Do You Have a Career Strategy Yet? (In the Age of AI, You’ll Need One)

Aug 10

Every ambitious, mid-career professional is standing at a crossroads right now.

On one side, there's the old path paved with all the knowledge, skills, and work experience we were told would be the building blocks of a stable career.

On the other side, there's a new path paved by artificial intelligence (AI) tools that are automating many of the higher-level competencies we were told would make our careers “future-proof.”

While it’s tempting to hope that these two paths will converge at some point, hope is not a strategy.

Preparing to navigate an unknowable future while crafting a meaningful, sustainable, and impactful career requires real strategy.

You Need A Career Strategy

A career strategy is a dynamic framework that does two important things:

It clarifies and communicates your professional priorities so you stay focused on valuable and meaningful development - no matter what work you do or how work changes.
It supports you and your pursuit of high-impact work - the bigger problem(s) you are genuinely motivated to address - no matter where you work or what resources you have at your disposal.

Many of my clients say that having a career strategy is like having a powerful compass that helps them navigate ever-changing work situations and career decisions, and it helps them stay on their path again and again.

So if you intend to craft a meaningful, sustainable, and impactful career - no matter what the future of AI will bring - it’s time to ditch the 'ole career ladder and start approaching your career like a hiker with a strategy in your head and AI tools in your backpack.

The Best Strategy is a Simple Strategy

To help you start developing your own career strategy, here are a few simple tips:

Remember - and this is very important! - a career strategy is not a career plan. Your strategy is meant to inform and shape any plans you make, so it must come first.
Start by describing the work you find most gratifying without naming any job title. Make sure your description draws on your strengths as well as the impact you’d be proud to make over the course of your career. The more high-level it is, the better!
Articulate the values you most want to be known for as though they were present-tense verbs. This will not only make your strategy actionable, but it will also support future brainstorming and planning.
Simplify these elements so they fit into a simple yet dynamic framework that is easy to reference. Here’s an example:

Using a Venn diagram, you can avoid either-or thinking, see how your values complement one another in powerful ways, and make sure they support your aspirational career description.

Like any worthwhile strategy, this work benefits from several iterations, but once you have your career strategy in hand, it will become clearer which AI tools could add ease and acceleration to your professional journey!