Even though choosing a profession is challenging, fresh graduates are hurried to decide on an early specialization. But the truth is that you need time to learn about and consider all your options.
Young people are pressured to choose a career path that may not be for the best long-term. Professionals should handle their careers as dating and go through as many jobs as they want; until they settle with one career and start specializing in it late in their life.
The norm is to encourage fresh graduates to start specializing immediately after graduation to gain more experience and become an expert. Unfortunately, the higher education system doesn’t collaborate much either.
The truth is that most people do not know what to do when they finish education and let alone what to study next. And the minority who do know are often rethinking their choice as they develop and grow.
You have to keep in mind that who you are now is not what you might be in the future, and the education and employment system must give you the time and space to make the right career options.
There are many benefits to late specialization. Let’s take a look at the most common ones.
1. Building on your ex-experiences
Bringing your past work experiences into the new career is one of the main benefits of late specialization. It is essential to note that educational programs are no longer enough without practical experience. There is no such thing is so called sunk cost in your career. Every experience counts. Deep generalists or polymaths know how to accumulate experiences from their previous careers and add them to their new position. Executives need to build cross domain experiences, which comes by working in more than one career.
Even though the experience is hard to accumulate, it is worthwhile to know the right career path.
2. Adaptability
Late specialization allows professionals to adapt faster and smother to new environments. Staying all your career in one place doing one thing won’t help you to tolerate changing your job description. While, on the other side, working in different working environments will empower you to be on an ongoing quest to keep moving out of your comfort zone.
When you know what you want, you become more flexible as you don’t spend time stressing out when a new challenge presents itself. You will even go beyond that and start seeking for new challenges. Displaying your openness to acquire new skills quickly such as leadership, negotiation, resilience, and analytical skills are vital for being an outstanding executive.
3. Thinking Out Of The Box
Late specialization has a powerful and positive effect on your career as it opens a big window for innovation. The Hungarian-American Psychologist, Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi, conducted a very interesting study which later became one of important books “Creativity.” In his book, “Creativity” Mihaly argued that every domain has its own internal logic and its pattern of development. But each domain by itself is rigid, which encourages professionals to go across-domains searching for creative solutions for their problems. He values the high impact of our past experiences in being more creative and finding creative solutions for the untapped problems.
Thinking out of the box is a fantastic tool that will add much to your career. But It mainly originates from your cross-cultivating experiences across different careers. When you think out of the box, you consider different solutions and methods for achieving your goals.
4. Building a wider pool of Skill-set
Late specialization offers you the luxury of navigating around and learning several skills along your career journey. Executives and business leaders can’t be successful in their new positions unless they learn and master an arsenal of skills through their careers major stations. Late specialists, deep-generalists & polymaths have the power, the courage & the knowledge to build a wide pool of skill-set that gives them the confidence to do different kinds of work and get any position they dream about. While, on the other side, early specialists might struggle to move up in the hierarchical pyramid of their organizations or corporations, without acquiring the new set of skills that are required for their next executive position. The skills that you build over years in one career are fully transferable to your next big position, even if you think that old and new careers are not inter-connected in any way.
Professionals who continue to invest in educating themselves and learning new skills along their career journey, will continue to thrive. The better you are in performing specific skills, the more likely you are to progress and go thrive in executive roles.
5. Contentment Feeling
There is nothing more exciting than a person who finds their right career after trying different options. The contentment feeling that a late specializing expert has can’t be compared with someone who spent all of their career life in one industry without daring to make a change.
Even though many people see that dream job is a myth, finding career fulfillment is one of the most crucial elements in choosing a job. You have to remember that there will always be stressful situations, but finding the right path is vital if you are looking for success in your career & fulfillment in your personal life.
Late Specialization allows us to try ourselves, deal with careers as dating, find our passions and build unique experiences that form our unique-selves in our unique executive-roles.
