The Lattice Approach

In catching up with some of my HR rading after the long weekend, I came across this article on ere.net about career development. In case you aren't familiar with it, ere.net is an online community aimed at recruiters, and has a number of articles, blogs, and webinars that can be very informative. This particular article talks about the career lattice, as opposed to the career ladder, and I found it very interesting from my own, job-seeking, career-building perspective. Basically, the article says that recruiters should encourage candidates to look beyond the traditional career development ladder, and instead look at their skills, and move up by moving over to adjacent, related positions. So, look at your career and see what themes emerge. For me, one of the biggest themes I see in my career to date is people. I have extensive experience in customer service; I have managed teams of up to fourteen people; HR is all about people. My transition from customer service to HR already touches on this lattice concept; customer service skills translate well to HR.

I don't think there is any question that this approach makes sense. The traditional career ladder is very limiting, and especially in today's fluid work environment, is too rigid. This concept of a lattice works a little better, because it encourages recruiters (and job-seekers, both!) to look at experience in terms of the skills it provides and how those might apply regardless of job title. It simply makes sense, and is something I have always encouraged people to do. Don't be too narrowly focused on industry or job title- skills often transfer.