11 ms·

Non-linear career paths are the future

110 points by wallflower 4y ago

dougSF70 4y ago
Mine is: engineering -> pHD dropout -> advertising -> market research -> analytics -> software dev + ML. Different industries all united by data.
- elforce002 4y ago
  Nice path. Mine went from Engineering -> TSPs -> Manufacturing -> MSc Telco -> TSPs -> MSc CS dropout -> DA(finance) -> software dev + ML. Even though I didn't finish my 2nd masters, It helped put my foot on the door.
jmathai 4y ago
The problem with non-linear career paths are that they're less predictable and work for people who have a higher career focus. I think job (er, company) hopping is a perfectly good career strategy. It's just better suited for a different set of folks. Both options being available are great.
ghaff 4y ago
Seems pretty normal at least at my age. Leaving aside degree periods, four careers--three reasonably adjacent, the other not. A couple engineering degrees -> offshore drilling engineering work -> business degree -> PM at computer hardware -> IT industry analyst -> primarily external software marketing. But the latter 3 were all ~ten years.
ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
High School Dropout -> GED -> Redneck Tech School -> RF Tech -> OJT -> Electronic Test Engineer -> Extracurricular Learning -> Big Iron Programmer -> Extracurricular Learning -> Mac Programmer -> Major Corporation -> Major Engineering Company for 27 Years (as Engineer and Manager) -> Declared Persona Non Grata in the Tech Industry (for Being Old) -> Extracurricular Learning -> Working for Free on Stuff That I Find Interesting Also, I have been an artist and a musician, in that time (neither professionally). We'll see what the future holds. It's been an interesting ride, so far...
- eunoia 4y ago
  > No one dared to ask his business, no one dared to make a slip > For the stranger there among them had a big iron on his hip
  - rakah 4y ago
    Oh great, now I have to shut down my 3270 and go play New Vegas.
- skullone 4y ago
  Ageism is too much of a thing in tech. These young frontend js developers can't even hold down F2 to enter the BIOS. So much knowledge lost from companies letting decades worth of experience walk out the door. And it shows, so many modern products have shite architecture.
  - xwdv 4y ago
    Unfortunately though the lifespan of modern products isn’t very long either, so there’s not much value in investing in old time engineers to build products that could last forever. Any idiot can build a bridge that stands, but it takes an engineer to build a bridge that barely stands, etc.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
      I've written SDKs that were still in use, 25 years later, on highly modern equipment (digicam SDK -originally designed for film scanners). The biggest extracurricular project that I did, was first released in early 2009, and is still picking up traction, this very day... Depends on what you want. Some stuff should not be designed for the long haul, but some, definitely should.
      - xwdv 4y ago
        But has that improved your hireability or???
germinalphrase 4y ago
Local 600 Loader/2nd AC in film industry > high school English teacher > tech industry consultant. I feel really fortunate to have made these transitions without much turmoil (though I would argue the costs of doing so are quite high relative to people I know who have had a more linear path).
mabbo 4y ago
For a decade at Amazon, nearly everyone I worked with was following the linear, expected path. High school, university, degree, FAANG job. Amazon basically didn't interview SDE1s unless they were new grads. For a number of years that policy was explicit from our Director because "we find that works out best". Now I'm at Shopify, where it feels like a complete 180. More than half my team took non-traditional paths- former dietician, government clerk, logger (like with a chainsaw). My team doesn't even seem like an outlier. One thing I've noticed: the women I work with now are far more likely to have taken a non-linear path to get here. They weren't encouraged to go into that career when they were in high school, but later in life realized it was a good choice. One really great staff dev I've worked with told me how she was encouraged to be a tech recruiter (and did), then slowly realized she could be the one making the huge salaries she was offering people. Amazon would never have given them a chance. And funny enough, Amazon struggles to hire women in dev roles.
- itsmemattchung 4y ago
  Ex-AWS here and echo what you said. Although there are some outliers (like myself, in terms of non-linear path) at AWS, most SDEs more or less traveled a similar paths: 1. Undergrad CS -> FAANG 2. (International) Undergrad {CS, Math, Computer Engineering} -> Masters {CS, Math, Computer Engineering} -> FAANG Awesome to hear (at Shopify) that the company welcomes more diverse (technical/academic) backgrounds.
- diob 4y ago
  It also keeps the base those that have the privilege to turn down other jobs and focus solely on getting hired at Amazon (or other FAANG) right out of college. A good chunk of folks (among whom exist great developers) are those that are focused on working a job while graduating, and getting to a point where they have stable finances. Then they focus on things like "what kind of job" do I want, and "where do I want to work". That could be years and years down the line though. So it enforces an aristocracy / pedigree of sorts, but folks are hesitant to admit as such.
