Staying power

I was looking at some courses offered by leading names in UX writing & content design and decided to dig a bit deeper. None of the presenters had been at a single company for more than three years.

My own resume has this same issue. After three years, I’m gone.

It’s partly the way the tech industry works. You increase your salary by moving to different companies, not by moving up within the same company.

But it’s also a serious problem. In a field that’s obsessed with being “data driven”, how are you really measuring your impact if you’re never sticking around? How are you thinking strategically if aren’t seeing how your work holds up in five years, in ten years?

This is something that I’d like to change, and I’ve learned this the hard way. I’d rather learn to stick around, wait out the low times, ride the next cycle of highs, and see some projects through instead of bailing at the first opportunity.

This goes for more than just work. Starting at at anything is fun at first, sticking through the lows is a challenge. And this is harder because we’re in a culture that glorifies novelty and undervalues mastery, experience, and wisdom.