Find Your Own Way

One aspect of the modern career that I struggle with is the lack of development and direction coming from corporate HR departments. 

Before you write me off as an entitled millennial, let me explain where this expectation comes from. 

While working as an executive assistant at Cartier, my boss pulled me aside and told me that he was promoting me to a sales role. I was speechless and confused. Not that he would promote me - I had made my ambitions known - but that he would do it without significant prodding on my part. Executive assistants are hard to replace. Onboarding someone new into that role takes weeks and is very inconvenient on the executive. But my boss had a reputation for promoting his EAs, and was a fierce advocate for his team. Unfortunately, this is a rare quality. 

Business is about value creation, and people are the resources that create that value. Why don’t more firms define programs, plans, and paths to develop their people?

It’s a question that frustrates me, but the answer is simple. That’s just the way it is. 

You have to find your own way. It can be scary, and it can feel lonely. But the alternative is waiting for someone to pull you aside and promote you. And despite it happening to me once, that’s really not how it works anymore.