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If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.

One of the most common challenges that comes up among my data leadership coaching clients is a sense of being ‘lost’ in their careers.

Many find themselves in a position where it is very unclear what needs to happen next for them to progress. Data career pathways are not at all well defined like they are in other disciplines.

Not knowing where your career is going can be extremely distressing and will likely be impacting your performance in your current role. As well, not knowing where your career is headed makes it very difficult to be intentional about where you deploy energy and efforts.

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.

Conversely, figuring out a plan, designing the path towards it and beginning to take action are essential steps for progressing your data career and putting an end the sense that you’re just bouncing along with the prevailing winds.

Unfortunately, there are no blueprints for data careers. Those who want to progress their careers in data need to design a plan, and they need to take action.

Going nowhere fast

Businesses don’t do a good job of defining career pathways for their data professionals either. Why? Simply put, our industry as a whole has failed to provide the blueprints for it.

Beyond a junior data person, you’ve very unlikely to find any 2 people in data with identical career trajectories. The same however is not true for the likes of finance, law or accounting and others. Those careers are extremely well defined and highly predictable with clear pathways and accreditations for reaching the next level and achieving promotion.

The impacts of no clear pathways on data professionals and their organisations are catastrophic.

While there are many, here are a few:

• Lack of influence and seniority for data leaders.

• Lack of clarity on how and where to exert energy and focus.

• Organisational strategies lacking data as a contributing factor.

• Data leaders see their peers progressing in their careers whilst their’s stagnate.

Fortunately, for the proactive data leaders amongst you, this doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. With the right approach and attitude, and by building and fostering the right relationships internally, data leaders can design and execute on exciting and rewarding career pathways.

Here's how ⬇️

What can be done about this?

Data careers are poorly defined. If we think for a minute that our non-data peers are going to champion our career progression than we are sorely mistaken.

We have to be the catalysts for change and need to take responsibilities for defining and achieving our own career outcomes.

We have to decide where, and in what direction we want to take our careers.

1️⃣ Discovery: The first step is to reflect on what makes you happy and what types of work you enjoy doing the most. Rather than trying to look outwardly for roles you might like, start by looking inwardly at what brings you joy in a professional sense. Use mentors, your network and even coaches to help with this discovery phase.

Once you’ve uncovered the key things that you’d like to focus on, write them down and keep them close by.

2️⃣ Take on new challenges: Growth is never easy. It often means stepping outside our comfort zones and doing things we’ve not done before. During this phase, say yes more often to new challenges. This will open up your perspective and introduce you to aspects of the professional world you’ve possibly not experienced before. Add these learnings to your discovery.

3️⃣ Network & Brand: Build and nurture your professional network and online brand. This doesn’t mean connecting with as many people as you can on LinkedIn! This means reaching out to people for productive conversations. Be targeted in your approach and up front about your intentions. People are very often open to sharing about their careers and putting people in touch with others if they can. Make sure you are willing to offer the same and provide value to others where you can.

4️⃣ Communicate: Once you have an idea about where you’d like to take your career, let key people know. Managers and team members are a great place to start. A good manager will support your ambitions whether they are in the company or elsewhere. Telling people what you want out of your career is a crucial step in getting there.

5️⃣ Break it down: Once you have a destination in mind and a time frame for achieving it, work backwards. If your goal is 2 years away, what will you need to have achieve in 1 year from now? Are there skills or educational gaps that need to be filled? Are there difficult conversations that need to be had? Do you need to move to another city or country? Are there talks you’ll want to volunteer to give?

Once these micro goals are in place, you’ll be able to see much clearer the road to your overarching goal and what you’ll need to do to work towards it, and by when.

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No one is coming to save us. We have to be the catalysts for change in our own careers and take the necessary steps to discover, define and take action towards our desired outcomes.

Or, you could not, and just continue bouncing around in your career upon the prevailing winds.

Choice is yours.

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⚡️Whenever you are ready, there are a few way I can support you:

• Private coaching for Data Leaders

• Group coaching for data teams

• DIY coaching for data careers

• Data Culture Maturity Assessment for organisations

• Excellent LinkedIn Content

• Google Analytics, Tagging and Looker support