Ask Christa! How Should I Be Thinking About Career Growth? (S5E49)

Introduction

Hi everyone and welcome to Ask Christa! the place where you can ask questions about how to work through business challenges and workplace issues. I'm Christa Dhimo and today’s listener question kicks off our Season 5 where we’re focus on Career Growth! I’ve received a lot of listener questions related to this topic, so similar to Season 3, which focused on the Business Side of Business, I’ll consolidate several similar questions for each episode, then select and answer one listener question that best exemplifies those included in the consolidation.

Today’s topic is about Career GROWTH—not the broad-based question we’ll address throughout this season of Ask Christa!, but the one that’s far more personal, individual, and often… really hard to consider, no matter how early or tenured you are in your career.

Listener Question

Here’s the listener question: “I’m mid-career. I’ve been working for twenty years and I hope to work for another twenty years, and then maybe consult part time after I retire from full time work. I have a liberal arts undergraduate and a masters in communication. Both degrees have served me well with a variety of transferable skills. Early in my career, I didn’t think much about having an actual career. I just focused on getting a job. But now that I’ve been in communications for so long, I’ve concluded that my career is in communications. Except, I don’t think about it that way. I still feel like I’m searching for a career path. I love the work I do and want to continue to develop, but recently an early career colleague I mentor asked me what I thought about career growth, and I didn’t have an answer. I’ve watched a few of your business shows and that’s when I thought to ask you for your thoughts. How should I be thinking about career growth?”

Career Growth is Growth, so Think About it As Growth

Those who listen to or watch my episodes know that I avoid telling people how to think through personal aspects of their professional lives, and this is no different. I cannot tell you how you should be thinking about career growth any more than I can tell you when it’s time to leave your job or whether you should accept a different role as your next step.

But I’ll say this: career growth is growth, so I’d start there.

Carol Dweck, a Stanford psychologist, coined the phrase Growth Mindset—at least in the way we talk about it today. She and a few colleagues studied the success of students and noted that a growth mindset believes and lives by the belief that continuous growth, learning, improvement… can and will happen over time when you are open to the growth, learning, and improvement. I’ll put more information in the show notes as I always do, but I encourage everyone to think about career growth as part of that same growth mindset—that same philosophy or way of living where you believe you never fully arrive because there’s still more to learn, be, do, build, develop… and grow.

So, start there. Think of career growth as growth and adopt that growth mindset we all hear about and talk about. Think of career growth as an evolutionary cycle that starts with your trade or your depth of skill or specific study or degree, then moves you forward to learn and develop and grow in your role, then maybe beyond your role into different groups, or perhaps across a variety of interests that enable you to move into different jobs and shift and shape your career differently, too. 

Then consider what success feels like at ANY stage in your career. Does it look like satisfaction at work? Security? Never feeling bored? Doing a variety of work you love—or at least LIKE? Doing just one or two things at a time and enjoying the predictability of a steady day?

Later in the season we’ll talk a bit more about how to think through career moves, but for now: focus on how you think about growth overall, what it takes to develop and cultivate a growth mindset, and what a successful career looks like at all stages of your career—not just at the end of it. 

Career Growth Can Be in Your Job/Trade, Your Company, Your Industry, and Across Industries 

I also ask that you be open to this fact: career growth can and will look different for different people. Some people know what they want to do by the time they’re ten years old. Others know what they love to do and take on many roles throughout their career doing as much of what they love as possible. Some aspire to be on boards or become an investor and think in a very linear way when it comes to their career path: accountant to financial planning and analysis to administration in the CFO’s office to a Chief Financial Officer to a board member or investor. Others have similar aspirations but rotate across various roles first: HR Businses Partner to Talent Management Strategist to Company Growth Consultant to Board Member to Entrepreneur to Investor.

And some enjoy making an impact and take on various generalist roles that satisfy a deep mission within a complex organization. They are less motivated by a linear path or depth in their career and more motivated across a more variable path or breadth in their career. Those typically enjoy enabling businesses to work better so customers are happier and the company is more successful. They’re also typical the type who have grown a career across various functions as business generalists. They’ll be every bit as skilled and prepared for board member and investor roles; it’s just their careers grew broadly across different teams, businesses, and probably even industries.

SO, as you learn about and adopt a growth mindset and think about what success feels like at any stage in your career, the next question to ask yourself is: what does career growth look like for you? Is it more linear? More variable? A bit of both? There’s no right answer, but GETTING to that answer will offer a deeper understanding of how you ALREADY think about career growth. And THAT will be the answer to your question.

Additional Resources

For your resources, located in the show notes, I’ve included some excellent resources that will offer a much deeper view into ways to consider career growth AND what you can do to support your own career growth when you’re ready to take those steps.

First up: Carol Dweck. Learn that name, know that name, and become familiar with her work. Her Mindset Theory is the one everyone talks about, but best to get it from the original source. To start you off, I’ve included an article from the Growth Engineering site. It’s from August 2025, written by Harry Cloke, and called “Dweck’s Mindset Theory: How to Develop a Growth Mindset.” I’ve purposefully included this article so you can receive a quick rundown of Dr. Dweck’s work in practical, easy to read terms (plus it includes a great 5 minute YouTube video, too).

Next up: A Stanford video from the OG herself: Dr. Carol Dweck’s talk, “Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol Dweck.” It’s on the Stanford Alumni YouTube channel and it’s from October 2014. Wooooooo—there’s something to be said about hearing Carol Dweck talk about her work that really hits home—and she’s a WONDERFUL speaker, which of course helps.

I’ve also included a very practical article from The National Society of Leadership and Success site. I have no affiliation with the NSLS organization, but I found this article to be on point with a variety of resources. The article is called “Career Development 101: a complete guide to professional growth.” It is undated, but it’s focused on modern approaches to creating, developing, and—YES—thinking about your career.

The last resource I’m offering is from the Harvard Business School blog. It’s from April 2023 and it’s called, “How to Jumpstart your Career Advancement.” It provides practical tips also while delivering realistic considerations and approaches, especially if you’re already immersed in your career. 

Wrap Up & Submitting Your Questions

And that’s a wrap for the first episode in Season 5 where we’ll be focused on Career Growth! Our next episode is episode FIFTY!!!! Remember, throughout this season I’ll be consolidating similar questions, selecting the one that best represents common questions, and answering them—but everyone will continue to receive an email from me letting you know when YOUR question will be answered. By consolidating similar questions, I’m able to answer far more questions during a season.

You can submit YOUR question on my show’s site, AskChrista.com, that’s Christa with a C-H, where you will see all my episodes listed based on category and season. While your there—sign up for my More Answers… newsletter, where you will receive additional content on Sunday nights to set you up for the work week.

As always—thank you for your support. And remember, if you have a business challenge or a workplace issue—Ask Christa!