Chase Problems, Not Job Titles
Unlearning the ‘career ladder’ in professional growth and development
“What do you want to be in 5, 10, 20 years?”
Whenever I am asked this question in professional development conversations, I have always struggled with it and have felt growing pressure every time it comes up. Do I have aspirations to become a future CPO or CEO? Am I interested in becoming a General Manager for a critical business within a company? Or do I want to be a founder or entrepreneur and eventually start my own thing?
As a career-oriented professional in my early 30’s that has a penchant for planning and goal-setting, it is one of the great ironies of my life that I do not have a career endgame in mind. I primarily focus my time and energy on the present — particularly on executing well, driving impact, and gaining skills — but I do not exactly have an answer for what I want to be or where I see myself in the future. It is as if I am building the most capable boat, but without a destination to row towards.
Recently, I have come to realize that perhaps “What do you want to be?” may not always be the right question to ask. The question implies an ambition for a certain role or title, and the responsibilities, prestige, and lifestyle that come with it. While these get the wheels turning for some, they matter less to me, and I reckon, many other career-driven individuals.
When I consider the fundamental purpose of jobs and the disproportionate amount of time we spend doing them relative to one’s entire existence, I find it more motivating and energizing to approach my career arc in the context of how it can benefit others.
- Instead of “What do you want to be?” what if I reframe the question to “What problem do you want to solve?”
- Instead of acquiring skills and experience needed to “level up,” what if I focus on skills and experience that give me a better shot at chipping away at the problem?
I like the question of “What problem do you want to solve?” a lot more because it harks back to problems in society that keep me up at night, or problems that I find myself constantly coming back to over the course of this past decade. This question, I have answers for.
In my early career in marketing, I was cognizant of the fact that the retail industry I operated in was not going to meaningfully change lives. I used to call it the business of “fleeting happiness” because it felt like we existed to deliver pockets of joy to customers, but it wasn’t as if we were there to uplift them from their current life conditions. Yet somehow, I trusted that if I stayed the course, I’d amass a deeper understanding of customer psychology and learn effective communication that would pay dividends for more important societal problems down the road, such as disaster risk reduction management or promoting sustainable livelihood.
Since transitioning to the tech industry over five years ago, I have shifted my attention to two greater forces that move the world — money and media. Today, I am in a fortunate position to be in a company building solutions for the former, specifically, solving for financial access and inclusion. But beyond the influence of money, as a citizen of the world, I also witness first-hand how the media, particularly disinformation, has undermined democracies and continues to pose an existential threat to every person’s quality of life. It remains a problem that gnaws at me persistently, and while I am no fortune-teller, I imagine it will make a dent in my career in one way or another.
There is idealism and a level of privilege that come with this thinking, and I recognize that it is not the appropriate mental model for people in many different circumstances. That said, for those with time and resources, in essence, the thought exercise is, what if we chase problems instead of titles over the course of our careers?
It takes a beat to unlearn the image of one’s career trajectory as a ladder. Admittedly, at times, I catch myself looking sideways, tempted to climb up this imaginary ladder; else, I “fall behind.” But a ladder is wobbly without a solid base and gets progressively unstable the higher I climb.
I prefer my mighty boat whose value compounds the more I invest on it, the more I tinker with it, the more I let it run laps to deliver on specific missions. And when the time comes to sail more treacherous seas, it will be ready.
