# Your Next Career Step: Where can your job take you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 29, 2012, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-next-career-step-where-can-your-job-take-you/614307 "2012-02-29T02:35:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2012, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-next-career-step-where-can-your-job-take-you/614307/1 "2012-02-29T02:35:08Z")
I’m working for Company XYZ. I’ve been there two years. I want to work for Company ABC. Company ABC is at the core of Company XYZ. (No, they are not competitors.) Company XYZ is general. Company ABC is specific. Company XYZ is good. Company ABC is awesome. Company XYZ pays ok. Company ABC pays exponentially better. I can see myself working at Company ABC for 10 years, if not more. It’d be like a 10 year vacation. I’d be like: “Seriously? They pay us to come to work everyday?!” The only problem I can find is that once I go from Company XYZ to Company ABC, I cannot see how farther I can go. Maybe it’s not a problem. Maybe it’s - from Company XYZ I can go to Company ABC, and from Company ABC – I can go _anywhere_. Maybe, then, the question becomes - Where can you take your job? ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-next-career-step-where-can-your-job-take-you/614307/2 "2012-03-03T03:22:45Z")
Don’t tell me everyone here is a slacker. ---
**Author:** ![Patience\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@Patience\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patience_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-next-career-step-where-can-your-job-take-you/614307/3 "2012-03-03T03:29:24Z")
Yep. I’m slackin’ right now, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-next-career-step-where-can-your-job-take-you/614307/4 "2012-03-03T04:36:23Z")
Take the ABC job. We’re talking about a good chunk of your overall career. Why drool for greener pastures, when it’s there for the taking; especially if they’re the greenest pastures around. Just don’t get picked up by NBC. They’ll put you in a shit time slot, and you’ll be cancelled faster than you can say “Community.” ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-next-career-step-where-can-your-job-take-you/614307/5 "2012-03-04T23:25:17Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Take the ABC job. Good advice. I want to hear from Dopers who went from an XYZ job to an ABC job. Did you, **cymk**? How did you do it? What is it like from that vantage point? ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-next-career-step-where-can-your-job-take-you/614307/6 "2012-04-18T16:09:30Z")
I finally have a career path at my current job. I want to work in _this_ area, then _this_ area, then _this_ area, then _this_ area, and then, having experience at WYZ, I want to go to ABC. I found that next “shining window”. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-next-career-step-where-can-your-job-take-you/614307/7 "2012-04-18T17:55:53Z")
I think I’m kinda getting it. I worked for company XYZ. I used to look at company ABC’s spiffy new offices and think that was the kind of place I wanted to work at someday. In an interesting turn of events, ABC bought out XYZ. Now ABC is paying me industry standard and I’m working from the spiffy new offices. But ABC is kinda at the top of the food chain, or at least in competition for #1 spot. I can shuffle around positions similar to my own, but if I want to move up, management is the next step. Ewww, people skills.