Career Progress vs Career Perspective
By Stephanie Ranno, Vice President, TorchLight
Are you caught up in climbing, achieving, hustling, winning, failing forward? Do you feel like you've jumped on the "treadmill" of your career and there's no way you can jump off or slow down your cadence, without derailing your success?
I know this mindset of "constant career progression" is a struggle for me, for my closest group of working mom friends, and for hundreds/thousands/millions of people who are deliberating a job change today or facing the real fear that their job may be impacted from this global health and financial crisis.
At some point for all of us, in some way, the treadmill stops:
We're fired from a job.
We have our first child.
We have someone close to us fall ill and we need to care for them.
We take a job and it's not at all what we thought it would be.
A global pandemic threatens our job.
All of a sudden, we fear our career is done - our worth and value are in question from the outside and from within ourselves.
The career perspective we need in these times is simple:
Most of us will have long and winding careers.
Careers will speed up, slow down, make us sweat, burn us out, and ultimately make us stronger.
There's no one "right way" to develop your career and comparison to others will sap the joy right out of your work.
You don't have to figure it all out alone.
In the moments when I’ve had the emergency cord on that treadmill pulled - laid off from a job, a career move that wasn’t right, a third pregnancy that wasn’t exactly planned, a developmental delay diagnosis for our middle child – in those moments, taking the long-view perspective of my career was critical to my own health and well-being. When the treadmill stops, it is an opportunity to reframe and recharge for your next step.
Stephanie Ranno is the Vice President of Business Development for TorchLight Hire, one of Washington, D.C.’s fastest-growing marketing and communications search and staffing firms. Stephanie is focused on helping marketing leaders build talented teams and grow meaningful, progressive careers. Having reviewed thousands of resumes and job descriptions, and advised hiring managers and candidates alike through hundreds of searches and placements, she is uniquely qualified to speak and write on what really works in recruitment and talent acquisition strategy. Recognized as a 2017 Maryland Leading Woman by The Daily Record for professional accomplishment, community involvement and a commitment to inspiring change, Stephanie tries to pursue an integrated life at home and work. A wife and mother of three, she believes that a woman can have it all – a meaningful career, a healthy family, and fulfilling engagement in creative and community projects. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.