I'm on my fourth career - how about you?

Time was, you went to work for a company and stayed there your entire career. You retired in, say, your fifties, then bought the condo in Boca Raton or Hilton Head and lived off your company-provided pension.

Boy, does that seem a long time ago. Almost nobody spends a career at one place. And fewer and fewer of us are limiting ourselves to one career either (part of the reason being that retiring in one's fifties isn't financially viable, nor really appealing, to most people).

I'm on my fourth distinct career, by my reckoning. Here's the breakdown:

1984-1992 - software developer
1992-2000 - product manager, marketer, channel salesperson
2000-2006 - senior manager (getting involved with all the above areas)
2006-? - consultant/entrepreneur/writer/???

And the priorities have changed along the way. I'm a lot more concerned about day-to-day work being enjoyable & intrinsically rewarding than I used to be. Keeping control of my time and being able to devote enough to family time is also important.

Knowing that I'll be working for twenty more years, at least, is making me much more conscious of working "in the moment," with less concern for what happens a year, or five years, hence.

How about you?

(Photo: career men & women from another time. "Mad Men," courtesy of AMC television.)

career