Building the Sustainable Career

If you’ve been reading the trade journals, or general business publications, you’ve undoubtedly read something that talks about sustainability; it’s a hot business topic. A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of speaking at the Denver Traffic Club’s annual Operation Stimulus meeting where the theme was Sustainable Logistics.

In preparing for the talk, one of the organizers asked if I could work the theme of sustainability in to my comments. To honor his request, the topic of my talk was Building the Sustainable Career. Based on the positive feedback, the talk was well received. Perhaps it’s because the focus of the talk is about you and your career. If you’re interested in the topic, here are a couple of thoughts to consider.

Why do you need to have a sustainable career? Because there is no such thing as job security! If we had a lot of time and space, I could regale you with stories about people who thought they’d always have a job because they did a good job. Unfortunately, their trip in fantasyland was interrupted with a request to “come to the personnel department and bring all your belongings.”  Suffice it to say, they never saw their termination coming. So if you don’t get anything else out of this blog except for this point, I will have done my job. Regardless of how well you’re performing, no job is safe! Things change and companies do irrational things. One of those irrational things may be firing you!

How do you build a sustainable career? First, ask yourself: How committed am I to building my career? Am I willing to make it a priority and invest the time and effort, and make the sacrifices to excel in my career?  Candidly, while most people will state that they’re willing to do whatever it takes (as long as it’s honest and ethical) to build their careers, their actions tell a different story. In truth, they have a myriad of reasons and excuses to justify doing the bare minimum to survive.

People who are building a sustainable career understand the:

a)      Importance of continuing education - even if the "cheap, no good company they work for" won’t pay for the classes.

b)      Value of building a career network – even if it means giving up some weeknights and missing American Idol episodes, so they can attend industry meetings such as local CSCMP roundtables to meet other professionals.

c)      Meaning of being willing to stand up and be counted to do the right thing for their company and their career. They are not afraid to make decisions.  

d)      Reality that they alone are responsible for building their careers. 

With respect to accepting personal responsibility for your career, let me close by sharing what happens after I give talks of this nature. Invariably I hear from someone who tells me that while they thought the comments were right on, and they liked the speech, I really don’t understand their personal situation.  They don’t have the time for networking and/or they don’t have the smarts for education. And you know what? They’re right - I don’t understand!

Let me tell you what I do understand. We all have the same amount of time: 168 hours in a week. So it’s not a question of time, it’s a matter of priorities! With respect to smarts or intelligence, you might amaze yourself with what you can accomplish if you’re willing to make the effort, be persistent and refuse to quit. Listen, as anyone who knows me can attest, I’m no rocket scientist, but early on I learned the value of persistence. With the resources we all have at our fingertips, there is no excuse for choosing to ignore the importance of continuing education. So let’s focus on what we can do by focusing on an important question: How important is it for me to build a sustainable career?

If you’re interested in a copy of the Sustainable Career presentation, let me know. 

TranzAct Technologies, Inc.