All our problems with work because no one knows who he wants to be in 5 years

Do not fall off the career ladder ...

There is a classic HR question that everyone hates and thinks is stupid. It sounds like this - “by whom do you see yourself in 3/5/10 years?”

On this issue is taken to joke. Like, I see myself as the director of this office, and you, a glamorous kitty, sit on my lap (the place and occupation of a glamorous kitty is determined by the degree of perversion of the pranksters' fantasies).
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But jokes are jokes, and yet most of us really have no idea who they want to become and what to achieve in the profession.

Do we really not know what we want?

We precisely (as it seems to us) know what we need in material terms. A house in Miami / Sochi / on Rublevka (who likes what), a yacht, blondes in a bikini, dollars in a safe. Then we grow up and start looking at life more realistically. Now our soul is warmed by a treshka (a two-room apartment will come down) in the south-west of the capital and a middle-class car.

Is desire for prosperity - is it bad?

It is good that you have the desire to live better. But does not it seem strange to dream of a house in Miami and to work as a courier for 25 thousand rubles? No, the courier is not the worst profession - if it is temporary. If you study for the specialty for which you are going to work later, and earn money as a courier, then you are a good fellow. If you are 30, you are still a courier and at the same time believe that you will soon be admiring Moscow from the windows of your penthouse - then you have to change your profession or your dream.

Because it will take another 10 years and it turns out that it’s like walking from Moscow to Miami to the penthouse, that life is more expensive and maybe there will be no money left to pay for a room in Khimki.

Not too realistic example. Is there a better one?

Okay, let's break the life of an ordinary sales manager. 5 years he is studying at the university. What Usually that has a very weak relationship to future work. As they say, where did you manage to enter. All this time he usually does not work, because why spoil the glorious student years?

At 21, he finds himself in the labor market (where no one was waiting for him) and gets a lower position in a company. Successfully or not doing their work day after day. During the rapid economic growth, companies also grew rapidly, new departments appeared, some even made a career in this way. And the rest kept waiting for their chance. And waited 10 years ...

The onset of the crisis greatly reduced the need for linear functionality, many employees without special skills said goodbye to their beloved job (this particularly affected bank clerks, so numerous in former times). And it turned out that man has to start all over again.

Hasn’t a person become a sought-after specialist in 10 years?

The fact is that there are job offers, of course, but too often previous experience and skills are not applicable to new requirements . So you need to become a green novice again and work a lot for a modest salary.

And if this manager himself, and not at the behest of HR, thought about who he wants to become in 5 years, then it is quite possible that he would not go through an interview, but take him to the recruits department.

Here you are talking about others. And was everything smooth in your career?

Unfortunately no. And throwing, and rake, I had plenty.

I always liked programming and for several years I was developing, writing on a bunch of languages ​​from the now-dead Clipper to the new Java. Then (not least from material considerations) he retrained as an IT teacher and for 6 years taught courses in Sun, Microsoft and Lotus. Then he worked in the international "anthills" of Microsoft and Apple, until finally he began to work on the development of trends and start-ups.

Of course, a whole series of knowledge and skills gained earlier were useful to me in my current profession. But if I knew in advance what I wanted to do, and purposefully studied and honed the necessary skills, I would certainly have achieved more.

Sometimes it seemed to me that the secret of success is to get settled in the right company and grow there. But when I see what my former colleagues have achieved, I understand that ten percent of them have really achieved success. And the rest remained who they were, and then they completely descended the career ladder.

And these 10% had just set themselves a goal and went to it, and did not move at random.

So why do we not like to plan our lives?

Since 1991, our country throws from side to side. From crisis to stability, from fat times to skinny. So we have a time of great opportunities and everyone is running a business. Then the salaries of lawyers and economists soar to the heavens, and after a few years there are a lot of lawyers and they cost a penny, and the accountant professions generally predict an early extinction.

All these throwings have taught us to make plans for the future. We live for today. In addition, some people like to work where they are interested. And it's good when you do an interesting job and go to work with joy. It is bad when your interests change often, and with them the profession / work change.

And the other just laziness. They settled somewhere (as an option, they were arranged) and they will go to work every day. Then they will get bored, they will quit (or they will be fired) and they will find another job both again and again ...

Third comes "dizziness from success." They are given a small boost - and they already imagine themselves as great managers. And so it is useless in a regular office to sit down with their pants - they need everything at once. So they change jobs, trying to climb higher. If the guys have strong charisma, then they (even with modest abilities) manage to fool the heads of HR-frames and directors for a long time, and they are hired. They will leave the majority of the companies themselves, but in the end they will be fired and then it will become clear that they have not much real experience ...

And what to do? “Do you have a plan, Mr. Fix?”

There is a plan. And he is:

1. Determine who you want to be. What kind of work will give you pleasure and provide you with enough money for a comfortable life.

Do not get fooled by stereotypes. The boss is nice and his salary is usually not bad, but the work is very nervous and there is a lot of responsibility. A well-rounded specialist in the right company can earn no less than many directors, and people with unique qualifications can earn much more.

2. Understand what kind of experience and knowledge a person should have in an interesting position.

It is best to talk with a specific person whose workplace you want to take whose position seems ideal to you. What he knows, what and how he learned, what was useful from his career experience, and what only took time.

3. Decide where and how this knowledge and skills are best obtained.

Something can be learned on courses, something on their own, in some cases have to finish an MBA. Skills are usually obtained only in the process of working on a particular position. In addition, HR-s will look at the work experience (it is difficult to get to the position of head of the sales department from the courier position).

4. Consider each job as a stepping stone to your goal.

Each of your jobs should be assessed only on one scale - as far as it brings you closer to the goal. Many or little pay, stuffy or not office, far or close to the house does not matter.

If you want to become a Java Architector with a salary of 250 thousand, then it is better to work Junior Java Developer for 40 thousand, than Senior PHP for 80 thousand, because the second position will not bring you closer to your goal. This time will be simply lost for your career (exceptional moments, for example, money is urgently needed for something vital, we don’t consider it; life is a complicated thing, much that can be).

5. Taking the desired position - do not relax.

Crisis, irrational quarrel with the authorities, bankruptcy of the company - anything can happen. Always plan both the next goal (for which you will not have to make such serious sacrifices) and the backup option. Always evaluate how much you are in demand in the market. Where you can quickly and for a good salary settled, if such a need suddenly arises.

I wish you all a successful career, "so as not to be painfully hurt for aimlessly lived years."