Your Career As An Evolving Marketplace

Your career is only as good as the market you can access today.

Success is a matter of finding where you can be most valuable. By value, I mean according to your own terms, not just in money, but also in satisfaction.

This is a process of experimentation. And here’s a simple mental model (in theory), that I think describes that discovery process well.

At the start of your career, your total market is limited. In order to expand it, you need experience. The more experience you get — the more market you can access. And, the more info you gain about where your skills are valued.

The first career opportunities you can actually access tend to be very close to your existing level of experience.

There are a lot of ways to bridge that gap initially (like relying on your network, offering to shadow someone, try freelancing). But largely, your options are limited to the extend with which you can convince someone else to engage with you.

BUT — as you earn more experience, the opportunities available to you will also expand.

After you get a little bit of experience, the size of your accessible market continues to expand.

In large part, this has to do with your track record. Assuming you do good work, your gain credibility. You begin to fashion a solid reputation. You reduce the level of risk that used to be associated with your lack of experience.

Again — the more experience you have, the more leverage you have in the marketplace.

Okay — so, this works for a linear career — where all of your experience is all directly relevant on the same path.

But what about when you try different career paths?

When you expand your variety of experiences (like moving into a different field), the value of your earlier experiences begin to compound. Slowly at first as you learn the new field, then rapidly.

This is because not everything in your first career path will be directly transferable to the new market. Yes — some of it will. But not everything.

This is also true of switching companies. Early in your career, a lot of the knowledge you gain is localized. It’s more valuable at your specific company than it is in the market.

So by switching companies (or industries), you still have to address the learning curve.

But, as you make up for the learning curve, the experience you have can transfer more and more. This has a lot to do with your own personal and professional development. Experience has a way of transforming localized/institutionalized knowledge into contextualized (industry-relevant) knowledge.

What I mean is that in your first few roles, you may be limited to a single institution or a single role. But working in the same role at several companies, or working across different roles and industries — your cumulative knowledge about how business work will show compound returns.

Basically, the dots all start to connect across the broader spectrum. And that’s highly leverage-able.

Eventually, your total market access suddenly expands exponentially, as all of your experience begins to converge.

All in — your total experience will allow you to access even more market. Which is great news for you, because it opens up more options.

Again, this is just meant to serve as a mental model.

How you choose to approach your career is up to you. Personally, I feel a great way to achieve success is in finding where you fit best and leaning into it.

Success is also a matter of how you keep score — i.e. how well you achieve the metrics that matter to you. That could be how much money you make, how many promotions, your status, etc.

But, I like this model as a way to think about expanding your total set of available opportunities. And no matter how you keep score, access to more opportunities is a good thing to have.

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*Notes: These are not to scale. Results may vary.

Mitchell Earl is the CEO at Praxis, a career mentorship program that’s helped thousands of entrepreneurial young adults start successful careers without college. He writes regularly about how young adults can take agency over their lives, careers, and money. His work has been read by millions across the globe. He is the host of The Career Bound Podcast, and author of Don’t Do Stuff You Hate.

This piece was originally published on Quora.