Okay, here I go…out on the proverbial limb. For a while, I’ve been listening to a very persuasive voice within me that said, “Chris, you’re a marketer and that’s all you should be doing. Now go out and find marketing-related jobs.” Want to know something strange? I’m not really a marketer. Sure, I have a solid grounding in the profession and even have some experience doing it. However, In the end, I’m a mutt, a dabbler, a generalist. I’ve successfully tackled positions like customer service, sales, data processing, web design, and yes, marketing. I’ve worked in non-profits and for-profits. I’ve even tried launching my own businesses a couple of times.
My professional trajectory hasn’t been a straight line…more like a zigzag. This is both good and bad. The good? I possess a wealth of different experiences, skillsets, and knowledge. This diversity allows me to uncover patterns that many “straight line” professionals likely can’t see. The bad? Most organizations don’t value this eclectic background so much. They want straight-liners and set their hiring practices up to reward them.
So for many of us career zigzaggers, vocational searchers, and Renaissance Souls we tend to feel neglected and discarded and wonder what the hell we ever did wrong to find ourselves in such a world. We then do something that truly dishonors our selves and undermines our value: we try to emulate the straight-liner. We interview and market ourselves like the straight-liners, all the while downplaying our own richness, our own unique qualities. We try to cram our polygon peg into the square hole and then wonder why we’re so dumb because it doesn’t fit.
Does this sound familiar to you? If so, know you’re not alone. It’s time to acknowledge that we have tremendous value to give. It’s time to be bold and proudly profess our unique abilities. We’re quick learning, intensely creative, spectacularly curious professionals (to name just a few attributes). So here’s my call to action: Instead of hiding our light under a bushel basket, let’s not just uncover it – let’s throw kerosene on it and start a wildfire. Even if they don’t know it yet, employers need us. Business today is moving way too fast for the straight-liners and the specialists to keep up. Organizations truly need our broad skillsets, diversity of experiences, and ability to learn quickly.
If you find yourself identifying with the zigzagger ideal, come and share your experiences. What are your frustrations? Any tips for how you’ve overcome challenges and claimed your value?
Now go out there and set your fire today.
photo credit: marcelgermain (via Flickr)
In my experience, mutts always make the best dogs.
Ahhh yes, there's no doubt there. But in most organizations, the tendency is to extol the virtues of the purebreds. Guess its time for us mutts to show our own worth, huh?
Chris, I like it a lot! I've always been interested in way too many things to be put in a "developer" box — photography, language, travel, business, writing, movies, you name it. When I had people working for me, I always hired for diversity. The best programmers I've ever worked with had Philosophy and English degrees — they could think on their feet, problem solve, and come up with sparkling wit & banter all day long.
Excellent, Tom! You've nailed another key attribute that defines a zigzagger very well: problem solving. The ability to see a challenge from multiple perspectives and play with possibilities is so important. And being able to converse on the merits of Kierkegaard's arguments on the importance of self comes in handy, too
Chris, in a recent Corner Office column in the NYT, the president of a charitable foundation was asked how he hired. He replied:
"I’ve made an observation about people. There are people who have moved. Take somebody who’s a child of an Army officer — they will have moved 10 times in their lives. And then there are people who’ve been born and raised and educated and employed in one town their whole lives. Who do you think is willing to change? I think, in this modern world, you really have to be sure that your work force has the experience of being elsewhere. That experience then has the ability to ensure that you will be comfortable with change. "
I can extrapolate this thinking pretty easily to the zigzag career path. The key is to focus on the learnings that these experiences left you with. When I consult on resumes, that's the main thrust of the work — how do those experiences relate to the job you're applying for now?
Be proud! I cannot imagine a company being unimpressed by a communicator with experience in operations, sales, marketing, IT, etc. — maybe we need to develop a line of "Zigzag Career" merchandise. . .
Cheers,
Sean
@commammo
Thanks, Sean. Appreciate you sharing that quote. Change in business is inevitable and we zigzaggers are so well attuned to navigating it.
Now, as for that line of Zigzag Career merchandise…I think I might just have to play around with that. Papa always needs a new line of passive income
Epic. I'm one of y'all. The skillset I acquired while zigzagging actually ended up helping my find a way into my dream job. So, while our resumes aren't pretty by traditional standards, the actual skills we've learned counter this by guiding us around this obstacle.
Damn, you're good.
My recent post Willing what doesn’t come easy (and remembering what it took)
Thanks, Ian. I think your experience shows there are ways to put our zigzagging to work if we have the boldness to do it. Good for you for going out there and grabbing your dream job with both hands.
As a zigzagger and sometimes employer, I'd much rather hire zigzag employees. They nearly always do a better job because they have a better understanding of the big picture. Employers disregard this to their own detriment. Despite being certified on two different CRM packages and having owned my own retail store for five years, person at my last interview said "I don't see where you've been a customer account manager before." LIke saying "I see that you've done a lot of copywriting but it doesn't say on your resume that you type." I was a little dumbfounded.
