Are All Careers the Same?

Building a successful, meaningful career is a primary goal for many people; it's synonymous with our livelihood. There are countless books, articles, and blog posts about how to choose the right career or how to be successful in a career you currently inhabit. The advice may differ based on the author, the career in question, or the skills required for a certain path. But does all that really matter? Maybe all careers are the same. Maybe we are applying the same strategies regardless if we work in tech or construction.

Focus your work on moving towards the goal. Any career, job, or project has a goal or outcome associated with it. The point of your work is to move you, your company, your team, your project closer to the outcome. To have a successful career, you should be working hard towards that goal; doing so will have positive impacts on your career trajectory. It doesn't matter what field you're in, if you obsess over moving your company towards improvement, you will gain skills that will compound over time.

Learn to work with people. Humans are social animals and there are very few jobs in which our interactions with other humans are not important. As you are working hard towards critical goals, place emphasis on your relationships with others. Figure out how you can mold your relationships to help everyone get closer to achieving the goal. You can be working on a software project, starting a clothing business, or changing process to hit business metrics; regardless, you will work with people to reach a goal.

Build your skill set. You can't make a positive impact without skills; competence needs to be built over time. What skills should we learn? Learn the tactical skills that move you closer to the goal; learn the people skills that create cohesion and a positive work environment. Skills that are valuable in your current endeavor are also valuable elsewhere. Don't stress over which particular skills to learn, just find gaps and fill them.

Every career looks different from a granular level, but in aggregate, they may all be the same. We are all working towards a goal with other people where we need skills to bring ideas to reality. Focus on that and see where it takes you.