Career paths: discussing non-linear development

B2
60 min
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1

Think about these questions before watching. Share your ideas with a partner.

  1. When you imagine a 'traditional' career path, what steps or milestones come to mind?
  2. Besides getting a promotion, what other kinds of changes could be considered positive developments in someone's career?
  3. How much should personal strengths and interests influence career choices, compared to practical factors like salary or job security?
2

Watch the video carefully. Pay attention to the main ideas and key details.

Video script156 segments · click a timestamp to jump

KEYANNA SCHMIEDL: When I say career development,

what do you think?

You're probably thinking of something

like a ladder or something that is very linear,

and that's pretty much what we've been

taught for a very long time.

For me, I actually think there's a different way

to think about this.

I think the right analogy is career development as a rock

wall--

lots of options.

How do you get on the wall and just get started?

Ladder-- there's really only one kind of direction

that you can go, and that's either up or down.

For most people, it's step by step.

But it can't just be that there is one path and one way

to find success and navigate your way

throughout an organization in order

to feel like you're successful.

Essentially what we want are options and opportunities

to define what success looks like for us.

When we think about the rock wall,

success may mean moving out right, broadening your scope,

not necessarily moving up in terms of leadership.

Success may look like, hey, I'm going to take

a little bit of a step back.

Maybe that looks like moving part-time.

Maybe it looks like actually moving something off

of your plate.

How can we make sure that all of those pieces

fit together to say, there are lots of opportunities

here up in along this wall in different paths

that folks are on, and that's OK,

we can all be on this wall at the same time?

You may be sitting there and in your mind

staring up at this rock wall going, how do I tackle this?

I know that I have certainly been

there many points in my career and actually standing

in front of rock walls.

Start with strengths.

For me-- and again, in this analogy, going up the wall--

I know that the lane that's going to be easiest for me

is the one that allows me to power up using my leg strength.

The second that I need to use my arms, forget it.

I am off that wall.

I'm not going to successfully navigate it.

Now translate that to what your strengths and your opportunity

areas are.

Maybe I've been in the workforce for a while

and I have a really strong sense of where I know I knock it

out of the park, and the places where

I know I don't like to spend a lot of time there,

because it's not a natural strength of mine.

And then look again at what are the opportunities that

are in front of me.

Ideally, if we're thinking growth mindset,

if we're thinking strength-based leadership,

then what we're saying is, we want

you to play to your strengths.

And as your manager, they're down here,

looking out for those opportunity areas for you,

but you're just allowed to use your strengths

to navigate your way up and around that wall.

If you don't know your strengths--

maybe you're a little bit newer to the workforce

or you're in a completely new lane that you haven't navigated

before--

you can think about how kids naturally

go up the wall, which is not necessarily

looking for one route in particular, just looking for,

what's the easiest way for me to get started

and to start to figure out what does this feel like

to navigate my way up here?

And as you start to move up, you might realize, actually,

it makes more sense for me to move out a little bit.

And when I move out, I'm actually

really strong over here.

When I need to move up--

I've got some opportunity areas here.

I'm a little bit weak here.

OK, what do you think about working

on those opportunity areas will help you to achieve your goals,

and how can we make sure that you

can do that in a psychologically safe environment where

it's OK for you to fail?

But as an employee, I also feel like, all right, I'm

excited about this challenge that sits in front of me

now because I have an understanding about how I

tackle this in the first place.

Some of this development might look like a step back.

I did do rock climbing, and for me sometimes,

as I'm making my way up the path,

there are some sections where I'm going a little bit faster.

And then I would pause, and I would go, nope,

I missed something.

And you backtrack a little bit.

But when you're backtracking, you

have an opportunity to see a slightly different route,

take a slightly different approach.

In my own career, I have certainly

decided to take a step to the side, a step back and down.

I had done some amazing things, had an opportunity

to open new offices and the first Office

for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs

and really get into some work that started, for me,

aligning what I ultimately wanted

to do with what I believed to be possible.

At the same time, I realized there were skill sets

that I was missing that I knew if I had those that I could

be even better in my role.

It was a hard decision to make, for sure,

but ultimately the right one to say,

I'm actually going to move into another industry

to work on that skill set, to make it a strength of mine,

to say I'm going to do facilitation full time.

But because I hadn't done that before, technically, on paper,

it looked like a step down, but for me, I

knew I was just trying to add to my toolkit

to be able to get up that wall and actually a bit back

on that path that I was just a little further along it.

There are lots of ways to kind of define

success in your career.

It could be simply taking on more scope

or stepping into a space that you haven't occupied before,

and that's not necessarily moving up.

