Content:
Learning speed and career progression are linked.
People who are satisfied or even happy with their work quickly acquire new, relevant skills that make them more desirable, more successful and more in demand.
However, although acquired skills and experience lead us to new career opportunities, they are never enough to be successful and satisfied in a new job. New skills are needed to climb this second mountain. The second mountain lies behind the first mountain. And a deep, dark valley. The first mountain is the first professional life, with family, finances and much more. When the first mountain has been climbed, it stands for success and satisfaction at work and in life in general. The deep valley comes after the realization that the first mountain has been climbed and is in the past.
And only when the valley has been crossed does the second mountain come. The second mountain lies behind the first career end.
Time for fundamental questions
There are two circumstances for a career end: We usually decide. Less often, our bosses and employers decide. Let’s focus on the first circumstance first: we decide whether or not to pursue our career. The interesting thing is that we don’t always make career decisions consciously. This is because it is often a long process until a critical event, e.g. clear feedback or a job offer, makes us think about our career. In the meantime, we unconsciously make many small decisions that determine the course of our career.
8 test questions to see if the job still makes sense
Here is a simple test to find out where you stand in this process. (answer all statements with “not at all correct”, “sometimes correct”, or “very correct” – taken from Vishen Lahiani, The Code of the Extraordinary Mind).
- I love my work, it often doesn’t feel like work.
- My work means a lot to me.
- I often experience happy moments at work, so that time flies by.
- If something goes wrong, it hardly bothers me. I know that everything will be fine in the long term.
- I see a positive future in my job, knowing that there are many good things ahead of me.
- I hardly have any stress or fears. I can trust in my abilities to achieve my goals.
- Because I have my own challenging goals ahead of me, I am positive about the future.
- I take time to think creatively about the future.
If all questions are answered positively, then every new task, every training and every coaching session will accelerate career progress. We learn new skills at a rapid pace. The learning speed is high.
For negative answers: restart your career
In this case, we need orientation, not learning programs or new tasks. We only learn new skills very slowly in this state. In 2017 and 2018, I answered questions one to four in the negative. I was only able to answer questions five to eight positively when I thought about my personal “second mountain”. So I had already unconsciously decided to end my career. I didn’t learn any relevant new skills in this situation. After intensive coaching, I then quit my well-paid job at the end of 2018. But the +1 question was actually the decisive factor, but more on that in a moment. We can make unconscious decisions consciously and then influence them in a targeted way. And of course there is also a framework that we can only control to a limited extent. The external framework is the second factor that determines career progression and learning speed.
For many, the last question will be particularly important in 2025
The European automotive industry is shrinking and many experienced managers are retiring early. And here is the +1st test question:
- My job is valuable for the company. My boss and my employer value my work. My skills and experience will be difficult to replace in the coming years. (“not at all right”, “sometimes right”, or “very right”)
Answering these questions requires courage, honesty with yourself and facts, such as concrete company data and feedback from superiors, colleagues and employees. But if you shy away from answering them, you compromise your career success and your own learning speed.
I answered them in 2017/2018.
I then suggested to my boss that I should cut my job. I wasn’t convinced enough of the necessity of my staff position for the company at the time. At the same time, as mentioned above, I didn’t learn any relevant new skills.
I was personally appreciated by my superiors and colleagues, but my actual and recognized added value was negligible.
The 9+1 test questions help to recognize whether the current career, the current job is “in flow” and whether you are learning new relevant skills fast enough or not. For learning professionals in HR departments and managers, these 9+1 test questions are an excellent tool to increase the effectiveness of learning programs. People at the end of their first career learn new skills poorly because they are looking for orientation rather than new skills.
Managers and employees who are enthusiastic about their work, on the other hand, virtually “soak up” suitable learning programs for new, relevant skills. The most important lever for the speed of learning is enthusiasm for one’s own work. At the end of your career, you don’t need learning programs, you need clarity about the second mountain.
