Every career has transitions and cycles. Accept that.Don't try to avoid them, rather think about what we can do for that cycle and move forward.

Career Paths Are Not Linear

What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while.  Incremental efforts do add up.Like compound interest, if you make steady progress of your goals, you can get somewhere.

Working Toward a Goal

We learn through experimentation, not by pondering.We can’t really think our way into the right answer. We just have to try different things and then see how well we learn from those.

Instead of Pondering It, Do It

We tend to only do something about our careers when we have a problem. But if you wait until you’re laid off or dissatisfied, you may take action but it won’t feel authentic. A better way is to look at multiple factors and work on them consistently even when you feel satisfied at your job.

Don’t Wait Until You’re Unhappy

"Incremental efforts add up. You don’t have to do a big dramatic thing to make progress. What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while."

Ask a friend: "What do you see in me? What patterns are you detecting?"Often, that will identify some of your core values.

Ask Someone Else How They See You

If you are uncertain about your next step, but you have 5-6 job possibilities in your mind, chart out these options and ask:<ul><li>How interesting would it be? Use a 1 to 10 scale to rank it. </li><li>How easy or difficult would it be to make happen? </li><li>How much do you actually know about this as a career? How deep is your knowledge? </li></ul>Add up the points and see where each job falls on the chart.

Chart Your Options

Ask yourself these questions:<ul><li>Values: What do I like to do? What brings out my best?</li><li>Vision: How do I want to grow? What do I want to create for myself?</li><li>Competency: What do I bring to the table? What value do I have and how should this grow over time? What do I need to get to the next level?</li><li>Relationships: Who’s supporting me? Who’s in my posse? Who gives me resilience and validation? And who can I learn from?</li></ul>

Looking At The Big Picture

The career path for Stanford Graduate School of Business alum Michael Melcher has been anything but linear: He earned a BA in 1986 from Harvard College, served as a foreign service officer for the U.S. government, earned JD and MBA degrees at Stanford University, worked as an attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell and D.E.

MICHAEL MELCHER

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Working Toward a Goal

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