Yogi Berra must have stayed up nights thinking of good one-liners to entertain and challenge us. The way he interchanged words and mixed metaphors made us stop and think, as well as laugh. Trying to find the Hall of Fame in 1972 to receive an award, he responded to his wife's frustration with, "We're lost, but we're making good time!" Ever feel the same way about your career?

When you think about your career at all, you may feel like you're "making good time" because things are busy and your title and/or company are fine for the time being, but what is your destination? Typically, we're "living in the day" with our jobs, not thinking about the Big Picture, our career. We're thinking about today, about the fires that we're trying to put out that keep combusting on our desk, about deadlines. The concept of thinking about how this job may/may not contribute to your career is nice, "but I don't have time for it now. I'll get around to it." Do you?

Where these articles are headed

In these articles in the WITI Career Newsletter, we're exploring six different strategies for growing within your job and/or your company:

     • The Inverse Security Monster: Recognizing and defending against it
     • WIIFM and BOSOC: Alphabets that spell "Career Success"
>> • The Yogi Berra Approach to Career Planning?
     • Killer Competitiveness: Becoming a job magnet
     • Networks that Last: Dragonflies and Pelicans
     • Building your Reputation: The 5 points of being a star

These six topics build on each other, so read the earlier ones when you can. Developing career management skills for the long term can never start too soon. Building a core competency in career management along with your technical and managerial ones will let you start shaping where you're heading. Watch both your company and you prosper!

The Yogi Berra Approach to Career Planning?

Thinking about your future, about where you want to be heading, even if it's just two jobs away in your company, starts putting you in control. Even if your boss has plans for you, wants you to replace someone, to move to a different location, or to expand or consolidate your division, think before you answer. Having someone else do the hard work of shaping your career can be a relief, but saying "yes" without testing whether the new direction is in both your and your company's best interests winds up being in neither.

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