Save the Talent, Save the World…
I just read Businessweek’s September 15th article, “The Best Places to Launch a Career.” It listed accounting firms and the government as two of the top three. Did we just step into upside-down-world? Bureaucrats and bean-counters made the top spots? Really? Both of these groups are like coroners: they can’t tell you much about how to stay healthy, but they are great at telling you what killed the body and who’s to blame.
If accounting and government are the launching pads, what are the space shuttle destinations?
Here are my picks for “Best Places to Launch a Career”…
Service Businesses – Growth oriented companies that are problem-solving driven, where demonstrated performance is the measure of success and sets the speed of your advancement- more than education or connections. Logistics and distribution clients of ours are great examples of places where sharp people with some steam in their strides have advanced quickly- more money, bigger challenges and a seat at the table early in their careers all followed a young employee’s strong performance.
Manufacturing – Yeah, about as exciting as commodity trading white flour, I know- but here’s the game- global sourcing, integrated solutions over components, supply-chain management players- even in the Tier 2 position- these types of companies have lots of room, lots of challenges and the entire game board’s colors are changing- which opens up the field a lot. You want to check out a couple of things – the company you are looking at needs to have greater than 15% international revenue, needs to be in at least an early-adopter position on technology as a company philosophy and must be targeting growth north of 10% sustained year-over-year for 3 years for the opportunity to be real.
Creative – Pick your palette and your canvas – Advertising, marketing, digital strategy, media creation, communication, and so on- you probably don’t need me to tell you that this is where the action is steamy- The fact is that it is as hot as it looks. It is also unstable, like surfing lava- but we have a number of clients in this space and their people are sharp, at the table early in their careers and making a difference. The abilities to move at speed, solve big problems, manage multiple relationships/alliances/partnerships simultaneously are the kinds of launch pad skills for great lives and powerful careers.
Tell me about your industry. What makes it a great launch pad for a career? We have to save the talent from believing that the government or the Big 4 are the right places to land: Save the talent, Save the world. Go Heroes!
Ah, bureaucrats and bean-counters….fabulous! Is this the “glamour” or the “intrigue” part of our jobs?
I think the concept “best place to launch a career” depends on whether you want to launch it vertically — as fast and high as you can — or with a more interesting trajectory.
In 20+ years, I’ve worked in several industries: retail (field and buying office), wholesale distribution, rack jobbing, consumer goods, publishing, financial services, consulting, training, and advertising. I’d argue that 70-80% of the skills and talents that serve one well in one industry will server equally well in another (specialize training notwithstanding).
I think those looking to LAUNCH a career would be better off thinking of it not as a straight path to prestige, power, and pension….but as a series of opporunities to add arrows to your quiver or flowers to your bouquet or whatever metaphor works for you.
It’s not where you start. It’s not even where you finish.
1It’s how much you can serve others and learn along the way!
You know Jennifer, looking at the education model for many universities and for high-schools right now- career development is what you are describing and they are fulfilling job training. I like the less straight path since we know that most people will have 7-10 jobs by the time they are 38. If you have a belief in an abundant world, then the potential that you will believe in the value of a winding path is high. If your belief is in a scarce world, then you fight for speed on a straight path.
2Tom,
I’m pleased to see that you included creative as a top-3 career launchpad sector. We’re fond of the explosive volatility around the launch pad ourselves, which you can see built into our URL and USP. We consider re-invention and aggressive re-invigoration to be launch events as well.
Our experience in helping clients achieve their business growth goals through branding and creative marketing programs has given us access and insight into many critical business functions. As a result, we’ve been able to establish our discipline as strategists and tactical managers. It’s certainly a great incubator for careers. Even on the client side you will find that senior marketers function like GM’s, with full P&L and management responsibility. In either case, the key is that creative marketers are working from marketplace perspective, which we believe is where all great wins in business originate these days.
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