Transcript - Episode 020 - Pivots, Swerves and a Solid Base
Episode 020
Pivots, Swerves and a Solid Base
You can listen HERE.
People redefining themselves. It's all the rage to swerve, rebrand, and pivot. That being said, swerving candidates often give us hiring managers a reason for a sideways glance.
Hi, I'm Daava Mills, The Rebellious Recruiter. I've been across the table from several people looking to jump career paths. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's an abject disaster. I started writing this episode with the intention of it being more rooted in the how, but my writing took a surprising twist. I went with it.
Pull up a seat, and let's chat!
Intro music
Have you ever heard of the career pyramid? If you haven't, you've most certainly heard of the career ladder.
When I graduated from high school - I'm a Gen X, right in the center of the generation - we talked about linear career paths. Much of my generation was taught to demonize blue collar work. I was actually taught that the German method of education where kids were tracked into white- or blue-collar careers before graduation was wrong.
The result of that was a lot of us were taught that white collar was the only way, and in a sense, we were all tracked for college. Many didn't feel like they were ready and went into the military. When I spoke to my bestie about taking a year or two before college, it was met with staunch disapproval. Oh, they irony.
We were on a one track, a ladder. A ladder where we saw our parents work our way up and be rewarded at 25 years with a gold watch. We were to start at the bottom and work our way up. We'd learn to survive in the silo. Master communication through string of leaders, up one silo, and down the other.
Then…
Middle management was demonized. House loans hit 18%. Companies were told to cut the bottom ten percent. My generation started seeing their dads not get a gold watch. And yet, we were still told to get a degree, work hard, climb the ladder.
Us X-ers? We saw it, it was not good.
Some of us went to college, by the time most of my friends graduated email was a becoming a thing. Cell phones ceased to cost a dollar a minute, and we had little portable flippy Motorolas with bendy antennas. And a gold watch? Why? The cell phone has a clock, and you can set an alarm.
We started asking why should we give you all our time, only to be shuttled off for climbing the ladder and being caught halfway up… and I lose a chance at a gold watch? Like, why is the gold watch a big deal, you crushed my father's life…
Enter the world of therapy being normal.
Then the internet became more than hidey holes on Angelfire with funny pictures of supposed ghosts in one's house. It created a world, where you could see the greener grass, and submit a resume after work hours. You could email… suddenly, you weren't spending money on fancy paper or a dollar a sheet to fax. You just sent over your resume.
Gold watch chase be damned, because I'll leave before they "cut the middle out" I'll leave before the bottom ten percent gets laid off. Because the bottom ten percent is the two people who are operating at 97% capacity.
The managers would attempt to recruit to replace the bottom 10% people, who were working at 97% capacity with new people, who could hit the ground running. And supposedly they'd be more effective, with no training, right off the bat. But it didn't happen that way. And we started churning people.
People started job hopping. Employers didn't know what to make of this. They shied away from people like me who moved jobs every four years, it was a travesty. So then, people started shifting. They started looking at their transferable skills, it wasn't just for the military anymore. Transferable skills were more than trying to get a government job, it was for everyone.
But the managers didn't see it. But Gen X continued to grow, to climb the ladder. And they started to hire Millennials. The Millennials, they were hip to this dance. They saw the latter half of Gen X make pivots, attempting to recreate who they were 10 years into their career. Suddenly, a pivot was becoming not uncommon.
It became normal to enter the work force trying on several different perspectives. They left jobs in 18 months, not two years, and certainly not four years. The concept of a job-hopper was removed from our lexicon. Employers happily paid 3rd party recruiters 25% on the hope a person would stay longer than a year. The shallow knowledge the Millennial developed across multiple industries, in less than a decade suddenly became a plus, it gave relevance, a limited window, context. Possibly a faster way to hit the ground running.
People stopped entering the work force on a track. We designed training systems at larger companies to expose recent college grads to 4 departments in 2 years. We wanted to give people perspective of how multiple departments worked together. We were suddenly talking about matrixed environments. You know, dotted lines to many people, no more silos in communication (supposedly.)
People started rising in companies, their focus became more narrow. And it looked… like a pyramid.
Gen X was watching from the sidelines. They started going to school later in life, because many were missing out on jobs due to a lack of degree. But somehow, they didn't get the benefit of the pyramid. They were on a ladder. They had to climb down, create a base. They took a cut in pay, while the younger people excelled quicker, because their base was stronger.
