How to shape your career and take up new challenges

Published On - April 12, 2020

Indrajit Chatterjee

Raima was sipping into coffee at the corporate head office of Welcare Pharma at Bandra Kurla Complex and looking through the window glass, which is quite hazy due to the incessant Mumbai rains. Raima just came back/returned to her workstation after having two hours of intense discussion with Jayesh Mathur, Country Head of Welcare Pharma. For the first time in her successful career, in product management, she had to hear from Jayesh that she needs to now go back to Sales line role and take up a challenging stint for minimum 2 years, and that too after 8 years of her product management career!

After a very successful launch of a new product she met Jayesh today. “Raima, I strongly feel a good sales stint at this career stage will enhance your commercial skills and direct market understanding” said Jayesh after congratulating her for the great product launch.

“Is it really necessary…Can’t I continue in the same role and travel more frequently to customer points. Also, I am not sure whether I will be a good Sales Manager without having any direct sales experience?” said Raima anxiously.

Jayesh looked at her and said firmly “I know you are capable and will do a good job, but more than me you need to see this as an opportunity…; get out of your comfort zone and grab this. Believe me, once you have done this role for at least two years , you will evolve more.” And that was it.

When you start your career basis your education and established skills, you get into jobs and roles which provides you an opportunity to exercise those skills. As you practice your skills, you start developing your areas of expertise. If you are a talent acquisition executive, just think how your skill-sets for hiring a new candidate has evolved after you have done your first 100 hiring or have done few critical leadership hiring.

So, whether you already got a new career challenge or hesitantly exploring something new, read on to understand few important perspectives to open up your minds in your career journey.

If you look at your professional career as an average 35 years journey, you need to have both short term and long term focus. If we define the short term as initial 10 years of your career, it’s important to focus on learning operating stuff or functional skills as you begin your career. Most of the times/More often than not, your performance at this stage will be evaluated basis your speed of delivery, technical accuracy, enthusiasm, ability to work in a project team and above all, willingness to learn.
It’s important to build and nurture the core, especially when you have spent around 10 -15 years of your career (remember number of years are indicative, each one moves differently in their career journey based on their potential as well as opportunities). Building a strong core to me means developing your expertise, knowing well what you are really good at and also understanding what others think about your expertise. Here, you need to pick up new skills and expertise along with people and team management capabilities. At this stage you also decide which industry or sector you would like to be in and whether you want go deep and specialize in a field or widen your competency base and move into general management. Ideally, at this stage you should also experience what it means to work with different geographies, cultures etc., if you get such opportunities.
You grow rapidly in terms of knowledge, expertise, leadership capabilities, business acumen when you have spent around 20 years in your career. It’s not the number of years which defines this phase, but the kind of challenges you have handled, expertise you have built, teams you have developed or customers you have won, all of these help you to shape your future. You learn a lot from your achievement and equally from the mistakes you have made over the years. You build your presence, wherever you work and beyond the company as well, by taking keen interest in your profession and furthering it’s development. This phase also helps you to secure your future financially and make clear plans for the rest of your life.
Many a times you look beyond the obvious career trajectory and question what can be your next challenge or goal. Not that everyone thinks like that or needs to think in that way. Many people happily accept the “ceiling”, continue their journey and achieve their set career and life goals. While some take a leap and opt voluntarily for a new career challenge and opportunity to fulfill their vision. This kind of career transition is possible when you are truly attached to your core values and determined to walk the lane once again for a new quest and ambition and mentally strong to manage associated disruptions. You don’t measure the success here in defined societal standards, but the way you move closer to your vision and how much difference you are able to make to others; these become important parameters. Ultimately, who defines your success?
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