good reflective thread that i think has a lot of commonality with people in many career paths, not just quanty

many career trajectories run into ambiguity where there is no standard recipe for advancement beyond a certain point https://twitter.com/onan_ous/status/1296620976663232512

when you are junior, depending on the role and the organization, you have a fair amount of career advancement ahead of you just getting good at your function, broadening your skill set in that function, maybe starting to manage new fresh juniors.

but in many cases, at a certain point in your career, doing a good job at your current tasks does not put you in line for natural incremental promotion, for example because more senior roles all have much broader scope, more politics, etc.

Changes become lumpier. Your boss leaves; can you convince the org to promote you into that much bigger role, versus hiring an outsider? Can you convince another organization to hire you into a seat that is a significant step up in responsibility?

when an industry is growing fast, this is much easier, because firms are constantly expanding and needing to add talent and grow good people. Finance was that up until 2008... no longer, now it is shrinking and that makes it extra hard.

Internal mentorship and external relationships are really important here. Enough patience to wait for the right opportunity and excel at your role, but not so much patience that you get stuck.

Sometimes you have to take big risks - pushing hard internally, or leaving for a smaller and more volatile firm - which you may or may not be in a personal position to take.

There are no easy answers. But cannot overstate the importance of making and keeping friends and mentors in the business.

also worth emphasizing how especially challenging this is for people who are furthest from the mold of Chad From The Lacrosse Team, as per so many conversations with @ROIChristie @LizSimmie @SonyaDreizler @Bonecondor etc