Lose The Map; Keep The Compass
Career goals and 5- or 10-year plans are important to your development, but often times young professionals box themselves in too tightly based on plans they have before launching their careers. One of the beautiful things about the beginning of your career is the ability to occupy many different roles quickly to gain exposure to all aspects of the business. I believe that all young professionals should allow these experiences to not only influence their development, but they should also be open to the new career paths these experience may open for you.
My first role at my current company was as a Cold Call Sales Representative. As anyone who has cold called in any capacity knows, you are treated to a trial by fire of sales in your first few months. I developed a knack for sales and if you would have asked me 5 years ago where I’d be today I would have answered with 100% confidence that I would be a senior sales rep or a burgeoning young leader on the Sales Management team.
Throughout my first three years at this company I occupied positions across the sales organization, all the while gaining valuable experience and contacts within the company. One of those contacts was our chief marketing officer who felt that I would be a good person to fill a role on our Product Commercialization Team, a group of sales and marketing experts charged with designing sales and marketing paths for bringing new products to market. I was asked to work closely with our Operations and Engineering team and this exposed me to a whole new world of opportunities that I was never aware of.
After working on the Product Commercialization Team, I was asked to join our New Product Development Group, or The Kitchen as we like to call it, and I am now a part of the Engineering Department helping to develop and research new product opportunities.
The me from 5 years ago would have laughed at the suggestions that I would ever be a part of the Engineering Department but I am learning things that I know I will need in order to hit my ultimate goals. I am still working with my long term career goals in mind but I am excited to get lost a few times on the way!
Name: Adam
Title: Team Member
Industry: Industrial Manufacturing
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Photo by Himesh Kumar Behera on Unsplash
