The Four Career Phases

I specified industrialized nations because that's all I've experienced and it appears that these career phases would not apply to a typical person in Sub-Saharian Africa. I might be wrong about that, and this may be more universal than I first estimated. Clearly, most of humanity toils in phase 1 for most of their lives.

On to the phases....

Phase 1 - Making Money
Virtually everyone starts with this phase and goes through it for a long time, sometimes their entire life. This is true even for some people that have access to money through their extended family but wish to remain self-sufficient.

Phase 1 is difficult for most people to begin because it usually involves work they are not interested in, and it often includes menial tasks. Eventually, this work becomes habit and can provide comfort and stability.

Sometimes when people win the lotto, or inherit money they continue a phase 1 job because they know nothing else and they've learned to extract meaning from it. But, the human spirit will eventually seek freedom from the self-made prison and break free to pursue one of the next phases. Sometimes with disastrous results, sometimes with blissful results.

Examples of phase 1 careers include fast-food service, construction work, office work - most jobs actually.

Phase 2 - Sport
I struggled with whether to combine this phase with the fun phase but didn't because it's obvious that some people are driven solely by the sport of their career, and not exactly by the fun of it. You can see this in high-profile business executives who have made their millions but still pursue the next big deal, challenge, or goal. I'm sure this is fun but it's clearly driven by a built-in sporting instinct.

Examples include real-estate development, currency trading, business ownership, entertainment, product/service/idea development.

Phase 3 - Fun
After a person achieves a certain amount of financial freedom and they realize how much time they spend working, their desire for freedom in work overtakes their desire or need for money. They see friends and relatives who have seemingly fun jobs and decide that's what they want. They're even willing to sacrifice some amount of income to work in a fun job. After all, we work 1/3rd of our lives, and we can't take the proceeds with us when we're done. Fun is the next logical step.

Sometimes this happens early in life (20's), sometimes not until late (60's+). Certain people stick with the fun stage as their final carrier.

Examples include raising horses, brewing beer, showing cars, traveling.

Phase 4 - Meaning
Few people jump straight from the money phase to the meaning phase, but it does happen - often to those who went to college and pursued a successful career plan that provided both financial success and a little fun. Eventually fun becomes boring and unfulfilling which leads to the next deeper stage - the search for meaningful work - the search for an important purpose, the search for a higher calling.

Meaningful work work usually has a noble purpose, and typically the purpose involves helping other people. This include building houses for the poor, missionary work, caring for the sick, teaching, etc. Phase 4 can also include more inward-meaning pursuits such as painting, writing, sculpting, and learning.

It should be clear by now that this list is difficult to apply to all, or even most people. So many things affect our career path that it's impossible to stick with a predetermined plan or follow a yellow brick road. It is interesting though to consider how our values grow and change throughout our life and in turn affect our career choices.

What phase are you at?

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