Can companies provide careers?

Companies create jobs. Not careers.

Companies create jobs. Not careers.

Here is why:

A company’s primary goal is business success. Not career management.

For a company, providing ‘careers’ to individuals is a device to achieve business growth and profit. Longer careers are more profitable for a company. On the other hand, a long career in one company is economically inefficient for most individuals.

A company is incidental to the fundamental meaning of a career.

Think of the careers of professional sportspeople, musicians, or actors. Their careers are defined by achievement in what they do. Record labels, teams or films are no more than channels for their talent.

While the core idea of a career is the same, unlike musicians, it is possible for Marketing, HR, Technology and Finance professionals to keep reaching higher levels of achievement in the same company. However, the probability is extremely low.

The probability of reaching higher levels of achievement in the same company is dangerously low.

Companies are organized as hierarchies. Each role has a minimum of four direct reports. (Economic pressures are increasing these spans even more) The math is simple. The probability of anyone going up all four levels is less than 3%. And you need to climb at least four levels to make some meaning out of your career.

Even this low level of probability assumes the company is performing well enough to have a stable organization – no layoffs or restructuring – for a long period of ten to twelve years.

But, what about the narrative of ‘career is not just about moving upwards?’ What about different ‘lateral experiences?’ What about liberating, flat organizations?

‘Lateral moves,’ ‘Different Experiences,’ are good if they come each time with a 20% salary increase. As for flat organizations: They are indeed great for collaboration, culture, and profit. However, they may not be so great for the lifetime value of an individual’s career. Longer time in a ‘different set of experiences,’ that result in low pay increases can compound badly, quickly.

Company longevity is in significant decline.

The average lifespan of an S&P 500 company in 1958 was 61 years. It is less than 18 now. There is a 40-50% chance you are in a company that has a lifespan of less than 18 years even if you are in a S&P 500 company. Smaller companies’ lifespans are even lower.

Simple conclusion: The lifespan of your career is higher than the average lifespan of a company.

So, if the probability of growing within a company is small AND companies have lower lifespans, the only way individuals can have a high lifetime value of their career is to think of companies as channels/platforms for their achievements and not as locations for their career.

Here is how you should think about your career.

• It is your career. You are building it.

  • The company is a channel/platform for your career. It not a provider of your career.
    

• A series of jobs in the same company, even if you get some promotions, is not a career.

  • A career is a planful, deliberate effort of maximizing your wealth, expertise, and impact.
    

• There is always another company, maybe smaller, that will value your talent more and is willing to pay more.

  • If you do not find yourself in that situation, you may be overpaid for what you do. This will not last long. Some form of stagnation or exit is coming your way.
    

• Technology advancement can create or destroy your economic value.

  • If your company is not embracing technology, you may want to consider your options.
    

• Remember the ‘double-digit’ rule.

  • If your tenure in one company is entering double-digit years, your market value is starting to decline. Even if you are one of the fortunate/deserving 3% that is growing within the company, you need to remember that the pyramid is narrowing, and probabilities will suddenly become horrendous.
    

• Jobs at C-level and one level below, pay disproportionately higher than all jobs below.

  • The sooner you reach that level, the happier you will be. Economically and professionally.