What does the word “career” mean to you?
Is it your job title? “I am CEO and co-founder of a startup.”
Is it your company? “I work at Google.”
Is it your function? “I’m an engineer.”
Is it your industry? “I work in tech.”
Ever since entering my 30s, career-related small talk has felt a bit forced, if not boring. At cocktail parties, it’s customary to exchange pleasantries before eventually being asked that incisive question we’ve all heard:
“So what do you do?”
What are people really asking when they ask this question?
Is it: I’m curious how you make money in society? Or: How successful are you? Perhaps: Are you important enough to invest my time in you?
Alas, maybe it’s just the best non-weather small talk question we have to get to know each other. Nevertheless, when the topic of “career” comes up, the conversation felt mechanical which bothered me, so I began exploring the history of the “career” concept itself. . .
What does the word ‘career’ mean?
The formal definition of ‘career’ is:
An occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person's life and with opportunities for progress.When I read this definition, this is what I envision:
With no disrespect to Mr. Steve Mills and his impressive commitment to IBM, I think we can all agree that at least the definition of the word “career” has become antiquated.
The making of career man
Where did it start? We’ve been using the word “career” since 1803, but things really went mainstream when Donald Super published an unassuming article in American Psychologist in 1953. It was called A Theory of Vocational Development and everyone LOVED IT because life fit nicely into goddam rainbow swim lanes:
Donald Super framework: the Super Rainbow
How’s the career Jim?
Well Frank, I’ve put in 35 years at Intel, so according to the Super Rainbow I’m in the “maintenance” phase of my working career. I plan to retire at 65 which will give me 1-2 solid years of retirement before I kick the bucket. [male life expectancy in 1955 was 66.7 years old]
That’s swell, Jim. You’ll have it made in the shade.
Why careers aren’t linear, regressive rainbows
Because things have changed.
Today, careers are dynamic, amorphous and non-linear. Why? Because anyone can learn anything. We can also work from anywhere in the world and do stuff: write code, send emails, slack coworkers, hop on Zoom, run meetings, hire, fire, sell to prospects, service customers, build products, test, deploy.
Linkedin co-founder Reid Hoffman asserts our careers are actually comprised of smaller 2-5 year “tours of duty”:
The finite term of the tour of duty — initial tours at adaptive companies tend to be 2-5 years long — provides crisp focus and a mutually agreeable time frame for discussing the future of the relationship. (1)
The disruptive speed of information and technology has replaced legions of “lifers” with something else. . .
Your new career awaits
Turns out the word “career” is derived from Latin carrus, meaning “chariot.” It’s time to toss aside the rainbow relics of the past, and embrace a new symbol for our life’s work: the chariot. Etymology for the win.
Quick aside: for those who haven’t seen the movie Ben-Hur (you really should it won 11 Oscars!), there is an absolutely EPIC chariot race scene (lead up, race) which exemplifies high-performance chariots in action.
The chariot metaphor augments our concept of “career” in three main ways:
Complex: a charioteer depends on his/her chariot, four horses (called a quadriga), and the reigns to guide a sophisticated interplay of forces. The physics alone are impressive: 18 contact points with the ground, quadruple bridles off the yoke, and four horses sprinting at 40mph through a highly-dynamic race track environment with hairpin turns. It’s no surprise that Bill Gurley’s (General Partner @ Benchmark) #1 book recommendations is Complexity.
Unpredictable: unexpected change—both good & bad—are around every turn. If I enticed you enough with the Ben-Hur chariot race videos above, you’ve seen the carnage that can appear at any moment. From the work of Byrne, Hunt and Chang at Cambridge in 2015, we learn that unpredictability and ambiguity are closely related, and can help explain how we tolerate uncertainty given various threat levels. Leading in uncertain times was one of Bill Campbell’s hallmark traits of great leaders.
Competition: it’s not enough to just show up anymore. If Jeff Bezos said “your margin is my opportunity,” what is the career equivalent? Perhaps “Your repetitive tasks are an algorithm’s opportunity?” Given anyone can learn anything, the competition is accelerating. If you’re not learning and advancing, you’re falling behind. For this reason, most executives I’ve met have established a daily or weekly habit of learning to constantly sharpen the sword.
So the next time you get asked that generic question—”So what do you do?”—just remember: the word career is derived from chariot, and you are on a complex, unpredictable, and competitive adventure!
It’s good to be memorable.