Photo by Piotr Musioł / Unsplash Don’t Put Yourself in a Box Personal Development and Career Growth Apr 26, 2024 Summary Companies need "boxes" (job classifications) to grow and function. This makes hiring, compensation, and career development tractable, and promotes fair treatment of employees. If the boxes are too large, a company can't grow. If the boxes are too small, innovation and ownership are smothered. The size of a company's boxes is directly proportional to the level of trust employees have for management. To get hired, put yourself in the box the company is hiring for. Tailor your resume to highlight those skills and experiences; put yourself out there as a “specialist” in the thing they’re hiring for. If aiming for a promotion, demonstrate how your work embodies the behaviors and impacts of the next-level “box”. Don't let those boxes define you. Your value and identity goes far beyond any job description. Hot Take Businesses can't function at scale unless they put people in standardized "boxes"; if you want to be hired and to grow your career, you need to understand that, and understand how to work with those boxes. On the other hand, you can't be reduced to a box, and if you tie your identity to those boxes in your thinking, you'll limit yourself in ways that are unnatural and harmful. This is like the paradox of Schrödinger's Cat, both alive and dea…