Career Development: Tips for Growing Your Career a Bit Every Day

Progress is not about milestones but rather small steps

Too often, we measure our career success by the next promotion, the next raise, or the next opportunity. These events are few and far between, and if we mark our progress based solely on these milestones, we only see progress over the course of years. But career development is actually something you can invest a bit in every day, through small but important actions. 

Know where you stand 

Most people have no idea where they stand in their careers at any given moment. Start by taking stock of where you are today. Figure out whether you are on the couch thinking about making the journey, or at base camp, about to make the climb. Otherwise, you will not take the right steps to prepare for what comes next. 

• Talk to your manager about your career path. Make your aspirations clear. For example, “I would like to achieve <goal, such as the next level, becoming a manager, or taking on a new role>. What do you think the gap is between where I am now and where I want to be?”  Most people listen for how long this will take, but the important part to understand is the critical skills gap that you need to work on.  

• Ask your peers and trusted friends in the industry for feedback.  Recently, I had a former colleague worry that he was not getting callbacks for the roles he wanted. He asked me directly, “If you were hiring a CPO for Ancestry, would you consider someone with my background?” His background could be read in one of two ways: deep domain expertise in his sector, or strong general manager for a traditional brand. But many of the hot pre-IPO companies he was looking at were searching for innovators or product visionaries to fill their CPO role. Knowing where he stands will help him decide if his next step should be to take another role to round out his experience or shoot for a CPO role now.   

• Look carefully at what opportunities people are reaching out to you for. This is an important external signal of how you are perceived outside of your company. If you are being offered roles that are below your level, think about how you are presenting yourself in your industry, whether through LinkedIn or other channels. For years, I was pinged about VP of Product roles. Then I started hearing from companies about CPO or GM roles. Within the past year, people started reaching out for CEO roles. Perceptions change as the environment changes, and your personal voice and brand also evolve.  

Know who surrounds you 

I didn’t consider becoming a CEO of a company until recently. What changed my mind was something surprising.