Thinking About Career Advancement

How do you feel about career advancement?

If you are someone who works intensely, you might want to climb as high as you can, but it is also natural that some people have no interest in advancement at all.

Recently, the fact that young people do not want to get ahead has been viewed as a problem.

I work at a large company, so naturally, this topic comes up during casual conversation.

"How far do you want to advance?"
"Well, just to a reasonable level. I want to balance it with my personal life."
"Hmm, I see."

It goes something like that.

Just the other day, I had a moment where I was talking to a younger employee about this.
That was when I was intrigued by something one of the members said.

"I'm not good with talk about career advancement. Every time that topic comes up, I feel like there's something wrong with me for not having any ambition."

I see, I thought, that is one way to look at it.

What intrigued me was that, even though it has been a long time since work-life balance started being loudly advocated,

not having ambition for advancement = being a minority and doing something wrong

I realized that this way of thinking might still be deeply rooted.

Well, in Japan, labor is considered a duty under the Constitution. Perhaps there is a feeling that not having ambition for advancement is failing to fulfill this duty.

However, to be blunt, what do you actually gain from career advancement?

Money?
Status or rights?
A sense of fulfillment for the need for approval?

There are many things, but the one with a physical impact is, after all, money.

When you advance in your career, the money you receive increases.

But if you think about it calmly, there are plenty of other ways to get money. Career advancement is not the only means. It might be difficult to get it off the ground, but there are things like side jobs, for example.

Well, if you have to do a side job in addition to your main job, it is tough in terms of time, and it is better to increase your salary at your main job,
I think that way of thinking also exists.

But the important thing here is that there might also be things that are taken away from you by advancing in your career.

That istimeIt is often the case that your workload increases, after all.

In other words, what I want to say is that while people often talk about annual income when discussing salary, it is also important to consider your hourly wage. It is possible that even though your annual income has increased, your working hours have also increased, meaning your hourly rate has not grown much at all.

Do you know what your own hourly wage is?
Everyone cares about their hourly wage when working a part-time job, but I suspect that once people become full-time professionals, they rarely pay attention to it.

When you think in terms of hourly wages, I believe you can estimate somewhat objectively whether it is better to aim for promotion or to combine it with a side job. This is, of course, only when considering things from a purely financial perspective.

Beyond just the financial aspect, the ways of working and the purposes behind them are diversifying, making it increasingly difficult to define the significance of career advancement.

However, I have no intention of denying the act of career advancement itself. It is a fact that by advancing, you gain greater authority, allowing you to use the company's money and personnel to accomplish bigger things.

In short, setting a purpose for your career advancement is extremely important. After all, subordinates will follow someone who has a clear vision of what they want to do.

At the beginning, I mentioned the perception that
having no desire for advancement = being in the minority and doing something wrong
.

However, whether or not you want to advance is not a matter of good or evil, but simply a matter of means. It is something you should aim for if necessary, based on the goals you have set for yourself.

For what purpose do you aim for career advancement?
If you do not seek advancement, what kind of career path will you map out?