Tenure is Relative

From Career Journal comes an article that is relevant to some of my friends that are currently out searching. The series is the "How I Got Here" which looks at the paths executives take to get to their current high-powered spots that they love.

The subject of the post, Avid Modjtabai who is Executive Vice President & CIO at Wells Fargo, has had a 14-year career at WF. My friends are in similar situations. They have been at the same company for 10-20 years and are concerned that this will somehow reflect poorly on them. Modjtabai speaks to this:

Q: Were any of your moves lateral, or were you always moving up in the company?

A: A little bit of both. Some of my most rewarding job moves have been lateral. I always want to be intellectually challenged and have the opportunity to learn -- that is my guiding principle. People with rigid ideas about career paths and goals often don't get to where they want to go because they turn down opportunities that usually lead to more advancement later.

As I have told my friends, tenure doesn't matter. As long as you are showing progressive movement and skills development, you will be fine. Employers want to hire people that are growing and improving, not slackers that have done the same gig for 20 years. Those people are dead.