Have you ever thought about how long your career is? Thirty years? Forty years? Have you really considered what these 40 years mean? For many people, it may be longer than the time since birth. We always talk about what kind of person we want to be at the age of 30 and what kind of person we want to be at the age of 40, but even at the age of 40, our career is just over half, and most people seriously underestimate the length of their career. Career is far from being as simple as we thought. It is not a job, but a 45-year marathon.

This marathon can be roughly divided into three stages, and each stage is 10- 15 years.

The first stage: Come on, make a strong start.

The first stage is a strong start. The only goal of the first 15 year of my career is to lay a good foundation for the next two stages. Your career efforts must focus on storing "workplace fuel" for the long road ahead. We should lay a good foundation for our career and establish good early habits. Learning is more important than pure success. People often underestimate the length of this journey in their careers and run out of fuel halfway. To this end, we need to reserve three major workplace fuels: transferable skills, meaningful experiences and lasting relationships.

Transferable skills are all kinds of basic abilities you acquire and possess in your career. It is the ability and foundation that can still be relied on even across posts, companies and industries. Such as problem-solving ability, communication ability, emotional intelligence, etc. Portable skills are important, because the length of a career makes it difficult for a person to walk a whole career in the same place.

A meaningful experience will let you leave your comfort zone and build new professional skills. If you always do things in the same way, it will be very efficient, but this state is very fragile. Whether it's starting a business, a second language, transnational work, volunteer project or experience in a new industry, a series of meaningful experiences can build a more solid career.

Lasting relationships may be the most effective and lasting workplace fuel, including brands and people related to you in your career. Together, they constitute your professional ecosystem. The professional ecosystem includes contacts, expert groups, key colleagues and supporters.

Networking is the raw material in the professional ecosystem, including social platform networking, alumni, colleagues and so on. These people form your interpersonal network, but only when they are transformed into deeper relationships can they play an important role.

The expert group is at a high level in the professional ecosystem. These experts have special knowledge and strength, which can help you succeed in your work and career. Such groups need to be recruited and cultivated. You can cultivate such a group in the circle of colleagues around you, or you can organize friends far away.

Key colleagues are 5 ~ 10 people who have a decisive influence on your development in the current company. The most important thing is your boss.

Supporters are mentors and helpers who help you give advice, support you and inspire you in your career. They are usually few, maybe less than five people. Supporters will speak well of you behind your back and recommend you to others.

Besides people, there are brands, and the most important thing is your company. No one can guarantee that every company is a famous enterprise, but at least every company has a good reputation in the industry. In other words, when you are faced with a career choice, don't just consider whether it is more favorable this time, but also consider whether it is more favorable to change jobs next time. Occupational ecosystems need regular statistics to ensure that they provide you with positive support.

The second stage: anchor the sweet area and focus on the long board.

In the first stage, our concern is to cultivate professional knowledge and accumulate transferable skills. In the second stage, we need to create real differences. Finding the intersection between your longboard, your hobby and the needs of the world is the main task of the second stage. At this time, you should show yourself, make yourself stand out, and strive to walk on the most rewarding career path. You should focus on your long board and ignore your short board. Because at this time, it is even more difficult to make up for the shortcomings. A better way is often to focus on your own long board and associate with people who can help you and make up for your shortcomings.

One of the main troubles in the second stage is how to change from an executor to a leader. At this time, the method of making the first stage successful often doesn't apply. At this time, you need to maintain a good cruising altitude, and the leader must fly high enough to overlook the overall situation from a strategic point of view. At the same time, competent leaders also need the ability to pay great attention to details, so as to solve difficult problems or talk about the next business. The key skill to achieve these two points is to learn to adjust your cruising altitude at any time like a dive bomber.

As a new manager, there are six suggestions to help you take the first step.

1, always pay attention to your appearance, attitude and behavior, because your every move is sending this signal to employees.

2. Briefly express the organizational vision to the team members and repeat it over and over again.

3. Establish a core team that can complete tasks with high quality as soon as possible.

Controversial issues are best solved in smaller teams. Lead everyone with your ears, not just your mouth.

You should act like a trustworthy answer, not a boss above you.

6. You are not omniscient. No one knows everything, so it is wise to ask others for advice.

The third stage: optimize the long tail and exert its lasting influence.

This may be the most easily overlooked stage, but in the past century, the life expectancy of developed economies has increased by 30 years. This is not to prolong "old age", but to add one more life stage before we get old. So it becomes as important as the first two stages.

In the third stage, we should strive to achieve sustained influence in the role transformation and find a new sustainable career path, which can continue steadily into the sixties and seventies. In order to remain influential in the third stage, you must remain energetic and relevant. People attach importance to history, but only if it can learn from the present situation and challenges. When people ask your advice, they want to hear more than in the past. They want something really profound. Secondly, they want to hear something about the present and the future.

At this stage, we change from the role of executors or leaders to the role of consultants or assistants. At this point, students become teachers, students become mentors and leaders become valuable assistants. On the one hand, we need to make a succession plan, which can be a simple and thoughtful transfer of responsibilities and experience, or a more formal transfer of leadership or ownership. On the other hand, it is to find a new and sustainable career path. There are roughly three such paths: transmitting relevant experience, such as consulting and teaching. Or go out of your familiar field and set up a new testing ground, such as trying community work and non-profit organizations. Of course, you can also start a business and expand new territory. After all, entrepreneurship is no longer a patent for young people.

Maintaining relevance is a prerequisite for being worthy of being hired and being relied on.

Manage your own learning curve, take action before everything fails, and combine your own experience with the current new trends. Let your skills and environment keep pace with the times, and actively learn those emerging topics, such as mobile commerce and marketing automation. When I feel that I have accumulated enough material, I will write articles and give lectures. You can also take the initiative to seek a reverse tutor to provide advice for newcomers. On the one hand, we can give them advice, on the other hand, we can solicit their views and opinions as much as possible.

Keep your willingness to learn and experiment, and redefine your expectations. Although the salary may not be as high as it was in its heyday, these wonderful career chapters will bring you other powerful rewards: applause, respect, personal accomplishment and satisfaction in changing the world.

The duration of career is amazing, and it is likely to be further extended in the future. A successful career requires both self-planning and good luck. Self-planning is essential because it enables you to seize opportunities.

Of the 7 billion people on this planet, there is only one person who can accompany you through your whole career, and that is yourself. And you owe yourself a career strategy and career plan.