Career ADD?

Continuing my thoughts on my last post, Manage a Job Change, I want to talk about a special set of people that have 'Career ADD'.

These are people that quickly tire of a job, and not for the reasons I outlined in the last post. They simply find no challenge left in the current project or position. These people thrive on that challenge. Once the challenge is gone, they get bored and go find a new mountain to climb. This can quickly lead to breaking the 'stay at least two years' rule.

What can such a horribly afflicted individual do to avoid being branded a job hopper? I see a few options:

0. Get a job at large company that values and expects their people to excel and seek new roles with new challenges. Microsoft does this VERY well. Be careful you don't get stuck in a large company that prefers to drain the soul out of you.

1. Become a serial entrepreneur. Get an idea. Start a company. Launch it. Sell out. Start over.

3. Do so well at your current company that they grow, and create a growth path for you. Become a leader in your company, and leverage this growth.

2. If you lean more to pure tech, and don't want to run a business, you can always be a consultant (with a firm, or as a freelancer). You will always be moving on to new projects, are minimally engaged in local politics. And you get to recycle your work environment on a regular basis.

I know plenty of challenge junkies that are consultants for this exact reason. I was one of them. I loved finding new challenges, and solving them. I loved having a new vertical (-50 Gump points!) to learn, and new people to get to know. I thrived on every project REQUIRING some new tool or technology.

This lets you stay at the same employer (the consulting firm) while constantly climbing new mountains.

Comments

Arnulfo Wing said…
Challenge junkies eventually become BizTalk developers... ;)
4/02/2008 10:07:00 AM
Chad Campbell said…
This is a solid post. Nice work.
4/02/2008 10:22:00 AM
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