“The future depends on what you do today.”  Mahatma Gandhi

At PathWise, we have several core beliefs about career management. The first and most foundational of these is owning your career.

What Owning Your Career Means

Owning your career means you make the key calls on your career direction. You choose what skills to build, which opportunities to pursue, and when to change course. You still listen to managers, mentors, and recruiters, but you do not outsource the decision. 

Career ownership is not the same as doing everything alone. It is using input wisely while keeping responsibility for the outcome. Your company can support career development with training, projects, and promotions. But the company’s top goal is business results. Your goal is long-term career success. Those goals overlap, but they are not identical.

A simple test: if your manager changed tomorrow, would your career planning stay clear? If the answer is no, you need a personal career strategy you control.

You’ll undoubtedly get help and advice along the way, from family, friends, colleagues, mentors, managers, senior leaders in your company, Human Resources, etc., but you’re going to live your career, and you need to own it. Everyone else is just a source of input, and sometimes they’re actually not good sources of input. 

The Importance of Owning Your Career

Owning your career is an ever-more important principle, particularly for those of you who are early in your professional journeys. A recently released Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) study showed that the youngest Baby Boomers held more than 12 jobs before turning 55 and were employed just under 80% of the time, and even less if they were Black or Hispanic.

Using these statistics as a reference, you’re likely to change employers roughly 5-7 times, and you may make a shift in career direction once or twice along the way as well. It’s not like the ‘old days’ enjoyed by your parents (or their parents), where an individual worked for one or maybe two employers through their whole career.

Proactive Career Planning That Works in Real Life

Proactive career planning is a light, repeatable habit, not a once-a-year event. Start with career goal setting that fits your real life. Pick a direction for the next 12 months, then pick skills that make that direction easier.

Use a simple map: where you are now, where you want to be next, and the gap between them. This is why career mapping works. It turns a vague goal into clear choices about projects, training, and networking. If you want a structured approach, use PathWise’s guide to career mapping.

Also identify 3 transferable skills you want to be known for, like communication skills, problem-solving skills, or stakeholder management. These skills travel with you across teams, industries, and job titles. That builds career mobility without forcing a big leap.

It’s also especially important for those of you who are self-employed, who want to start a business, who want a side hustle, or who are part of the gig economy. In these cases, there isn’t an HR organization to help you.

Career Resilience in a World of Job Changes

Career ownership matters because most people will not stay in one place forever. A recent Bureau of Labor Statistics release found that people born 1957 to 1964 held an average of 12.9 jobs from ages 18 to 58, and over 40% of those jobs were held from ages 18 to 24. That kind of change is normal. It is also why career resilience and career adaptability matter.

Career resilience is your ability to recover after change, like a reorg, a new boss, or a layoff. Career adaptability is your ability to shift skills as the market shifts. Together, they make career transitions less scary and more strategic.

One practical move is continuous skill development in small bites. Build one skill each quarter that increases your options, like data skills, writing, leadership, or role-specific tools. If you want a simple starting point, use PathWise’s skill development resource.

Ownership of your career and career development in general takes occasional planning, day-to-day discipline, and ongoing focus. You need to be willing to step out of your comfort zone at times. You also need to be open-minded, as sometimes the unexpected development opportunity comes along that has the potential to take you in an exciting direction you’d never envisioned.

Along the way, always remember that you’re running your own race. Yes, professional advancement is a competition, arguably the biggest and most common competition most of us will experience. But if you spend too much time comparing yourself to others, you’ll just make yourself crazy.

It’s important to remember as well that you can’t control everything around you. Things happen, both good and bad, so focus on yourself, what you want, and what you can control.

The Business of You

A corollary to owning your career is to remember that you’re building the business of you, and HR is in the business of your employer. There’s an important difference between the two. HR is responsible for establishing the “people processes” of the company, hiring the right people, helping to develop them, managing promotions, and the like. They will guide the managers and employees of the company through these processes.

Their interests and your interests are aligned only to a point. They, and your company more broadly, may not share your view of your worth and contributions. They may want you to stay when you want to leave. They may want you to leave when you want to stay. Too often, they’ll want to pay you less than they should. While they have a legal obligation to protect you, such as from injury, workplace bias, and harassment, they will always protect the interests of the company over your own.

Use what they provide to your advantage, whether it’s education reimbursement, training programs, learning and development, etc., but never lose sight of the fact that you, and you alone, are in the business of you.

At PathWise, we provide a structured approach to career management, offering a comprehensive set of tools, exercises, articles, blogs, videos, and events, all backed by a network of coaches and other career experts who can help with building a successful career. We provide an approach to help you articulate your career path and define your personal brand. 

Sources and Recommended Further Reading:

• Allen, Rita B. “10 Essential Tips to ‘Own Your Career’”. HuffPost, February 27, 2017.
• Allen, Terina. “Do These Four Things to Own Your Career”. Forbes. August 20, 2018.
• Hoffman, Reid and Ben Casnocha. The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career, Random House Business. 2012.
• Storch, Andy. Own Your Career Own Your Life: Stop Drifting and Take Control of Your Future. Self-Published. November 2020.