We hear it a lot in the tech space as well--

I want to be the best engineer that I can be,

and I don't necessarily want to manage people.

That doesn't mean that you don't care about the organization,

but it also shouldn't limit the career success

that you can have.

It has pushed a lot of organizations

to consider, well, what is up?

And is it actually out?

That then allows us to say, this is the equivalent of this.

If success was, you go from being an individual contributor

to managing one person to managing a team to managing

a department, can we kind of scope

a parallel path for an individual contributor

that's, I go for managing my work to I

go to managing a set of projects to I

go to managing a set of key initiatives

that allows for folks to kind of see that scope

growth in a very similar way.

It allows for us to say, yes, you are taking on more,

and therefore we can recognize this career ascension that

doesn't look exactly the same as it does over here,

and that's OK.

The rock wall analogy allows for folks

to step outside of some of the more traditional landscape,

step outside of some of the more boxed-in feeling

that we tend to have around what does success look like

and how can I define that success.

And it allows us to get a little bit more creative in thinking

about, hey, actually, if I define success like X,

then here is how I can make that happen.

3

Answer these questions in your own words. Support your answers with evidence from the video.

01According to the speaker, what is the main problem with viewing career development as a ladder?
Sample answerThe speaker says the ladder is too restrictive because it only allows you to go up or down. This suggests there's only one path to success, which doesn't give people enough options to define what success means for them personally.
02What advice does the speaker give to people who are new to the workforce and don't know their strengths yet?
Sample answerShe suggests they should act like kids on a rock wall. Instead of looking for a specific route, they should just get started and see what feels easiest. By experimenting and moving around, they can discover what they're good at in a safe environment where it's okay to fail.
03Why did the speaker consider her move to a different industry, which looked like a 'step down', to be a positive career move?
Sample answerEven though it seemed like a step back on paper, she saw it as a strategic move. She wanted to develop a specific skill—facilitation—and make it a strength. She felt this new skill was essential for her long-term goals, so it was like adding a new tool to her toolkit to help her climb the 'wall' better in the future.
04In what way can organizations create parallel career paths for employees who don't want to become managers?
Sample answerThe video suggests that companies can redefine what 'moving up' means. For someone who isn't a manager, success could be defined by taking on more responsibility in other ways. For example, they could progress from managing their own work to managing large projects, and then to leading key company initiatives. This allows them to grow and be recognized without having to manage people.
4

Key vocabulary

Vocabulary
These expressions will help you discuss career development more precisely.
Examples
Climb the corporate ladder — to advance in a company through a series of promotions to higher-level jobs.
Usage note: This is a common idiom. It often implies a very traditional and linear career path, which the speaker in the video questions.
A steep learning curve — a situation where you have to learn a lot of new information or skills in a very short amount of time.
Usage note: This is common in professional contexts. You can say 'face a steep learning curve' or 'the new role has a steep learning curve'.
Branch out into (something) — to start doing a new activity or move into a new area of work.
Usage note: This phrasal verb suggests expanding your skills or business in a new direction, much like moving sideways on the 'rock wall'. For example, 'After years in marketing, she decided to branch out into user experience design.'
Be pigeonholed — to be unfairly categorized as having only one specific skill or role, which limits your opportunities.
Usage note: This is most often used in the passive voice. It expresses the frustration of being limited. For example, 'I took the new role because I didn't want to be pigeonholed as just an administrator.'
Gain traction — to become more established, accepted, or successful.
Usage note: You can use this for an idea, a project, or a person's career. For example, 'Her career started to gain traction after she took on the international project.'
5

Decide if each statement is true or false. Correct the false ones.

01The speaker uses her own rock-climbing experience as an example, explaining that her arm strength is her greatest asset on the wall.
02The video suggests that sometimes taking a step back in your career can provide a new perspective and reveal a better path forward.
03According to the speaker, a good manager allows their employees to focus on using their strengths to navigate their career.
04The speaker points to the tech industry as a field where employees are primarily motivated by the goal of managing people.
05The main purpose of the rock wall analogy is to help people think more creatively about what success means to them in their careers.
6

Discuss these questions with a partner. Try to use vocabulary from the lesson.

  1. To what extent do you agree that the 'rock wall' is a better metaphor for modern careers than the traditional idea of trying to climb the corporate ladder? Are there some professions where the ladder model is still more realistic or even preferable?
  2. Thinking about your own country or culture, how are people who frequently branch out into new roles or industries viewed? Is there a risk of being seen as unfocused, or is it admired as being adaptable?
  3. Imagine a professional who feels pigeonholed in their current role. What advice would you give them for exploring a non-linear move? What challenges, such as a steep learning curve or difficulty gaining traction, should they prepare for?