My dad has been in the same job for more than 25 years now. So had all the relatives I have seen or heard of growing up. Careers to me appeared like a decision you took in your early twenties and stuck with it for the next 30 years. And most careers we are exposed to during school are like that – lawyers, doctors, professors, bureaucrats.
However as I read more about people at the top of their field, the pattern of having a linear path fades away. Stories of people who have changed their careers going from one job to a completely unrelated job and excelling there too are inspirational. This post serves as a list of the people I am aware of, who have had an unusual career paths to reach where they are. This list is grossly incomplete, and I would keep adding to it whenever I encounter a new story.
Susan Cain, author of the non-fiction book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, was an attorney for seven years before becoming a writer.
Thomas Wolf, cofounder of Huggingface, completed a PhD in Statistical/Quantum physics working on superconducting materials, followed by a degree in law working as a Patent attorney before self-educating himself on ML/AI and starting Huggingface
Emad Mostaque, founder and CEO of Stability AI, worked 13 years at different Hedge Funds in the UK before building one of the leading companies in Gen AI.
Mel Robbins, author of The 5 Second Rule, The High 5 Habit and a podcast host, worked as a criminal defense attorney and a legal analyst at CNN, before becoming world-famous motivational speaker and podcast host.
Elizabeth Stone, currently the CTO of Netflix, studied BS and PhD in Economics and later held roles of VP at a finance firm and Chief Operating Officer.
Tim Urban has a great article on finding a career where he talks about how most careers can appear like a 40 year tunnels.
How to Pick a Career (That Actually Fits You)
Careers used to be kind of like a 40-year tunnel. You picked your tunnel, and once you were in, that was that. You worked in that profession for 40 years or so before the tunnel spit you out on the other side into your retirement.
The truth is, careers have probably never really functioned like 40-year-tunnels, they just seemed that way. At best, traditional careers of the past played out kind of like tunnels.
Today’s careers—especially the less traditional ones—are really really not like tunnels. But crusty old conventional wisdom has a lot of us still viewing things that way, which makes the already hard job of making big career path choices much harder.
When you think of your career as a tunnel, it causes an identity crisis in anyone who doesn’t feel sure of who exactly they are and who they’ll want to be decades from now—which is most sane people. It enhances the delusion that what we do for work is a synonym for who we are, making a question mark on your map seem like an existential disaster.