As someone who has worked from everything to start-ups to Fortune 500 corporations in leadership roles, I have learned that anyone can do anyone's job for the most part.
Some positions that require specialized licensing such as medicine or law may be limited just by those limitations. Barring that, almost any job can be done by anyone and can be learned in 2 years.
There are only 5 real jobs in the modern business world:
1) Building - Build processes, technology, gadgets, machines, policies, medicinal drugs, or service offerings
2) Selling - The ability to sell the items built.
3) Operations - Running the day-to-day businesses of those items built, whether it be legal or HR.
4) Managing money - Accounting and planning of monies that are acquired, distributed, and/or repurposed.
5) Support - Supporting the specialized product or service offering, whether it be customer service, marketing, advertising management, and/or fixing issues.
Those that start their careers over time find a place where they want to be in one of the categories above. This is where they stay and grow their careers, for the most part. Sometimes, mid-career, individuals transition to other core functions.
As we go higher in our careers, even though we specialize in one specific function, we also learn to navigate the other functions due to needs to understand those functions for effective management.
Those that can open their minds to understanding and playing a part in multiple functions will generally be able to grow into a larger role.
There are exceptions to these based on a person's personality, such as if they are introverted (support, managing money, or building) or extrovert (selling or operations). It does not mean they will not be successful, it just takes some folks a little longer to navigate into other roles then others.
As someone who started in engineering and is generally an introvert, and now running his own company, it is as important for me to pursue my core interest (building) as it is to put my shoes on for the other roles.
So, if you have a perception of importance or do not have the confidence, don't worry. No one is important and everyone is going through the same experiences.
None of this is a hard and fast rule, but a conceptualized view of today's world.
Where do you want to be? Feel free to comment below.
Some positions that require specialized licensing such as medicine or law may be limited just by those limitations. Barring that, almost any job can be done by anyone and can be learned in 2 years.
There are only 5 real jobs in the modern business world:
1) Building - Build processes, technology, gadgets, machines, policies, medicinal drugs, or service offerings
2) Selling - The ability to sell the items built.
3) Operations - Running the day-to-day businesses of those items built, whether it be legal or HR.
4) Managing money - Accounting and planning of monies that are acquired, distributed, and/or repurposed.
5) Support - Supporting the specialized product or service offering, whether it be customer service, marketing, advertising management, and/or fixing issues.
Those that start their careers over time find a place where they want to be in one of the categories above. This is where they stay and grow their careers, for the most part. Sometimes, mid-career, individuals transition to other core functions.
As we go higher in our careers, even though we specialize in one specific function, we also learn to navigate the other functions due to needs to understand those functions for effective management.
Those that can open their minds to understanding and playing a part in multiple functions will generally be able to grow into a larger role.
There are exceptions to these based on a person's personality, such as if they are introverted (support, managing money, or building) or extrovert (selling or operations). It does not mean they will not be successful, it just takes some folks a little longer to navigate into other roles then others.
As someone who started in engineering and is generally an introvert, and now running his own company, it is as important for me to pursue my core interest (building) as it is to put my shoes on for the other roles.
So, if you have a perception of importance or do not have the confidence, don't worry. No one is important and everyone is going through the same experiences.
None of this is a hard and fast rule, but a conceptualized view of today's world.
Where do you want to be? Feel free to comment below.
