# Is there a common denominator in the career choices you have made during your life?
Only in hindsight.
When I’ve changed roles across companies or continents, it has been a matter of luck. When I’ve changed roles within an organisation, it has always been to work for people I wanted to learn from, perhaps even admired from afar.
My work experiences – I won’t call it a career – have been whatever has caught my attention or fancy. Working in finance seemed to have created certain impressions of my skills. I’ve always blown those presumptions away, doing things that couldn’t have been further removed from the job I was hired to do, and doing them well.
I’ve gravitated towards meaningful roles, and when they weren’t so, found augmenting tasks in those roles that gave me a sense of meaning.
I’ve found ways to create and nurture communities with common interests.
I’ve avoided promotions deliberately when I believed that I’d be trading my time and strengths and/or meaning away for marginal dollar benefit. Weirdly, I’ve also beaten myself up when I avoided promotions.
I’ve found vicarious pleasure from seeing the folks I’ve had the privilege of mentoring soar in their careers.