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Career path in the third and fourth decades? (take II)
Subject:Career path in the third and fourth decades? (take II) From:Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, Monica Cellio <cellio -at- pobox -dot- com> Date:Tue, 22 Nov 2005 12:33:10 -0500
Monica Cellio provided a bit more information: <<I'm not looking for
status and prestige; it's about meeting current needs and funding a
comfortable retirement. If I could keep doing what I'm doing and get
cost-of-living raises, that'd be fine -- but there comes a point where
younger folks will be cheaper and while I'm good, I may be better than
an employer actually feels he needs. Hence the "do I need to be doing
something different?" question.>>
That's a much tougher question. I've always been a strong advocate of
the "wear many hats" role, so that many influential people know and
value what you're doing. (This isn't a case of specifically going out
and brown-nosing every manager in the building--it's a question of
being useful in as many ways as your interests and skills permit.)
That's worked very well for me, but I've mostly workd for small
companies where this kind of strategy is possible. In larger companies,
your entire division can be axed by some faceless bean counter who
doesn't even know your manager exists, let alone you.
But it's still good advice to be seen as valuable by many people around
you, at many levels in the hierarchy. That gives you considerable
protection against being replaced solely on a financial whim, because
the people who are forced to choose who to lay off will be reluctant to
get rid of you--they know your value, and will try to keep you rather
than having to go through the pain of finding, interviewing, and hiring
someone new. That's particularly true if that person won't do half the
work you're doing and will spend their first year learning to fill your
deep footprints rather than walking in them.
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