Career Lattice or Career Ladder?

Work harder, get promoted, make more money. Go up the corporate ladder, sort of speak. Keep climbing and, if you slide down the ladder (or get pushed off or the rung if pulled from under you), start over or go somewhere else. This sounds like the rat race in vertical form. Move up or move out. If you snooze, you lose. Well, welcome to the business world!

What if you realize there is more to life than work? Or that you may not need to be locked up in a office under the watchful eye of the boss to produce the same or higher level of results? Or that there is no such a thing as work/life balance? Or that striving for more flexibility or a different work arrangement may be the answer to your career crisis? Or that you may not always have to move only up, but sideways as well?

In their book, Mass Career Customization, authors Cathy Benko and Anne C. Weisberg, responsible for Deloitte US`s Women Initiative (WIN), argue that, with today`s changing lifestyles, communication technologies and views of men`s and women`s role in business, we should think of our career path as a lattice, not a ladder. The ladder is narrow, straight with nowhere to go, but up. A lattice allows intermittent growth, side moves, peaks and plateaus like a vine going up a wall.

In reality, careers are not perfect A to B to C to D etc. paths. I have been reading dozens of resumes daily for the last 6 years and have rarely seen what we would expect to be a perfect career trajectory. In fact, some of the most interesting professionals I have met, changed jobs or industries or took the less road taken for the sake of learning, personal growth or to add other new skills.

The authors argue that companies should allow employees to customize their careers to improve loyalty, productivity and well being. Read about Mass Career Customization and take the exercise below:

http://www.masscareercustomization.com/about_mcc.html

http://www.masscareercustomization.com/interactive.html

Enjoy!