- r-s 4y ago
  Did Shopify have a choice? Many Canadians who got computer science degrees left to work for American companies for 2x-3x more money.
paulpauper 4y ago
for people who are tired of ads https://archive.is/zR9vF https://archive.is/zR9vF Specializers seem to be at a huge advantage in this economy. Switching careers to find your specialty may be a good idea. What can yo be among the best in the world at.
- 65 4y ago
  Yes specialists are a huge advantage, but I do believe in certain fields, being a specialist can be a big disadvantage. For example, if you are a "product designer" aka someone who designs software user interfaces, I fundamentally do not believe you can be exceptional at your job unless you have experience programming front ends. In web development, writing CSS forces you to think about everything on the page. Everything. Adding interactivity with Javascript forces you to think about user experience on a micro scale. Those details add up, and I have found the best product designers are often those who were previously developers.
eointierney 4y ago
Polymath was always an idea that appealed, mainly due to Leonardo da Vinci (check out his drawings of turbulent water). I think the problem is career paths, as though a working life must optimise for linearity to achieve success, when instead those individuals who explore breadth and depth and fun are both most productive and creative. Anyone who can see a problem and potential solution through more than one prism of learning is nearly always better able to communicate their insight and share their joy of thought. They tend to be more patient of failure, happier to be corrected, and fresher when returning to the problem again. Also, more money demonstrating multi-disciplinary competence when moving jobs is definitely a thing. Good managers are rare
- snek_case 4y ago
  Part of the problem is the idea that people must have X years experience in Y. I once applied to a game development company. I have something like 20 years experience in systems programming. The problem is that my CV doesn't have any game development experience on it... But when I was about 20, I programmed my own 3D engine, and my own raytracer with soft shadows. A few years ago, I've worked with GLSL as well. I'm familiar with concepts like perspective projection, backface culling, scene graphs, shaders, 3D models, etc. and I'm sure that I could figure out how to work on a 3D game and produce useful work fairly quickly, but these people quickly tossed my CV into the "no" pile because I've never worked at a game development company before. At the end of the day, I'm doing very well at a different company doing systems programming, but my point is, people look for boxes to check on your CV. This is especially bad if you have to go through non-technical recruiters. Your best bet if you want to get into a programming job IMO is to try to speak directly to developers who work at the company. If you can show them you know your stuff, they might just give you a chance.
  - sokoloff 4y ago
    Why would you submit a CV/resume to a game company without highlighting your game-dev-relevant experience?
  - dagw 4y ago
    I worked at a digital animation and FX studio and we got applications all the time from people basically just like you. People without any directly relevant experience on their CV, but with a passionate cover letter about how they spend their free time working on their own animation projects and links to fun things they've done. As long as they had something fun and interesting to show we almost always called them in for an interview. Admittedly we where a fairly small and quite anonymous shop and didn't get hundreds of applications. Probably at larger, more famous, places it is harder to do this.
bradlys 4y ago
Sounds like survivorship bias to me. Seen plenty of people drop out of things and never make a return to some magical FAANG or whatever employment/founding/etc after. Those folks don't make the headlines though and you don't remember them because - well - why would you.
- planetwraith 4y ago
  whew, I just spent the last hour of my life reading your post history. I'm 28, I make 170k/yr, and I drive a 2008 Nissan. I'm a 5'6" straight male, 150lbs, not unattractive, and I haven't had sex in five years. Frankly, I've never had a relationship longer than a couple months in my life. In almost every quantifiable aspect, you've got me beat - but I don't envy you at all. You're very intelligent and driven. There is this common thread in all your posts - you want what you can't have. You make one-percenter money, but you envy those with generational wealth. You can't find your ideal woman and it's killing you. You have a fairly clear-eyed view of dating dynamics among straight yuppies in the US that animates you to post obsessively about it in relevant threads. There's an anger at Silicon Valley, at women, at capitalism and humanity - alongside a resignation that this is the way things are. You seem pretty depressed. I don't have most of what