time to move on.
The challenge of transitions
Sometimes, the changes you think you should make are not obvious to others. You've looked at your experience through your own lens—now consider it through the lens of a recruiter or potential employer. If you're a candidate, recruiters or employers may assess your fit for a role in three ways:
- Impressions (Do you match what the organization thinks it needs?)
- Industry experience (If the role requires specific industry experience, do you have it?)
- Organizational compatibility (Are you the right fit with the culture—an often overlooked but potentially game-ending issue?)
With this in mind, your map for your career may not match a recruiter’s or potential employer’s map. Take the time, however, to assess the perceived weaknesses in your experience and be ready to counter them with your strengths. By researching the company, studying press releases and annual reports, and talking with members of your network who are, or have access to, former employees, you can show how your depth of experience in other areas can make up for areas you have yet to learn about.
Defending your tenure
How much time is too much? How much is not enough? Potential employers can have issues with each. I hear it from clients all the time: "Candidate A hasn't really moved around much," or "Candidate B doesn't seem to stick around long enough to learn anything." You need to frame your tenure positively, in one of two ways. First, if you’ve stayed at one place for a while, you might say you've had multiple opportunities within the same organization. Or if you’ve jumped from one company to the next, you can say you've worked for multiple organizations. Turn perceived negatives into positives.
If you’re concerned that you've stayed too long at one company, be prepared to talk about how healthy tenure at an organization provides a better grasp of the business, its challenges, and what has made it successful. Your experience should be viewed for the strategic depth that comes with a longer tenure. You have a foundation not just of functional experience—you possess an overarching business sense as well. One candidate of mine has spent 14 years at a Fortune 50 company and frames his experience as an accumulation of sometimes lateral moves that have given him depth, breadth and global reach. He has also been able to benefit from mentors and coaches along the way who have helped shape his robust career.
On the other hand, if you're a candidate who has experienced frequent career movement, you must be prepared to justify and protect yourself from the perception of job-hopping. In this case, first frame your discussion around the high-level benefits of movement. You can demonstrate the insight derived from culling multiple best practices from a variety of organizations, from both strategic and tactical perspectives. At the same time, you've been exposed to tired practices, or companies that have been slow to change or adapt (companies that lack social media strategies come to mind). The message is that you know what to embrace and what to avoid.
You can also highlight the benefit of multi-industry experiences, such as the associated challenges that come with getting your job done in a heavily regulated industry or making do with the often restricted budgets of nonprofit or government roles. All of these experiences have benefits, so make sure you're able to highlight them in the context of your experience.
We've talked about the importance of your professional plan, and the fact that shaping your career requires patience, hard work and objectivity. As you continue to travel along the arc of your own career, remember that each step and each experience is valuable. What may seem a peculiar turn taken earlier in your career can resurface years later to make you a more robust candidate. As long as you stay on your path, calibrating along the way, you will get to where you want to be.
