Do you have any Principles that guide your career decisions?

What Next Syndrome

Changing a job is often viewed by many people as a ticket or short cut to career growth. I seriously believe in sticking with a given job till you attain a certain level of experience and become really good with what you are doing. You need to really spend some time in your job to overcome the initial hurdles in order to get really productive and then success & growth will automatically come to you.

I have mostly designed my career based on some principles partly imparted to me by my first real manager Jyotirmoy Chakravarty (also known as JC) @wipro Infotech. I can never forget some of the things he told me early in my career and I am really grateful to JC for his career guidance:

· If you are very comfortable with what you are doing then it is time to move on. He always suggested that you should not get very stagnant with what you are doing. He did not suggest that you change your job all the time, but he recommended that you take on more responsibilities and move outside your comfort zone.

· When it comes to your career buck stops at YOU. Never depend on your manager to design your career. He always told me that an employee owns his own career & employability and he is the one totally responsible for it, so do not look for your manager to define your career. Take suggestions/guidance from your manager or anybody, but ultimately your career decisions has to be owned by you and you alone.

· It is always YOU who can define the scope of your job. In any job he recommended not to wait for opportunities to come knocking at your door and he said do not always wait for your manager to tell you what to do. He was a big risk taker and he always fished for opportunities and ideas that went beyond the scope of his job. He said look around you closely and you will see opportunities which in turn translates to growth at your job.

· Know exactly when to move on. He always said that successful people know when the jump ship and do not wait for the ship to sink or wait for you to be evacuated. He always said that your career is much more than one manager, one goal, one location and one company. Oh well .. this is very hard to implement and I should admit that I have not been successful at this at all. You get easily comfortable with your location and with people around you ..and this clearly influences the choices you make.

Anyway .. JC shared this career philosophy with me almost 9 years ago and I am sharing it in this blog post today. I really have no idea where JC is right now .. but I would really like to thank him for being such a great manager.

So, do you have any principles that guide your career decisions?