Navigating Your Career: Pros and Cons of Different Paths to Success

Career trajectories move in different ways, and won’t move in others, and it helps if you can see several moves ahead if you want to develop a realistic and achievable long-term career plan. Here are the pros and cons of the most common career tracks.

 

Management track – This is the track with which most people are familiar. It’s the traditional “climb the corporate ladder” model. You start at the bottom (or wherever) and top performers move up the org chart to the highest level they can and a talented few occupy the C-Suites.

Pros as you climb:

·      More money.

·      Better title

·      More responsibility.

·      More prestige.

·      More influence.

 

Cons as you climb:

·      Sometimes being the best isn’t good enough. “Office politics” can be ruthless.

·      More responsibility means more time and effort.

·      Less work/life balance.

·      Less time doing what got you there, which for many professionals is what they were passionate about in the first place.

·      Job shifts from doing what you love to supervising other people’s work.

 

Technical Leadership – This is a track for professionals with a rare combination of qualities: advanced technical proficiency, leadership skills, and strategic thinking. Companies have varying names like “Distinguished Fellow,” and, “Senior Technologist,” for technical leadership positions but they are united by their application of special technical skills to lead teams that are experts in that field.

Pros of the technical leadership track:

·      Special skills mean special compensation (more money)

·      Better title

·      More responsibility.

·      More prestige.

·      More influence.

 

Cons of the technical leadership track:

·      You don’t get to flex your managerial muscles.

·      You may have management duties but your main focus will be on the tech.

·      Upward mobility hits a plateau.

 

Go sideways – It is common to be in one role and wish to be in another, however, it is uncommon to do anything about it. If you possess a certain skill that you believe will help you cross over to another you may be able to make a lateral move into a job more to your liking.  For example, marketing to communications, engineering to product management, or line manager to project manager.

Pros of sideways track:

·      A fresh start.

·      A track to use multiple skill sets.

·      A track to master different disciplines.

·      You can show off your skills to a new group and elevate your profile.

 

Cons of a sideways track:

·      The opposite is true. If the spotlight is on you, everybody is looking at you.

·      You may stay flat compensation-wise. Not necessarily, but possibly.

·      This is not moving upward. This takes advantage of new opportunities where you may learn new skill sets that are transferrable or help you “move up” in the future.

 

Go diagonal. Really step outside of your box and try something completely different for the same company. This is really a “first who, then what” scenario where you’re either tapped to take the helm of something radically different than anything you’ve done before because of your past and current professional performance and reputation (it’s earned!) or you’ve created a diagonal track for yourself and your company has agreed to go along for the same reasons. Either way, it’s because of a great track record.

Pros of going diagonal:

·      The challenge of a lifetime.

·      Potential for more money.

·      Self-growth and development.

·      Success may create more mobility up, down, and sideways.

  

Cons of going diagonal:

·      A diagonal move is highly visible. If you stumble, you may stumble hard.

·      A diagonal move doesn’t necessarily mean moving up. It may be a special project that leaves you dangling when it’s complete, or a role that has limited time to show results before being folded. It may be your dream job, but it still may be professionally stagnant.

·      Uncertainty and stress.

 

Course Correction: Try a new company. Go back to school. Try a new field. A completely new opportunity. Move to another state. Another country. An upheaval. A major pivot. From someone who knows, a course correction is a gamble. It can be a high-risk, high-reward track but it can also be a high-risk, no-reward track. Proceed with cautious wild abandon.

Pros of a course correction:

·      You will be a new person living a new life.

·      As with every new course, at its inception, the sky is the limit.

·      A transition can be exciting and challenge you in ways you have not been before.

·      You will develop a completely new professional network.

·      You are likely to be exposed to new opportunities.

 

Cons of a course correction:

·      Depending on your financial situation, course corrections take time and money (i.e., going back to school).

·      You will most likely experience a pay cut. Think of it this way. When accomplished lawyers raking in truckloads of cash get elected to be judges they take a major pay cut in exchange for truckloads of prestige and influence. Was it an upward or downward move? It was neither. It was a course correction.

·      You will most likely have to start at the bottom of your new endeavor, regardless of age or experience.

·      You will compete with more experienced people.

·      It may take a while to achieve success.

 

Find Your Sweet Spot: Your career track may not be to “move up,” but to achieve a harmonious work/life balance doing work that is more meaningful to you even if it’s less lucrative (don’t despair – a lot of the time it’s more lucrative!). Maybe it’s a flexible or remote schedule. Or a job you can walk to. Decide what that sweet spot is and move across the board accordingly.

Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.