I realized a while ago that the best way to embrace one''s career is to embrace ambiguity, randomness and to be as deeply generalist in my knowledge and skill as possible and it has opened enormous doors of opportunity for me! Ironically, people often go in the reverse and push for certainty, specialization and specialty that is often proven by certifications and degrees. Not to sound glib and going by just my own anecdotal observations, it seems people who do this are often not very satisfied with their careers. I often get asked career advice particularly as it pertains to project management and the conversation typically goes along the lines of: 1) "I have a degree in Information Systems (or Comp Sci, Elec Eng, etc.), and an ITIL, CSM, PMP, Cisco, VMWare [add more here] cert and have worked in the Finance field since graduation from college... I''m stuck and can''t seem to transition out as the Finance industry is in a flux!" 2) "I just got downsized, reorganized or just plan quit and I''m in transition and would like to go into IT, but don''t have a degree in IT (or Comp Sci, Elec Eng, etc.) or any of those certs such as ITIL, CSM, PMP, Cisco, VMWare [add more here], and I''m stuck and can''t seem to transition in as my [insert industry here] is in a flux!" If you notice, this is the same question and issue, but re-cast and re-framed from the perspective of one wanting to get out of, to one wanting to get in a particular industry. What''s common though is the desire to mold oneself to what some purportedly industry standard of what it means to have some competency within a narrowly defined field of job endeavor is. I know my own career example is of an extreme, but I think there''s something wrong about this perspective. It''s like a screwed up Yin/Yang that constantly feeds and pushes against each other the result of which is career stagnation or worse, career oblivion! So what do you think? Are my observations wrong? Let me know what you think!
