In the notes app on my phone, I came across a quote that had captured my attention and wanted to remember in the future. A little research guided me to Marcus Buckingham and his most recent book “Work + Love”. In an interview about the book, he had made the quote below:
Careers are a scavenger hunt, not a ladder. – Marcus Buckingham
The concept of the scavenger hunt is to spend your career looking for opportunities that have more and more elements of work you love to do.
There is a great 4-minute video on the concept here.
Our careers are complex and winding. This perspective can give some purpose to the role of each experience in discovering who you are and what you love to do.
My Story
Long before Marcus was writing books, I was creating my own career scavenger hunt without realizing that was what was happening.
My career began in engineering, and I quickly learned that what I loved was curating information and sharing with engineers around the organization. We were working with new, lightweight materials (aluminum and magnesium). I would find articles and ideas from other companies and industries and share those with 200+ engineers as inspiration.
With each role, I nudged my focus in different areas – market research, CRM, brand character, owner loyalty, and more.
Each move brought new knowledge.
Yet, the experiences also brought an understanding of what I enjoyed doing and what I like to “gift” to someone else.
We are all different and aspects of a job that I enjoy, you may not.
The reverse is also true.
The key is to continue self-awareness and keep steering the scavenger hunt in the direction of things you love.
Your Turn
Has your career felt like a scavenger hunt discovering what you love to do?
What are 3-5 things that you enjoy doing?
How can you treat your next career move like a scavenger hunt?