Mapping your career

This is one of the reasons why I have this blog: so that I can keep a record of those ideas and thoughts that I believe I should really keep for later (re-)work. This morning, sipping my (homemade) cafe au lait (or cafe creme, if you’re from France), I was thinking of the choices we make in life, what doors we decide to close – essentially, all those major inflection points through one’s career. Some people don’t think even about them. I do. All the time, actually.

In fact, I consciously think 5 years ahead to my next professional assignment and actively do things to influence it. For example, my wife and I have often discussed the possibility of relocating for my work, but preferably in Europe (we already moved to Toronto for 4 years before, so this is not something new to us). So, while we lay down the foundation that will get us there, it’s also good to know what you’ve left behind, so not to go in circles.

To that effect, I’ve built this little diagram (hey, I could have used paper, but that wouldn’t be very geeky of me, now, would it) this morning which shows my career choices, ever since graduating from University. It’s interesting to note that I never actually worked in my field of study, and that at one point, I had to take 2 steps back to go into an area I felt I’d be more confortable in (in reality, it was more of a lateral move). In the diagram, the path I’m currently on is in blue. Past paths are in red.

As usual, I struggled for a few minutes, but chose WebSphere Business Modeler V6.0 (Early Beta) to create the chart, as I couldn’t think of something else that would be as quick for this special purpose (I did install Freemind this week, and will start playing with mindmaps, see if I can get some mileage out of that.

P.S. I hope IBM won’t mind me using such a powerful tool as Modeler for something as trivial as a personal decision tree… 🙂