We all want to spend more time with our family, to be able to travel, to make our dreams come true. Time to think about a horizontal career.
Not everyone dreams of a career in the classical sense of the word - moving up the career ladder. But this does not mean that they do not want to improve professionally and earn more. It's just that people management is not a priority for many people.
And success can be achieved by moving horizontally and becoming a very valuable specialist in your field. So valuable that your wages are constantly being raised (it may not be lower than in a managerial job), you are lured away by head-hunters, you are absolutely sure of your relevance in the labor market. It is these factors that give you a valuable sense of independence.
A horizontal career is possible only if you constantly improve your qualifications (trainings, seminars, competitions, special literature), deepen your knowledge, i.e. you follow the path of professional growth. This is the choice of those who are not ready to become the boss.
Who is a vertical career not suitable for?
High-level specialists are the dream of all HR managers and executives. At first they are looking for them for a long time, and then they try with all their might to keep them. Therefore, the level of your income directly depends on the level of qualifications.
It is not necessary to build a horizontal career within the framework of one company (but if you manage to do this, then why not?), Especially if in your company the management is not inclined to regularly increase the size of payments (perhaps there is simply a certain ceiling on salaries in your position). If you feel that within the framework of this organization you have nowhere to grow professionally, you need to leave. You cannot slow down your development.
Career horizontal is built by raising the level of those companies in which you work; due to the growth of wages; by expanding your functionality. Although the title of the position may not fundamentally change. The experience gained and a good resume will help you with this.
You can significantly increase your value in the labor market with the help of "bounty hunters", because every time you are lured to another job, you are offered more and more compensation for the transition. Just keep in mind that they themselves warn applicants that it is still better to change jobs no more than once every two years.
Leaders usually "live" by work, and a good specialist solves specific problems and can go home. The choice of time for vacation (every year, and not "when God sends", as is the case with the leaders) is also yours.
Leadership work is always administration. And gradually the leader ceases to be the best specialist in his field, but becomes a specialist in the field of people management, but this is a completely different story.
Ideal areas for a horizontal career:
- World of Art
- model business
- advertising and marketing
- journalism
- design
- IT sphere
Engineers and financiers can make excellent horizontal careers too.
Difficult choice
It is no secret that the leadership position is most often offered to those employees who are the best in their field. But those who successfully build horizontal careers are not always able to become them. It is difficult to move to a qualitatively new level, delegate authority, and solve other problems.
But going up all the time is a difficult choice. Sooner or later, most of us (including managers) move to the horizontal level. And there are a lot of reasons for that. More often than not, this is a deliberate decision. We all want to spend more time with our family, to be able to travel, to make our dreams come true. A horizontal career is also chosen for reasons of comfort.