you do, but I'm pretty happy about my lot. I have autonomy at work, I like spending time with my friends, and my family's alright too. You said in one of your comments that most men would rather kill themselves than die alone - that really struck me. I don't feel that way, and I hope that if you do, you can find a path toward not feeling that way one day. Anyway, I'm sorry for the surprise armchair psych. I guess the reason I'm writing this is because I consider myself an unusually driven and self-critical person. I push myself pretty hard and I get upset when I don't meet my own unrealistic standards. I'm usually in the 90th percentile and not the 99th, and that is a constant source of frustration. I've been through years of therapy to learn to control this part of my personality, but I worry about losing my edge. I've also made certain career choices, like picking a smaller start-up with high autonomy and WLB over a more lucrative FAANG role, and I often worry I fucked that up and wasted two years. Reading your posts made me realize that I could be in that 99th percentile, earn 4x what I am making now, and still be chasing that next thing. I hope this doesn't come off as patronizing, and that the perspective is at least interesting.
mbgerring 4y ago
Non-linear career paths are the present. You’ve been able to get a job in software without formal credentials my entire software career, which started roughly in 2008. Who is this written for?
- mbgerring 4y ago
  Speaking for myself: line cook -> web developer -> software engineer -> newspaper editor -> software engineer -> bike messenger -> freelance journalist -> software engineer -> product manager. My “career path” has never come up in any interview, ever.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
    Presumably because, based on this resume, you can (to some extent) do anything
ghostly_s 4y ago
https://getonforbes.com/forbes-contributor-guest-posting/ https://getonforbes.com/forbes-contributor-guest-posting/
livinglist 4y ago
I really couldn't think of what other careers for me to pursue other than writing code. Simply transitioning to other domains/specializations in software engineering is already challenging enough for me, could really use some advice from someone who had a successful transition. (Im a mobile dev now but looking to potentially transition to computer graphics)
FpUser 4y ago
Translation. Our wonderful capitalism can no longer support normal salary so that people can retire at reasonable age. So prepare to work till you drop dead so that those few that own half of the Earth can own a little more of it.
71a54xd 4y ago
I'd argue I've sort of fumbled my early tech career, hopefully I can recover in a non-linear fashion haha
schwartzworld 4y ago
Mine is: Music school -> food service -> massage therapy -> software.
wheelinsupial 4y ago
Is this a rebranding of the career jungle gym promoted on Forbes in 2013? https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2013/03/14/why-a-career-jungle-gym-is-better-than-a-career-ladder/?sh=25b7ab041248 https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2013/03/14/why-a...
PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
high school genius -> A Level failure -> record store stock clerk -> biochemistry & biophysics -> computational molecular biology PhD (abandoned) -> bike messenger -> systems support engineer -> software engineer -> UWashington CS&E staff -> amzn -> stay at home parent -> FLOSS hacker -> guest professor TU Berlin -> seemingly world-level expert on DAWs I always wonder how rare this sort of pathway is.
black_13 4y ago
[dead]
jhoelzel 4y ago
I learned to program at 12 and with 16 i founded my first startup (which failed of course) and there i learned that coding is only half the game and added a bachelor in economical psychology instead of Comp-Sci. My resume has over 20 years of experience: backend, frontend, platform, k8s, cto roles and much more. Still Companies automatic filter sort me out because I don't have "the correct" degree unless i tell them that i have been freelancing forever. Therefore sure, go for it, but no its not the future. This is the "zuck was a college dropout" all over again.
_uoud 4y ago
I gave a short talk and wrote about this to developers way back in 2016. To me this always seemed obvious. https://www.lostbookofsales.com/careers-of-the-past-versus-careers-of-the-future/ https://www.lostbookofsales.com/careers-of-the-past-versus-c...
kris-nova 4y ago
Women and marginalized people who change jobs: Flakey and incapable. Unable to handle a job. Something must be wrong. Clearly a sign of caution to be taken as a reason not to work with them. Men who change jobs: literally articles inventing new vernacular stemming from the mental gymnastics required to justify the hypocrisy — men aren’t incapable because they change jobs — they are prodigy — men aren’t untrustworthy for changing jobs — they are taking nonlinear career paths because of the uncertainty in the market
ravagat 4y ago
It's nice to see that this has become more of the norm/average. For one, non-linear career paths have existed for a long time, to use the phrase "standing on the shoulders of giants", innovation would be less if it weren't so. Good article and exposure of thinking for everyone

