Are you on a default career path?
Are you on a default career path?
Questioning the defaults and choosing your own path
A few years ago, I got to a point in my career where I felt within reaching distance of an executive leadership role. I was a Product Director at Monzo, and I’d just spent a few months in the CPO role whilst my boss was on parental leave. I had a lot of support from leaders who believed in me and were keen to help me keep progressing in seniority. I’m not saying the path to executive leadership is an easy path or a given. But for me, in that moment, it was the default path.
Earlier on in my career, my ambition was about progressing: in title, in salary and in company status. So in some ways it felt like I’d reached a pinnacle moment in my career, the “ultimate goal” was within reaching distance. But as I saw the path ahead in more detail, it didn’t feel like the right path for me.
I chose to leave Monzo and the default path. The default path being increasing responsibility, status and workload.
I took a chance on another path. I started my own one person business, and I’ve chosen ambition across a lot of aspects of my life - work, health, play, sport, relationships.
I think it’s important to call out that taking a non-default path does not equate to a less ambitious path. The path I’ve taken feels much more ambitious in lots of ways. I have revenue goals for my business that equate to the salary of a product leadership role, and I want to do that whilst working 4 days a week and taking 6-8 weeks of holiday. I want to be the best possible coach that I can be, and I want to have time and energy for the relationships outside of work that matter the most. I want the freedom to go on some big adventures this year, and I also want to buy a house that we love with a mortgage that doesn’t stress us out.
I feel grateful that I took a chance on the path I’m on and embraced the uncertainty that comes with that. It’s truly been one of the best decisions I’ve made in life. But when I made that decision a few years ago, it felt like I was swimming against a strong current.
A few things really helped me swim against that current and see the optionality I had, these were:
Know what default path you’re on: understand the path of least resistance for you
Question some of these defaults: play with optionality to understand potential side paths
Get outside your bubble: see alternative ways to live life
The rest of this newsletter post dives into each theme. I hope it’s helpful for anyone wanting to see and understand the optionality they have.
Know what default path you’re on
The first piece is taking an honest look at the default path that you’re on. What’s expected of you? What’s the path of least resistance?
A few questions that will help you to reflect here:
What’s the “default” path you’re on?
What do you notice about the people ahead of you on this default path?
What will I gain by taking this path?
What will I lose by taking this path?
What do others expect of me?
Question some of these defaults
A lot of people get to the point where they do genuinely have optionality (can make a trade off between time worked, salary and title) and struggle to see the options. I think a big reason is that most progression conversations are focused around what “more” looks like in terms of work rather than life more broadly.
Some of my favourite questions to help get people outside of this current frame of thinking:
What makes you happy - that requires time not money?
What’s the cost of more responsibility at work? (On health, play, relationships)
What’s the minimum salary that you need?
What’s the minimum house price that would allow you to enjoy where you live?
What’s something that you’d love to learn or progress in, that's not related to your current job?
If I gave you one day off a week tomorrow, what would you do with it?
What would perfect health be for you?
How would you like to be able to show up for those people close to you?
What’s something “you will do when…”? (When could be have more time, retired, older, richer)
Get outside your bubble
I feel lucky that a lot of my friends and family did not see this default path for me. I have friends through running and climbing that know nothing about tech and executive leadership. All they saw was me missing running club or not climbing as much. In a very freeing way, they didn’t care about my title at work or who I worked for.
If you want to see more than the default path, you need to get outside of your work bubble. Talk and find people that have a variety of lives. See what resonates with you, and see what interests you.
Who are you spending time with, outside of your product leadership / tech / work bubble?
What choices do you see people making that optimise for more than just professional success?
Getting outside of my bubble allowed me to see that there are many flavours of ambition, I saw people that were committed to having as much time to enjoy being outside as possible, people that dedicated themselves to sport or family, people who invested a huge amount of time into building community.
Take your own path
Doing something different to the default path takes some courage and embracing uncertainty. I also strongly believe that it leads to a much more fulfilling and rewarding life.
There’s a famous research study that asks people close to dying about their biggest regrets in life. They are (in order):
“I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”
“I wish I hadn't worked so hard.”
“I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.”
“I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”
“I wish I had let myself be happier”
I hope these exercises get you thinking about the side roads and the turnings that you haven’t been seeing. You don't have to take them. But you know they’re there.
There are no right or wrong paths. The most important thing is taking the path you've chosen yourself, not the default.
As always, thanks for being here!
Flora
I’m a coach for ambitious product leaders. You can read more about how I work and get in touch here.