Sick of Climbing the Ladder? Discover Your Career River

Have you ever been so overwhelmed you sank to your kitchen floor and started crying? That was me a few years ago. During the pandemic lockdown, I was trying—and failing—to homeschool my two young children while also working full-time. My company was moving in a new direction, and as my job changed before my eyes into one I no longer wanted, I felt completely stuck. 

But that moment crying on my kitchen floor ultimately led me to view my career in a new way, and to land my first job at a nonprofit—all thanks to the advice of my four-year-old. 

“Mommy, you have too many feelings,” she told me seriously, when she found me crying on the floor. Then she told me where to put my feelings: “in the future.” I was stunned. I’d been so focused on today’s struggles that I had not asked myself what I could do to move forward. At that moment, an idea that had been simmering in the back of my mind suddenly flared to life.

How I stopped climbing the career ladder 

My career was not as straightforward and simple as a ladder. Instead of climbing my way up a corporate hierarchy, what would change if I embraced the twists and turns as an essential component of my professional journey? This was the start of the Career River, a framework for navigating career transitions that I have tested and refined with hundreds of professionals in the years since.

As a journalist, I set out to uncover the true story of how careers today unfold. I’ve talked with 130 professionals in a wide variety of fields across the world and found incredible stories of resilience, creativity, and commitment. The real story, I found, is that careers aren’t always predictable. To navigate successfully, we have to be ready to roll with changes as they come.

Determine what career progress means to you

To start discovering your own Career River, ask yourself: what has progress meant to me during transitions? Certainly, there’s the traditional status we seek by climbing up the ladder, gaining more responsibilities and (hopefully) higher pay. And let me be clear—I’m not opposed to ladder-like progress. When it works, it works! But it’s not the only measure of career success. 

You can also view your career progress in terms of: 

• Stability: Does this job give you the financial and other resources you need? 
• Skills: Do you have the chance to grow in new directions?
• Satisfaction: How well does this work align with what matters to you?

When you start viewing your career in terms of the progress that matters to you, you see new possibilities emerge.

To find my way forward, I asked myself what I really wanted from my career at that moment, and the answer surprised me: I was looking for a job where I could use my expertise in journalism to help newsrooms work together. I wanted to increase my satisfaction. I found the right fit as a nonprofit program manager. Viewing my career as a river helped relieve me of the incredible pressure I felt to make the “right” next move. I started thinking in terms of what I could do next, instead of chasing a predetermined path.

Discover your own Career River

At its core, the Career River recognizes that the only guarantee in today’s fluid working world is change. In fact, it turns out the career ladder comes from a vastly different world of work. It dates all the way back to the nineteenth century, when companies borrowed this idea from the military. (No wonder we still talk about “moving up the ranks.”) It is about time we updated our expectations for the constantly shifting landscape of today. 

As you steer your own career forward, I encourage you to embrace exploration on your journey. If you’re curious to learn more, check out my free newsletter and start mapping your own river at MyCareerRiver.com. You can also utilize Idealist’s free email course, Designing Your Dream Career, for specific actions you can take to implement your career plan.   

I’ve come to realize that there is no discovery without uncertainty. Our careers aren’t about having all the answers, but having the courage to ask what could be around the bend. Where could you navigate next?