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Episode 70: The One About Deliberate Career Planning

By -c

For ambitious consultants aiming to establish themselves as thought leaders and advance to senior decision-making roles, deliberate career planning is important. Here are 5 tips for actively managing your consulting career.

We’re joined by Patrick Milholland who in his career has served in every major C-Suite position but found his groove with a non-profit career, specifically his utlimate goal of a CIO career.

We Discuss:

  • Why would someone plan their career this way?
  • How does education impact the career plan?
  • What are some of the pros and cons to taking this approach?
  • What were some of Patrick’s hard choices in his journey?
  • What are some of his insights gleaned from following this process during his career?

Key Highlights:

  • Patrick deliberately pursued 3 degrees with the goal of becoming a CIO (3:00-6:24). There was a clear career plan in place and calculated choices were made to achieve the goal.
  • Working as a consultant provided great experience and exposure that enabled attaining a CIO role (12:11-14:18). The consulting skills translated directly.
  • The consulting role was left for a CIO position at a nonprofit where purpose and satisfaction was found, beyond just financial motivators (14:18-15:45).
  • Over time, impressive credentials and titles were accumulated that opened up additional career opportunities (32:13-34:12). The background stood out.
  • Be deliberate about aligning career choices with defined goals and to consider personal tradeoffs like family time (40:24-41:28). Having a plan matters.
  • Location has an impact – being in Silicon Valley expanded options vs. being in Ohio (34:05-34:24).

5 Takeaways:

  1. Education has an impact on getting noticed and gaining positions and needs to be aligned with the career strategy, sometimes by sacrificing things
  2. Working as a consultant can provide experience and exposure that enables a longer term career plan.
  3. Purpose and satisfaction beyond just financial motivators is more important than most people think when they’re starting out.
  4. The accumulation of impressive credentials and titles can open up more and better career opportunities.
  5. Knowing your values, and being deliberate about aligning your career choices with those values will better enable you to reach your goals.

Check out the Audio-only version of this episode!
Episode 70 – Audio Only