Lisa, that's precisely the kind of thinking from a hiring employer that drives me nuts…and a big reason why I argue most organizations have poor hiring practices. Sounds like they were looking for a straightliner or at least someone who fit inside their cookie cutter position. Thanks a bunch for adding your thoughts and experience.
Chris, I think that smaller organizations (generally) tend to be better and more fulfilling for generalists like us. Larger companies seem to crave "formula" – for example when hiring a marketing person, making marketing degrees/MBAs a requirement. The BEST marketing people that have worked for me were English, Art History, French majors. The hiring practices are broken. If I mentoring someone beginning their career I always point out that while it is nice to have a big company name on your resume, realize that the opportunity to learn, grow, be given additional responsibility outside of your job description will more likely happen with a smaller company.
My recent post Situational Intelligence, Tiger Woods, Marketing and Public Relations
Dawn, your note that working for smaller companies helps build a diversity of experience is true for my background. My first job was serving as membership manager of a professional association. It was in an office of three and I was pretty much the primary contact for all external relations: communications, PR, event-planning (didn't even think about mentioning these above) in addition to member services.
However, I've found myself wondering over the past few months if that was truly a benefit or not. I never got the big brand on my resume and now it's almost like bearing a Scarlet Letter in some circles. Are the tradeoffs worth it? Not sure I can say right now.
Wow, great post. Thank you for speaking for the silent minority(?). It is amazing how often one feels heretical in confessing that, 'no, I don't have 83 consecutive years of experience specifically in managing teams in the development of consumer web video P2P messaging over 3G networks….. (did that exist 83 years ago)?" Corporate recruiters reward those who pursue the path most followed. For the rest of us, that path appears disturbingly myopic and excruciatingly uninteresting. My father always espoused the hiring principle, 'hire only those who have already successfully done exactly the job you're hiring for." How's that for tunnel vision. Conversely, I read an interview of the founder of kayak.com(?) recently. He said that, when hiring someone, he typically asks the new recruit "who is the smartest person you've ever met." The founder then goes out and tries to recruit that person, irrespective of whatever his vocation happens to be at that time. There are many paths to success in the world. The trick is to find the one that best suits you. Again, great post.
Ward, I absolutely agree with that feeling of being heretical. I also often feel naive and lesser-than for not having the good sense to have buckled down and developed that 10 years of highly specific expertise. But then, that wouldn't have been interesting or my career path. Sometimes we have to have the guts to forge our own identity and help others (eg., hiring folks) see the tremendous value we offer. Thanks for sharing the anecdotes about your father and the founder of Kayak.com.
Chris, I really enjoyed this post and the great discussion. Lot of good stuff to think about.
As a Zigzagger myself, I couldnt' agree more that we bring a different perspective to the table that is highly vaulable. Being agile and able to adapt is the new normal and the right business will reconginze this.
To add, I have been reading Sally Hogshead's last book, Radical Careering, and would highly recomended it for career inspriation on making your career what you are. If you want to check it out she is offering it free on her blog (but somewhat hidden) at sallyhogshead.com/rc
Thanks again for the good conversation.
Josh
My recent post Product Camp Austin Recap
Thanks, Josh. Appreciate the link to the Sally Hogshead book. Definitely looks like some quality reading is in store this weekend.
Well done, Chris.
I would also like to toss in a pitch for Veterans. Like Sean mentioned, people who have been around the military know how to change and be comfortable with it.
Most Vets I know are willing to change – a lot – to get things done. They have had to learn a new skill set every 2-3 years. I hope you won't mind if I link out to a piece I wrote about hiring Intel Vets as web marketers, I think it compliments your piece quite well:http://bit.ly/8PhpiL
Not at all, Elmer. I love your post and how you've reframed your military work as advantageous to the business world. Every single one of those skills are crucial to career success. Thanks for adding to the dialogue and sharing your post.
Like Chris Rorrer, I smiled in the beginning, reading as you called yourself a mutt Chris… they are so lovable! Plus it takes a brave man to call himself a mutt, and an even wiser one to embrace it.
Part of me is surprised that people can think they want the “old way” in this post-recessionary (still-stagnant) time where nostalgia about older business models isn’t paying many bills very well; nor is it generating much innovation.
Employers must shed this stubborn narrow-mindedness quickly if they’re to succeed and thrive better for many of the reasons already discussed here, however I have another concern: It’s for the generation of graduates now trying to enter the workplace and failing to get any entry at all versus a mismatched one. Zigzaggers (great language of intention Chris) will have experience of some kind in their past history, but many others will simply have glaring holes or appear to be professional students and they’ll never get started. I fear our workpalces are going to get even more dysfunctional!
