"Career Opportunities are the Ones that Never Knock"

by John Scott

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The notion of a job for life was a creation of the last century which never really made it in to this one as organizations delayered, re-engineered, merged, acquired and outsourced.

Along with it went one model of career development - a series of linear, consecutive movements up the company hierarchy. Less than 15 years ago many large companies had a department of manpower planning in the HR function, so measured and consistent was the movement of staff. Not only could individuals plot their careers, but the company plotted and then managed this process.

Moving up the ladder

This ladder-like move was driven by professional/vocational training in the early stages, followed by specialist and managerial experience, leavened on occasion by luck and good timing. Key moves would be symbolised by a bigger car, smarter office and other perks. In an international accounting firm, one measure was the size of desk; in a leading university, the positioning and indentation of one’s name in the annual handbook.

"They offered me the office, offered me the shop

They said I’d better take anything they’d got"

The Clash, "Career Opportunities"

A move outside the company would be to a senior role in a more-or-less recognisable route taken by many others. For professional service firms, it involved qualifying and then going to work for a client or intermediary with a resulting feeding frenzy whenever final exam results were available. In public sector organisations where talent was supposedly rare and professional networks closed, movement between employers represented an upwardly-spiralling roundabout rather than a one-way street. Start in a, move to b and c and then return to one of them in a more senior role.

As the HR profession developed, so too did career paths attached to it. Administration, recruitment, business partner, management, further specialisation in e.g. reward or management development, then leadership. Until quite recently this is what we could look forward to and probably expect.

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John Scott is a London-based European HR consultant. The article benefits from a reading of Ghoshal and Bartlett’s The Individualized Corporation and its title is taken from "Career Opportunities" by The Clash.

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