110 points by wallflower 4y ago

Mine is: engineering -> pHD dropout -> advertising -> market research -> analytics -> software dev + ML. Different industries all united by data.

elforce002 4y ago
Nice path. Mine went from Engineering -> TSPs -> Manufacturing -> MSc Telco -> TSPs -> MSc CS dropout -> DA(finance) -> software dev + ML. Even though I didn't finish my 2nd masters, It helped put my foot on the door.

jmathai 4y ago

The problem with non-linear career paths are that they're less predictable and work for people who have a higher career focus. I think job (er, company) hopping is a perfectly good career strategy. It's just better suited for a different set of folks. Both options being available are great.

ghaff 4y ago

Seems pretty normal at least at my age. Leaving aside degree periods, four careers--three reasonably adjacent, the other not. A couple engineering degrees -> offshore drilling engineering work -> business degree -> PM at computer hardware -> IT industry analyst -> primarily external software marketing. But the latter 3 were all ~ten years.

ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago

High School Dropout -> GED -> Redneck Tech School -> RF Tech -> OJT -> Electronic Test Engineer -> Extracurricular Learning -> Big Iron Programmer -> Extracurricular Learning -> Mac Programmer -> Major Corporation -> Major Engineering Company for 27 Years (as Engineer and Manager) -> Declared Persona Non Grata in the Tech Industry (for Being Old) -> Extracurricular Learning -> Working for Free on Stuff That I Find Interesting Also, I have been an artist and a musician, in that time (neither professionally). We'll see what the future holds. It's been an interesting ride, so far...

eunoia 4y ago
> No one dared to ask his business, no one dared to make a slip > For the stranger there among them had a big iron on his hip
- rakah 4y ago
  Oh great, now I have to shut down my 3270 and go play New Vegas.
skullone 4y ago
Ageism is too much of a thing in tech. These young frontend js developers can't even hold down F2 to enter the BIOS. So much knowledge lost from companies letting decades worth of experience walk out the door. And it shows, so many modern products have shite architecture.
- xwdv 4y ago
  Unfortunately though the lifespan of modern products isn’t very long either, so there’s not much value in investing in old time engineers to build products that could last forever. Any idiot can build a bridge that stands, but it takes an engineer to build a bridge that barely stands, etc.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
    I've written SDKs that were still in use, 25 years later, on highly modern equipment (digicam SDK -originally designed for film scanners). The biggest extracurricular project that I did, was first released in early 2009, and is still picking up traction, this very day... Depends on what you want. Some stuff should not be designed for the long haul, but some, definitely should.
    - xwdv 4y ago
      But has that improved your hireability or???

germinalphrase 4y ago

Local 600 Loader/2nd AC in film industry > high school English teacher > tech industry consultant. I feel really fortunate to have made these transitions without much turmoil (though I would argue the costs of doing so are quite high relative to people I know who have had a more linear path).

mabbo 4y ago

For a decade at Amazon, nearly everyone I worked with was following the linear, expected path. High school, university, degree, FAANG job. Amazon basically didn't interview SDE1s unless they were new grads. For a number of years that policy was explicit from our Director because "we find that works out best". Now I'm at Shopify, where it feels like a complete 180. More than half my team took non-traditional paths- former dietician, government clerk, logger (like with a chainsaw). My team doesn't even seem like an outlier. One thing I've noticed: the women I work with now are far more likely to have taken a non-linear path to get here. They weren't encouraged to go into that career when they were in high school, but later in life realized it was a good choice. One really great staff dev I've worked with told me how she was encouraged to be a tech recruiter (and did), then slowly realized she could be the one making the huge salaries she was offering people. Amazon would never have given them a chance. And funny enough, Amazon struggles to hire women in dev roles.

itsmemattchung 4y ago
Ex-AWS here and echo what you said. Although there are some outliers (like myself, in terms of non-linear path) at AWS, most SDEs more or less traveled a similar paths: 1. Undergrad CS -> FAANG 2. (International) Undergrad {CS, Math, Computer Engineering} -> Masters {CS, Math, Computer Engineering} -> FAANG Awesome to hear (at Shopify) that the company welcomes more diverse (technical/academic) backgrounds.
diob 4y ago
It also keeps the base those that have the privilege to turn down other jobs and focus solely on getting hired at Amazon (or other FAANG) right out of college. A good chunk of folks (among whom exist great developers) are those that are focused on working a job while graduating, and getting to a point where they have stable finances. Then they focus on things like "what kind of job" do I want, and "where do I want to work". That could be years and years down the line though. So it enforces an aristocracy / pedigree of sorts, but folks are hesitant to admit as such.
r-s 4y ago
Did Shopify have a choice? Many Canadians who got computer science degrees left to work for American companies for 2x-3x more money.

