Try a Zigzag Career Path

Are the days of following a linear career path — up the ladder, one step at a time — becoming a thing of the past? Kima Tozay, a recent GovLoop Featured Contributor and a 15-year veteran of public service, thinks so.

In a recent blog post, Tozay noted that LinkedIn studies have found that Gen Zers (those born in 1997 or later) are far likelier than their predecessors to take the risk and switch career paths. Rather than sticking with a job in hope of future rewards, they seek out roles that better match their interests and values, and that offer more opportunities to grow their skills while providing better compensation.

In short, they are opting for a zigzag career path.

Zigzag, or “squiggly,” career paths involve simultaneously taking on diverse roles or experiences in distinct industries and may even include internships, fellowships, temporary work and volunteer opportunities.

Tozay cites four obvious benefits of zigzagging: broader skill sets, more diverse opportunities, improved adaptability and a reservoir of creative learning experiences.

Increasingly, Tozay says, those are the attributes that employers are looking for in government employees. “The new world of work demands that employees have various backgrounds and skill sets that encourage moving fluidly between different roles, responsibilities, and mediums,” she writes.

Showcase Your Soft Skills During the Job Search

If you’re looking for an edge to help you get a new job, consider these questions:

• What’s the most significant problem you’ve solved in the workplace?
• How do you explain new topics to coworkers unfamiliar with them?
• Describe a situation where results went against expectations. How did you adapt to this challenge?

Those are the kinds of questions that employers might use to deepen their understanding of a job candidate’s fit, according to a blog post on Indeed.com, a popular job website.

Soft skills — or success skills, as we like to call them at GovLoop — include communication, critical thinking, collaboration and other personal and interpersonal capabilities that help you do your job and work well with others.

A recent article in Forbes recommends studying job descriptions with soft skills in mind: What soft skills do you have that might be important to that particular role? Then, weave those soft skills into your cover letter and resume and bring them up at the job interview itself, always offering concrete examples.

“Soft skills such as communication, critical thinking, problem solving, team work, and worth ethic are highly transferable between industries and can often be the difference between you receiving job interviews and offers or not,” the article states.

This article appears in our guide “How to Change Things up (and Make It Stick).” To read more about ways to innovate successfully, download it here:

Illustration by Calista Lam