Career Jockey and Joust
The derivation of the word “career” dates back to the 16th century, originally meaning “racecourse”, for a wheeled vehicle (wagon at the time) or for a short gallup by a horse. Through time, of course, it’s evolved from Latin, to French and later English, settling on a closer version to what we consider a career today.
From Merriam Webster:
Jousting required knights to ride at full speed in short bursts, and 16th-century English speakers used the noun “career” (from Middle French carriere) to refer to such gallops as well as to the courses knights rode. By the mid-17th century, the verb had acquired its general “go fast” meaning, and by the 19th century the noun had developed the workaday use that is common today.
Thinking of your career as a go-fast racecourse, jousting for supremacy is scary.
The general understanding of a career today does seem to reflect the idea of continuous growth and progression in a dedicated area of study and work however, with more options than ever, the average duration of time spent in one job has decreased significantly leading to more job changes than ever over the length of a lifetime.
The BalanceCareers.com:
Today, the average person changes jobs ten to fifteen times (with an average of 12 job changes) during his or her career. Many workers spend five years or less in every job, so they devote more time and energy transitioning from one job to another. In January 2016, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the average employee tenure was 4.2 years, down from 4.6 years in January 2014.
This data certainly suggests that we’ve reverted back to jockeying and jousting our way versus work during a career, rather than being part of a “profession one trains for and which is undertaken as a permanent calling”. People have more options to consider and can choose whether to battle a company, industry, culture or manager on their way to earning an income, or simply do something else. Through ever-evolving education and technology, the way that which one can learn and work, has been completely revolutionized.
It’s exciting, and also worrisome. Employees and individuals seemingly gain more power versus companies paying them, but lose it versus other individuals who may be more talented, education or experienced, while, corporations become faced with the question of culture and also up against more competition than ever before.
The ability for people to find their niche, specifically doing the very thing they want to do, is unique and creative, yet, by being able to connect and provide your skills to a wider range of businesses, jumping from job to job for more money, it can be distracting to one’s lifelong body of work. This, completely removes the personal, careful consideration of deliberate learning, action and dedication to an overall purpose.
People need to understand their deepest intentions on a present, and long-term basis, with more focus on the transition periods between projects. With shorter lengths of time spent at companies, a career truly is getting back to its root definition of shorter sprints, jousting your way through a change and growth of skills and industries, which requires an intense dedication to ideals and vision, in order to create lifelong purpose.
Companies need to understand their people’s’ deepest intentions, and their leaders need to make their own a part of the company vision, culture and purpose. The transparency here is necessary to hold onto employees for longer periods of time, by either bringing them into the decision-making process of long-term ideals and vision, or finding ways to hire on a more flexible project-by-project basis.
Bottom-line, the evolving landscape of the future of work requires more attention and awareness for individuals and leadership teams to get more personal.