paulpauper 4y ago

for people who are tired of ads https://archive.is/zR9vF https://archive.is/zR9vF Specializers seem to be at a huge advantage in this economy. Switching careers to find your specialty may be a good idea. What can yo be among the best in the world at.

65 4y ago
Yes specialists are a huge advantage, but I do believe in certain fields, being a specialist can be a big disadvantage. For example, if you are a "product designer" aka someone who designs software user interfaces, I fundamentally do not believe you can be exceptional at your job unless you have experience programming front ends. In web development, writing CSS forces you to think about everything on the page. Everything. Adding interactivity with Javascript forces you to think about user experience on a micro scale. Those details add up, and I have found the best product designers are often those who were previously developers.

eointierney 4y ago

Polymath was always an idea that appealed, mainly due to Leonardo da Vinci (check out his drawings of turbulent water). I think the problem is career paths, as though a working life must optimise for linearity to achieve success, when instead those individuals who explore breadth and depth and fun are both most productive and creative. Anyone who can see a problem and potential solution through more than one prism of learning is nearly always better able to communicate their insight and share their joy of thought. They tend to be more patient of failure, happier to be corrected, and fresher when returning to the problem again. Also, more money demonstrating multi-disciplinary competence when moving jobs is definitely a thing. Good managers are rare

snek_case 4y ago
Part of the problem is the idea that people must have X years experience in Y. I once applied to a game development company. I have something like 20 years experience in systems programming. The problem is that my CV doesn't have any game development experience on it... But when I was about 20, I programmed my own 3D engine, and my own raytracer with soft shadows. A few years ago, I've worked with GLSL as well. I'm familiar with concepts like perspective projection, backface culling, scene graphs, shaders, 3D models, etc. and I'm sure that I could figure out how to work on a 3D game and produce useful work fairly quickly, but these people quickly tossed my CV into the "no" pile because I've never worked at a game development company before. At the end of the day, I'm doing very well at a different company doing systems programming, but my point is, people look for boxes to check on your CV. This is especially bad if you have to go through non-technical recruiters. Your best bet if you want to get into a programming job IMO is to try to speak directly to developers who work at the company. If you can show them you know your stuff, they might just give you a chance.
- sokoloff 4y ago
  Why would you submit a CV/resume to a game company without highlighting your game-dev-relevant experience?
- dagw 4y ago
  I worked at a digital animation and FX studio and we got applications all the time from people basically just like you. People without any directly relevant experience on their CV, but with a passionate cover letter about how they spend their free time working on their own animation projects and links to fun things they've done. As long as they had something fun and interesting to show we almost always called them in for an interview. Admittedly we where a fairly small and quite anonymous shop and didn't get hundreds of applications. Probably at larger, more famous, places it is harder to do this.

bradlys 4y ago

Sounds like survivorship bias to me. Seen plenty of people drop out of things and never make a return to some magical FAANG or whatever employment/founding/etc after. Those folks don't make the headlines though and you don't remember them because - well - why would you.

planetwraith 4y ago
whew, I just spent the last hour of my life reading your post history. I'm 28, I make 170k/yr, and I drive a 2008 Nissan. I'm a 5'6" straight male, 150lbs, not unattractive, and I haven't had sex in five years. Frankly, I've never had a relationship longer than a couple months in my life. In almost every quantifiable aspect, you've got me beat - but I don't envy you at all. You're very intelligent and driven. There is this common thread in all your posts - you want what you can't have. You make one-percenter money, but you envy those with generational wealth. You can't find your ideal woman and it's killing you. You have a fairly clear-eyed view of dating dynamics among straight yuppies in the US that animates you to post obsessively about it in relevant threads. There's an anger at Silicon Valley, at women, at capitalism and humanity - alongside a resignation that this is the way things are. You seem pretty depressed. I don't have most of what you do, but I'm pretty happy about my lot. I have autonomy at work, I like spending time with my friends, and my family's alright too. You said in one of your comments that most men would rather kill themselves than die alone - that really struck me. I don't feel that way, and I hope that if you do, you can find a path toward not feeling that way one day. Anyway, I'm sorry for the surprise armchair psych. I guess the reason I'm writing this is because I consider myself an unusually driven and self-critical person. I push myself pretty hard and I get upset when I don't meet my own unrealistic standards. I'm usually in the 90th percentile and not the 99th, and that is a constant source of frustration. I've been through years of therapy to learn to control this part of my personality, but I worry about losing my edge. I've also made certain career choices, like picking a smaller start-up with high autonomy and WLB over a more lucrative FAANG role, and I often worry I fucked that up and wasted two years. Reading your posts made me realize that I could be in that 99th percentile, earn 4x what I am making now, and still be chasing that next thing. I hope this doesn't come off as patronizing, and that the perspective is at least interesting.

