How to Manage Your Career Like a Superstar

By Promise Phelon,
CEO & Founder, UpMo.com

What if you modeled your career after Oscar winner Kate Winslet or Sean Penn? If you look at your career as a series of roles you'd like to play, you may also one day find yourself thanking "the Academy."

Someone recently tipped me off to a super Wall Street Journal article, titled Taking a Career Cue from Hollywood, which captures this philosophy.

Eileen Gunn writes that we can all learn from the way actors approach their film careers. Rather than taking the "climb the ladder" approach, we should take the "swing from tree to tree in the forest" approach. If we look at our careers as a series of projects, our goal should be to find opportunities to show off our talents, learn and meet influential people.

" 'Successful actors navigate the forest well,' says Peter Marshall, a former producer. 'They look beyond the very next branch and say where do I go from there and actively navigate their careers.' "

For many of us, the reality is that our careers will NOT be positively sloping linear paths where, over the years, we will just make more money and achieve more respect and success. Outside factors will get in the way, like the economy, family, industry issues and corporate downsizing.

The challenge is keeping your wits about you.

If you saw your current role as a project or as an engagement, how would you approach it? You’d want to ensure the client was happy, you’d want to have something tangible that represented your work, you’d create some compelling event for others that showcased your work and engaged others, and you’d want the impact of your project to be MEASURABLE.

So, as you assess the opportunities around you, think about each as a project. Is it something you can put in your portfolio to help you get the next role?

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