Inventive Thinking Bentonville AR

Posted by : Elizabeth Millard

Q: I have a theory about experience. I think there is a point of diminishing returns at a job where staying put doesn't improve your standing in the company or on the job market. The point of diminishing returns in IT seems to be between three and five years in one position. Whenever I have reached that point in my career, I have started a new training track and reinvented myself. Sometimes it means I have to step back a bit in order to advance further in the long run. But anything is better than a dead-end job with nothing but cost-of-living raises as a reward for all my hard work. I'm presently a webmaster, former custom programmer, and former help desk representative. I'm reaching the point of diminishing returns on webmastery. How should I reinvent myself this time?

A: I think you make an excellent point--reinvention, especially in the IT world, has become a constant. The need for continual education on ever-newer technology has caused many a techie to feel like they're stuck if they don't stay on a speedy treadmill of career advancement and constant change. In some ways, this is disheartening, because it means that after only three years you might begin to feel that additional time in a certain job would make you less desirable as a candidate for a new position. This doesn't always have to be the case, however.

For one thing, it's true that you'll definitely stagnate if you do the same duties for five years without ever l...

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