mbgerring 4y ago

Non-linear career paths are the present. You’ve been able to get a job in software without formal credentials my entire software career, which started roughly in 2008. Who is this written for?

mbgerring 4y ago
Speaking for myself: line cook -> web developer -> software engineer -> newspaper editor -> software engineer -> bike messenger -> freelance journalist -> software engineer -> product manager. My “career path” has never come up in any interview, ever.
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
  Presumably because, based on this resume, you can (to some extent) do anything

ghostly_s 4y ago

https://getonforbes.com/forbes-contributor-guest-posting/ https://getonforbes.com/forbes-contributor-guest-posting/

livinglist 4y ago

I really couldn't think of what other careers for me to pursue other than writing code. Simply transitioning to other domains/specializations in software engineering is already challenging enough for me, could really use some advice from someone who had a successful transition. (Im a mobile dev now but looking to potentially transition to computer graphics)

FpUser 4y ago

Translation. Our wonderful capitalism can no longer support normal salary so that people can retire at reasonable age. So prepare to work till you drop dead so that those few that own half of the Earth can own a little more of it.

71a54xd 4y ago

I'd argue I've sort of fumbled my early tech career, hopefully I can recover in a non-linear fashion haha

schwartzworld 4y ago

Mine is: Music school -> food service -> massage therapy -> software.

wheelinsupial 4y ago

Is this a rebranding of the career jungle gym promoted on Forbes in 2013? https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2013/03/14/why-a-career-jungle-gym-is-better-than-a-career-ladder/?sh=25b7ab041248 https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2013/03/14/why-a...

PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago

high school genius -> A Level failure -> record store stock clerk -> biochemistry & biophysics -> computational molecular biology PhD (abandoned) -> bike messenger -> systems support engineer -> software engineer -> UWashington CS&E staff -> amzn -> stay at home parent -> FLOSS hacker -> guest professor TU Berlin -> seemingly world-level expert on DAWs I always wonder how rare this sort of pathway is.

black_13 4y ago

[dead]

jhoelzel 4y ago

I learned to program at 12 and with 16 i founded my first startup (which failed of course) and there i learned that coding is only half the game and added a bachelor in economical psychology instead of Comp-Sci. My resume has over 20 years of experience: backend, frontend, platform, k8s, cto roles and much more. Still Companies automatic filter sort me out because I don't have "the correct" degree unless i tell them that i have been freelancing forever. Therefore sure, go for it, but no its not the future. This is the "zuck was a college dropout" all over again.

_uoud 4y ago

I gave a short talk and wrote about this to developers way back in 2016. To me this always seemed obvious. https://www.lostbookofsales.com/careers-of-the-past-versus-careers-of-the-future/ https://www.lostbookofsales.com/careers-of-the-past-versus-c...

kris-nova 4y ago

Women and marginalized people who change jobs: Flakey and incapable. Unable to handle a job. Something must be wrong. Clearly a sign of caution to be taken as a reason not to work with them. Men who change jobs: literally articles inventing new vernacular stemming from the mental gymnastics required to justify the hypocrisy — men aren’t incapable because they change jobs — they are prodigy — men aren’t untrustworthy for changing jobs — they are taking nonlinear career paths because of the uncertainty in the market

ravagat 4y ago

It's nice to see that this has become more of the norm/average. For one, non-linear career paths have existed for a long time, to use the phrase "standing on the shoulders of giants", innovation would be less if it weren't so. Good article and exposure of thinking for everyone