Peer to Peer Magazine

smart moves Steep Learning Curves Move a Career Forward by Mary Abraham When I began thinking about the path of my career, I envisioned an arch. It quickly became clear "arch" wasn't the right word for my experience. Unlike the arches we see in architecture, little in my career history could be described as carefully designed and meticulously built. Unplanned, surprising and serendipitous hit much closer to the mark. My career has been a series of curves rather than a single continuous curve. Whitney Johnson captured this pattern well in her Harvard Business Review blog post, Throw Your Life a Curve. In that post, she argued in favor of "personal disruption." She believes it is important to push ourselves to jump from one steep learning curve to another; otherwise boredom sets in, performance declines and our emotional well-being is impaired. When I read this post, I recognized the phenomenon immediately. As a person who has a streak of curiosity that would worry a cat, I realized I had been pushing myself from one learning curve to the next. I haven't always made the leap smoothly, but I've definitely tried to keep moving. The Rearview Mirror When I was interviewed for a graduate school scholarship, I was asked that classic question: "Where do you see yourself in five years?" I must have given a plausible answer, but my prediction came nowhere close to reality. And that was years before we experienced the current upheaval in the economy. In a recent tweet, Matt Thomas offered this trenchant advice: "The best answer to 'Where do you see yourself in five years?' is 'Doing a job that doesn't currently exist.'" 26 Peer to Peer When looking at my career through a rearview mirror, it's clear he is right. Some of the jobs I've done in the last decade literally did not exist when I was sitting in that scholarship interview. So what exactly have I done to accomplish this? There are two strong patterns. •I've jumped from one s-curve to another, reinventing myself in the process when I've felt the need to learn something new and expand my horizons. Initially, I looked for these learning opportunities within my law firm. However, the urge to explore new areas also led me to undertake a wide variety of extracurricular activities that have had a huge impact on my career. • At key points, I've found unanticipated solutions to career challenges, and those solutions led me in unexpected directions. I've looked for an open window when the nearest door appeared to be firmly shut. Sharp Curves Ahead When I was in graduate school in in England, I found myself approaching the end of my scholarship funding but had not yet finished my doctoral work. A classmate suggested I contact one of the many New York City law firms and ask if I could be hired as a summer associate. My classmate's theory was I could earn enough money in one summer to pay for another year of graduate school. It sounded like a boondoggle, but I was willing to try.

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