How mobile are you?
Strange question, isn’t it? But bear in mind that if you don’t have an answer to this question, then you might be in for a challenge with your career growth.
I had a strange phobia towards moving to newer places. And that was probably the reason why I did not want to move out of the city that I studied in. But what would you do in a place where there were no job opportunities?
Eventually after spending a couple of years trying to find a job in whatever companies existed in the small city that I lived in, the truth dawned upon me that if I was to get a job, I had to move out. And, the next week I found myself in a train to one of the metro cities.
I went mobile. I was convinced by the hard truth that your career depended entirely upon how comfortable you were with changing cities. And there started my career growth and it went on for about 7 years. I was completely focused during this time and changed roles and cities. But, at some point in my career (I never realized when) I just decided to stay put at the place that I was in.
The result: 5 years of stagnancy!
The Choice between “Being Mobile” and Career
Organizations are global these days. While most organizations have multiple branches operating in different cities, a lot of them have their branches in different countries. And these organizations are more than willing to retain their best talent by letting them move countries and pick up better positions.
Pick any of the top executives in the world today and ask them about the number of times they refused to move. You will hardly get an answer to it because they would have never refused to move. And that is what has taken them to the position that they are in today.
But, that doesn’t mean that you have to always move cities!
It is a choice that you make.
I had to pick between two things – my family and my career. While most career oriented people would pick their careers, I decided to pick my family. I had my own reasons to do that.
People asked me if, I was not career oriented. My response was simple, “I was career oriented, but wanted a career where my family was a part of it”.
The stagnancy, at times pulled me down, demotivated me and strangled me.. but every time that happened, the core reason why I decided to take that upon myself helps me get out of it.
You need to make that choice – a choice between your career and being mobile.
There are multiple aspects that you might want to consider when you are picking one of them.
- Are you okay with sacrificing about 5-7 years of your career?
- Are you okay with seeing your juniors and subordinates get promoted to higher positions and an eventual stage where you might report into them?
- What are the benefits of the new role – both monetary and non-monetary?
- How comfortable are you with staying in that particular city?
- What is the opportunity cost of the movement, in terms of the time that you will be spending with your family?
- Are you okay with staying away from your family?
- Can you take your family along?
- Will your family be comfortable at the new place?
This is not an exhaustive list of questions that you might want to ask yourself. Your questions might differ depending upon your reason to move or, not move.
But, it is extremely important that you understand each one of them.
If you have been in your career for anything more than 5 years, it is time that you sit down and start writing each of these questions that you think, you will want to evaluate before deciding on what to choose – your career or, being mobile.
And while doing that, you need to keep one thing in mind. Your decision to not move will entirely be at the cost of your career.