I don't normally use LinkedIn. It might sound surprising to some of my acquaintances, colleagues, and friends, particularly since I'm in the IT field, and it seems like it's a must-have for IT folks to do some networking online.
I must say though, that LinkedIn looks to have reached some critical mass, so that most every tech guy (and gal) I know seems to have a profile there. It's synonymous to Spoke to the finance field.
Out of necessity (since I need to do some research on website features on the website), I login to LinkedIn after as many years. Curiosity piqued me, and I did a quick search on a few people I used to work with, quite some years ago. Not surprisingly, I found all of them.
One of the guys I looked up used to be in my current company, working his way up the ladder, from a manager, to senior manager, to director, to eventually senior director. He had his ascent fast initially, but he's been in his last position for more than a few years. All in all, he did it in a little over seven years. I would also say that he did his various jobs quite well, all told.
I can't find it now, but I remember reading this article in Fortune (or could it be some Ask Annie column Q&A?), on a general rule of thumb that, if you stay in the same job for more than seven years, and going nowhere, chances are, you won't go anywhere. I remember reading that article, then looking around me at people I worked with or knew, and to my amazement, there could be some truth in it.
Some power struggle ensued, and this senior director lost. Even though he's an ultimate company man, he left for another company, on a lateral move. I thought, a lateral move might not be too bad for him. It was a smaller company, but perhaps it would provide more opportunity for him. He even asked me to jump ship to his new dig, though I declined.
I thought he had found his new dream job, and was a little surprised when I was told by someone that he left that new company. It's been less than two years. It's been four years now, and today I found him to be an manager in a fitness center, looking out for another job.
I feel bad for him. He's in his 50's now, been through lots of M&A in the IT field, moving his way up the ladder, only to see it all crumbling down. No doubt times are tougher now, given the sluggish economy, and even more sluggish job market. I have doubts that he'll ever make his way back to the managerial position (let alone senior rank) in the technical field before he reaches his retirement.
Others' experience serve as a vivid daily reminder to me. But for one, I'm not sure if I want to be in the IT field for the rest of my life. It's all new and exciting when I was fresh from college. But after some 15 years in the field, all those new and exciting things (what with all the new languages and gadgetry) just seem more like "old wine, new bottle" to me. After moving from C, to C++, to Java, and all, I don't feel the rush to embrace another pretty new thing. I'm probably one of those to cede the field to the younger generation, and would be all too happy to move onto something else, some completely different field and career.
But before I do that, I'll have to make sure that my second career is ready for when I jump ship. It is thus, with great trepidation, that I would still fulfill my duty in my current job everyday, with the hope that the economy would bounce back in time, and we can all make our second career a reality.
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2 comments:
In order to win the best jobs and ultimately your dream job in today's world, you have to work like a ninja. Your job search must be different than everyone else's. You have to search where others don't search. You must have a strategic plan of attack.
Everyone (from Fortune on down) is writing about that, that one has to go viral, online etc, in order to get the next dream (let alone dream job). You could be right about that. I don't know about that senior director that I know, of whether he's been creative enough in his job search. But one fact that no one can deny is that, for most people, there's certain invisible threshold in age that, once crossed, your career will just go down hill from there. As for myself, no I don't want another "job". I'm starting my own business(es).
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