All of this requires an open-mindedness like employers have never had before, and it also requires great skill by empathetic Alaka‘i Managers — i.e. Managers who know how to employ sleeping strengths and innate talent (including the zigzagger’s/generalist’s flexibility and adaptability) in delivering high performance. The market is not accepting any mediocrity or sub-par quality (nor should it.)
As for advice to the zigzagger, I’d say keep looking and expand your search. I know this can be difficult, and easier said than done — but you must. For ultimately, if an employer doesn’t value what you offer, the chances are that you’ve got value-alignment gaps in some other critical areas as well; you won’t want to work for them anyway.
Mahalo for accepting the longer comment Chris,
Rosa ~ @rosasay
My recent post Ready? Become an Alaka‘i Manager in 5 Weeks!
Rosa, thanks so much for adding to the dialogue. Your notion of "sleeping strengths and innate talent" is absolutely spot-on when it comes to the zigzagging careerist. We look for organizations that will allow us the opportunity to express our abilities in different ways. We're never satisfied with just being sequestered in a confining box and told that's all there is. Not only is that a waste of our capabilities, its a wasted chance for the organization, as well.
Thank you for adding your advice. While it is easier said than done, its still wisdom that needs to be heeded. I'm coming to realize there is boldness in being true to who we are, regardless of whether its understood by others.
I once had a job in a newspaper. It was firmly in the old-school management paradigm, what I call the "executive washroom mentality". (That, not the Internet, is what is killing big journalism.) I tried to innovate the first month I was there, but was systematically smacked back into my cubicle. Where I stayed, internally stewing, not looking for any more trouble.
For eight more years.
Finally, after much eroding of stomach lining and insomnia and hives and anxiety attacks, not to mention rounds of layoffs due to the business being, as I'd already made clear, a NEWSPAPER, I escaped. The very month the economic shit hit the you-know-what in 2008.
I haven't worked since. I'm afraid to. What's required to earn a paycheck is too humiliating for me. I don't have skills or confidence to strike out on my own. I'm doubting the adequacy of my skills as a graphic designer, or my ability to sell it at age 52. I always considered myself a Renaissance Soul, since I bought that book when it first came out. But it's the only talent I can prove I'm skillful at. Anything else I do would be as an unskilled laborer.
Social media is both a help and a hindrance. It tells me I should "follow my passion". But no interest I have would dare rise to the level of a passion. I'd be too afraid I'd turn it into a job. And I know jobs suck the life out of you.
I'm stuck. And my money's running out.
Rick, thank you for sharing what is very personal and deeply affecting to you. I know that fear and its very real. From my own experience, I think I allowed my fear to control and influence me beyond where I was happy. So I had to make a decision: either keep living with the fear, doubts, and uncertainty or do something about it. No easy choice either way. So I'm out here now trying to take the best action I can.
I'm afraid I don't have any simple solutions for you – I'm always skeptical of them anyway. I figure if it was simple to do, we'd have done it by now. No, these things are always more complicated because they're so deeply ingrained in our identities. However, what I do have is the ability to offer an empathetic ear and a desire to help. If there's anything I can do to offer hope or lessen your doubts, please let me know. Be well, Rick.
Hey Chris, you might know my views on this already. As a career coach specializing in helping folks make the leap to self-employment, I know this. The best opportunities are created and not found. Unfortunately for most, employment is closer to slavery than well, slavery. Most of us will wait far too long to have enough already existing businesses wake up to the value of us variety freaks, I say quit waiting. Discover your calling and create a business on that foundation. It can be done and done well once you find your point of inspiration and ride that puppy.
My recent post Top Ten Tips For A Confident Career Change
Tom, thanks for adding to the dialogue. There are truths in what you say. Yet, as someone who has worked to make self-employment a viable option for over a year (and not quite succeeded yet), I can see several angles of the employment/self-employment issue. Sometimes making the conscious choice to return to the corporate – or otherwise working for another employer – is the deal we must make in order to move our life purpose forward. I don't believe that's settling…simply taking the path that's right for our own set of needs.
Sure Chris, it's not as black and white as my bold declarations sometimes make it seem. I can see what you say of course. We all have to do what we have to do. Yet I find that if a client truly sets the right transition requirements with forethought and inspiration the probability of not having to go back to employment increases. It's very much about making sound decisions and backing them up with strategic actions.
My recent post Top Ten Tips For A Confident Career Change
I don't think that your profession has to do something with this. It's really great when you have the opportunity to change your career and learn new stuff. For example, I'm a simple accountant, after a successful career I decided to learn something new, so I quit my job, and got hired in an IT company as a system administrator. Go for it, follow your dream.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Jessica. There's a great deal of courage in quitting our comfortable work in order to explore something new. Out of curiosity, what made you want to become a system administrator…and what was your process for making that leap from accountancy?