Regular readers are probably sick of hearing me say it, but I'm going to keep saying it again and again: your career is your most valuable financial asset and by managing it effectively you can earn millions of extra dollars throughout your lifetime.
Here's an article from Yahoo that profiles the career of Senator George Mitchell. In addition, the piece gives some thoughts on developing a successful career including the following:
How can you increase your odds of generating the kinds of opportunities you desire? Start by adopting a new way to evaluate career turning points. A useful lens through which to view your career and to make career decisions is with the question, "Will this new role (or project or company) increase or decrease the number of options likely to become available in the future?"
If the answer to this is "yes," that's much of what you need to know to encourage you to accept the opportunity. Answering "no" does not automatically mean that you should decline the opportunity. It does suggest that you need to be certain that a narrowed set of future alternatives is something you're comfortable with.
For example, if you're graduating from an M.B.A. program and go into management consulting, the breadth of industry exposure, the problem-solving experience, and the additional training you'll receive over the subsequent three to four years will prepare you for a wide range of positions and industries that you could credibly move into later. By contrast, if you decide to move into derivatives trading, your set of skills quickly becomes specialized. In this case, your career progress will be achieved largely by becoming a more skilled trader with responsibility for ever expanding pools of capital.
One path is not necessarily better than the other. But the point to remember is that the more specialized you become, the more certain you need to be that the direction you are heading is one to which you are committed.
Good information/thoughts/advice. Issues like these need to be considered and acted upon if you truly want to make the most of your career. I've faced them (and continue to do so) and if you do as well, you'll head down the path that's right for you.
Free Money Finance has lots of thoughts on how to maximize the potential of your career. Here are some of the ones I like the best:
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