Every so often, a book sticks with you and keeps returning to mind for various reasons. Range has been one such book for me. The main theme is that you don’t have to specialize, and moreover, that generalists often find their various collections of experiences integrate into a robust talent synthesis especially powerful in our complex and fast changing economy. Having two sons who just headed back to campus, I’ve been thinking a lot about how college students are continually pushed to select and complete that single best choice of a major. It will be another ten or twenty years before they can fully appreciate how that selection was at most a best guess that prepared them to explore in the right direction. I’ve also been thinking about my own career. I spent my early years obsessing about finding that perfect career path. Though I stayed within the same industry, I tried roles ranging from sales to technology, ultimately gravitating to customer experience strategy and analytics. No single job was the perfect choice. But the combination of them has led to a fulfilling career and a marketable skill set that I never could have roadmapped for myself over two decades ago. One key point from the book is that successful people often got there by making a series of short-term adjustments based on what they could see immediately from where they were at each stage. Though counter to the common advice to “chart your course,” the sequential, short-term planning approach appears to work better. You maximize your skills and find fulfillment more frequently. That’s the advice I would give to all of the returning students today, and to myself twenty years ago.
JP Snow 