Book Review: Up Is Not the Only Way by Beverly Kaye, Lindy Williams & Lynn Cowart
At some point, probably the 1950s, it became the conventional wisdom that the ideal career path was to start at one company, work your way up the ladder with consistent promotions, and retire from that same company in a high position. You’d only switch to a different company if they offered you a faster promotion. Failure to move up was seen as a career ender.
For many of us in later generations, this career path has long since ceased to be possible, or never existed in the first place. And yet the idea still persists and can make the employee feel frustrated when promotions just aren’t happening. And thus this business self-help book to explore other options.
It suggests replacing the “ladder” metaphor for a career path with a “kaleidoscope” metaphor, moving the perspective around to find new pleasing combinations. Whether that means a lateral move into a related field, finding new depth in your current position, or even stepping down a notch when you’ve hit a job that is killing you.
This book has some useful bits in it, some very obvious, while others you may not have considered before. The graphic design is nice.
It is, however, perhaps best used by people in fields where there is room for multiple approaches to a career path. It’s unlikely to be helpful for people who have to struggle even to keep entry level positions, or who are almost at the end of their working years. A company might give out this book to every employee (as indeed mine did) but that doesn’t mean the company will be equally interested in every worker’s career opportunities.
Recommended to folks who are feeling a bit stagnant in their current position and searching for directions they can go if up isn’t available.
