Why Long-term Career Plan May Not be Efficient in this Era

Do not be fixated on a long-term career plan. In this age, it may not be the right call. As technology reshapes markets and industrial sectors, committing yourself to an 8-year, 10-year, etc plan could be a mistake.

My suggestion is to have a long-term view with a plan in bursts of say 2, 3 years. That long-term is the aspirations of what you want to become (the vision) while the short plans are the missions to it. Before the pandemic, there were no jobs like Chief Remote Officer and  Remote Staff Manager; today, those positions are available. If you are fixated on unalloyed fixed plans, you may miss emerging opportunities.

Remember that Lagos taxi sticker: “My car stops wherever there is a good party”. Indeed, as the parties open up with opportunities in new energy, cryptocurrency/blockchain, climate change, fintech, etc, the flexibility to adapt would be critical for your career. You must get into that party!

Recall… in the past, resumes and CVs were like classified documents. We did those because companies kept their words: they provided jobs, long-term, and rarely laid people off. But when they started firing with reckless abandon, the people revolted and LinkedIn provided a platform to say “I am posting my resume on LinkedIn since I cannot trust company A to provide me a job for life; company B I am here”. Magically, that classified resume is available to the whole world. So, in summary, the world has changed and those 10-year career plans may not be optimal.

Sure, I understand the challenge – society sees humans on what they do and where they work. Thank goodness, that is changing. The YouTube millionaires in Nigeria have become influential, and daily, society is accepting the construct of entrepreneurial capitalism. What that means is clear: that career plan must not be company-specific or industry-specific because new vistas are emerging.

Comment on Feed

Comment 1: Thanks for sharing this Ndubuisi Ekekwe. I recently did a post titled “what am I?” Where I reflected on how the different roles people handle in the course of their careers could lead to a loss of professional identity if not properly managed. It’s easy for someone who has only handled sales roles over a 10 year period to describe him/herself as a salesperson. But if that same person has handled multiple roles in product commercialisation, project management, delivery advisory even digital transformation then it’s possible for that individual to have some difficulty putting a descriptor on his or her self. However the reality of our times is that sticking to and developing expertise in just one function can be risky for one’s career, especially in an age of robotics, machines and remote work. How does one craft a unique identity as one build multiple skillset and expertise through new (and sometimes different) job roles?

Comment 2: What is needed is not any long-term career plan, but rather a knowledge acquisition plan, and with that – you can always make a stop wherever a good party is taking place.

It is absence of new knowledge that makes people to cling to and ferociously defend knowledge/skill that is going obsolete. If the plan is to continously acquire relevant knowledge and deepen capabilities, you won’t get stuck or feel threatened whenever the labour landscape changes, because you are equally sailing along.

Don’t just grow, but also develop, the latter is very dynamic.

Comment 3: When someone thought in this line and spoke to our peers about it they termed us “ndi nzuzu” . Thank you Prof for this masterspiece.

It’s a confirmation that someone is on the right track..

Work, get experience, mobilise the resources needed for your dream, make the right network that share same value with you. Start small while in your job and keep building your brainchild.

I just love the reality check you are giving us here sir.

Comment 4: Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe this is a very insightful revelation. I am just thinking about the implication of this reality for employers. In my view, I think that companies should come to the reality that the average length of stay for a staff will be 2- 4 years. Then, adopt structures that will approach the execution of the firm’s long-term goal in the form of interim milestones of say 2 – 5 years. That way, the company can match its staff requirement to the exact skills and knowledge base required to get them from point A to point B in their long-term plan.

Additionally, HR must innovate to find creative ways to help their companies to be more efficient and effective in terms of average recruitment cost, time to fill, and candidate to job suitability.

Response to 4 from member: Regrettably, most businesses cannot function this way. They have to budget and plan to access funding from lending institutions and shareholders. As soon as investors loose confidence, such businesses immediately become obsolete, leading to more job seekers in the market

Response to 4 from member: Employers can:
– promote a culture of internal employee growth, or
– accept the market with individuals changing regularly.

Both methods can work, but there are costs/benefits with each. The company’s strategic intake plan needs to have a grip on whether or not a desired skill can be done by any honest person, by someone who has specialized training, or by an individual between those two extremes.

Comment 4 writer: [] you have raised very solid points. Indeed, each of the pathways present cost/benefit. It also, places more responsibility on HR to be me more attentive to testing methods, learning quickly and making necessary adjustments so as to maximize benefits and minimize cost.

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