A lot of my day is spent either helping folks figure out what they want to be when they grow up or helping managers have these conversations with their people. Over the years, I’ve discovered that there are some conversations that I end up coaching around more often than others. Let me share some of these with you over the next few weeks.

Career Trap #1: Believing that up is the only way. A lot of IT people make this assumption. It’s easy to make when you haven’t explored the alternatives. When it comes to career progression, one of the common traps that we can fall into is believing that vertical career progression is the only way to success. Of course, if you’re just starting out in IT – like on a help desk — up may seem to be the only way, but as you progress further in your career you may find plenty of opportunities where moving into a lateral position within your organization or taking what might appear to be a step back may actually profit you more than moving directly vertically. There are also other times when the best thing for your career may be leaving the organization all together.

Don’t believe me? Take the instance of a mid-level developer who in five years aspires to be the manager of the group. All is fine if the group consists of just developers but what if it’s a mixed group of developers, BSAs, and project managers? Will just having development skills and working really hard get him there? To effectively manage, you should be familiar with how the work is done. Might moving into one of these other roles round out his experience and make him a better candidate for managing this type of team?

How to Beat this Trap: Map out where you want to be in five years. What experiences will you need in order to be qualified for that position? Now work backwards. How are you going to earn that experience? Do you need to broaden you exposure? Do you need to work with different technologies? Do you need more experience managing complex projects? Does the position you’re seeking require that you not only have knowledge of your current function but other functions as well?

Next time we’ll look at Career Trap #2: All roads do not lead to management in IT.