Choosing a career and regularly assessing your progress toward defined goals is a relatively new concept. Twenty-five years ago, most young men and women graduating made a single decision and then followed a well-blazed career trail that could take them to retirement.
The unwritten "employment compact" of the giant corporations and public institutions provided jobs in return for loyal and satisfactory service; if you did what was asked you had a job for life. In the decades after the Great Depression, that was attractive and meaningful for both parties and few messed with a good thing.
In 2007 things have changed. Government employment, once secure by definition, has been wracked by workforce reduction and dislocation. Most new jobs are created in small and mid-size businesses, which must remain flexible to prosper. New technologies have opened up entirely new careers and specializations. Information technology, biotechnology, telecommunications, and scientific research offer opportunities unthinkable in the past.
While the initial choice of a career and the immediate investment in learning and practice remains important, many people are moving from one occupation or profession to another several times over the course of their working lives. Lawyers become investment analysts, engineers become urban planners, nurses become physicians, and teachers become online publishers.