Resentment started playing a role. Gen X is becoming the grumpy old man. Confused. Angry. Hurt. Suddenly, the Boomer walking in with the resume wanting to look someone in the eye and shake a hand, it started making sense. The concept of winning people over by sight was appealing. But it was too late. Gen X created the system of the online resume. The Millennials? They perfected it.
Boomers are used to communication, that's how they grew up in business, clear communication, it had to go up the silo and back down another. Don't play a game of telephone. Gen X? The latch key kids, the kids who had to figure everything out on their own? Their snark was not appreciated. The Millennials… Growing up posting their lives on social media… they know how to communicate perfection. Altering pictures to look insanely pretty, but not at all like them.
What happened? A lot of training on how to get Boomers and Millennials to talk. Gen X was making pop-tarts in the break room. Boomers with their authoritative approach, Millennials with the need to show their uniqueness and new and improved ideas. Gen X? We grew up, we identified with the cast of Friends, and we watched Will and Grace, mostly for Karen's foibles.
Outside of our little cocoon of self-reliance, we noticed things.
We noticed that Boomers - they have the politicians looking out for them. Bill Clinton through Joseph Biden, all freakin' Boomers (Obama is on the tail end of boomers, and Harris is a Boomer/X cusp). The Millennials? They got Simon Sinek. Like seriously, he's so incredibly awesome, but he ain't Gen X. The Millennials know how to be themselves and be political. AOC for example, you don't have to like her. But she is the exact product of being a Millennial.
Gen X? We got Nirvana, Beck, Jeff Bezos, Beyonce. Coupled with those powerhouse identifiers, we got the angst and the age-old questions of "how do we be ourselves, and not be turn-coats to our political cause?" How do live what we believe? We became a cacophony. Watching Leave it to Beaver re-runs, key on a string around our necks, eating pop-tarts. Relegated to the back seat drivers. Watched as our shop classes were dismantled. College was the only option thrust upon us. No political umph going our way. We spoke to our dads, uncles and grandfathers about Vietnam.
We understood the struggle of our friends serving in Desert Storm, and the worry that our veterans might not be welcomed back with open arms, and it would be Vietnam all over again.
Gen X rode the wave of the dot com boom. People like me saw Media Gulch explode with remodels. Friends worked for companies where dot com CEOs put Grand Pianos in their office, because it looked cool. Then, we watched it crash… We watched our friends get laid off. We watched our parents go through another heart wrenching turn of being out of work, and no more chance at a gold watch.
Through all that, the pivot, the swerve, the redesign of who we are fundamentally… didn't happen as smooth as it happened with the next generation. Because our base was missing. The broad shallow base full of context, experience, nuance. Kinda funny seeing how the pyramid arose out of the systems that Gen X developed. We created a system, and we didn't know how to thrive in it. And isn't it ironic, don't 'cha think?
The system that allows people to jump, to see what else is out there, to create from infinite possibilities. Gen X, yeah, we largely created the structure for it. It frustrated Boomer hiring managers. But the Millennials? They perfected it, they redefined the career structure.
When we're interviewing people who have made a swerve, or attempting to pivot. What are we looking at? You know what I've learned? Big pivots need to be planned, and expertly formulated, manipulated, calculated and executed. You know where I've made a mistake? Allowing candidates to convince me they were ready for one, when they had no context, and no research to back up the move. The mistakes were made because I empathized with the candidate, and I didn't look first at what the business needed. That caused failures. It's like seeking success over night. Doesn't happen. It takes work. And the foundation needs to be built. Smooth talking flights of fancy doesn't pay the bills.
What does this foundation look like? It's more than transferable skills. It's personalities. Communication styles. Systems experience. People management. Relatability. A basic understanding of some invisible framework holding the processes together and keeping them smooth.
Anyone can take on a second career, as long as they have taken the time to lay the foundation. The Millennials? They have the upper hand in this endeavor, they started their careers laying the foundation. They're ready to build their pyramids pointed at the stars of Orion's Belt.
It's not about the ladder, that doesn't exist anymore.
It's really not about the pyramid, it's about what that pyramid is pointed to, and what the pyramid is supported with. Create the base, lay on it, look up, reflect, bring in your consciousness to one point in the sky. Focus.
Lay the next level. Rest, look up, find your spot, focus. Decide where to create more depth by creating height. Lay the next, rest, look up, find your spot, and focus.
This is your legacy.
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