The Emergency
In the book The Mysterious Benedict Society, all the action takes place in the backdrop of The Emergency, a constant news cycle of one frenetic catastrophe after another. It's a fantastic book series, double plus recommend. But though I read it several years ago, I can't get this one detail out of my head right now. Because real life has never reminded me more of The Emergency.
There are many ways people try to cope with a steady diet of stress and chaos: political activism, doomscrolling, trying to ignore it, personal outlets and/or vices, connecting with community, focusing on the small things you can control. I have done all of the above. But of everything I've tried to manage my mental health during The Emergency, nothing is as effective as throwing myself fully into building something new.
This is part 3 of our series about career change. The first installments were purely numbers-driven. We saw that AI execs have a significant history of career change in their pasts, and Fortune 100 execs do not. This week, I promised to write about whether career changers are more likely to hire other career changers, and I will.
But to understand that data, I want to explore why people change careers in the first place. And right now, those personal decisions are inextricably intertwined with a very stressful and chaotic landscape.
Career change: Proactive or reactive?
There are two reasons people make big career moves: either they actively want a change (different work, more money or flexibility, boredom or curiosity), or they don't have a choice. Both are totally viable reasons for change. Looked at on a resume in retrospect, I'm not sure it makes a difference; in either case, the move expands your range of experience and perspective.
Recent academic research finds that people who grow up during economic downturns are more likely to prioritize compensation in making career decisions, and more likely to stick with a single career path. This is true regardless of their own socioeconomic background. Even though companies are more likely to invest in innovation during times of economic and political uncertainty, they are less likely to succeed in actually innovating because talent mostly stays put.
For the most part, most people do not seek out career change during The Emergency unless it's thrust upon them. But what about the people who see opportunity in the chaos? Or the people who dive headfirst into building something new as a way to navigate it?
There are a lot of great reasons to hire those people. Rich experience gives them a wide range of skills and perspectives. Most of all, they are willing to take risks. They are adaptable and have shown they can learn new things.
Given this, it is not surprising that career changers tend to hire other career changers. But what I find especially interesting is that this is happening at unprecedented rates right now.
Career changers hire other career changers
The data from our last two installments make it clear that career-changing CEOs are more likely to select other career changers for their C-suites. Across both the AI 50 and the Fortune 100, career-changing CEOs have staffed their teams with other career changers.
The hiring pattern over time is clear, but it gets even more striking when we focus solely on senior executives who have been hired into their roles in the last 12 months. In both the AI 50 and the Fortune 100, C-suite leaders hired over the last 12 months are significantly more likely to be career changers.
The bottom line: We are living through the real-life Emergency, complete with political, economic, and technological upheaval: war, rapidly shifting political alliances, loss of civil rights, the rise of AI, and lots more. Businesses are navigating this moment by choosing leaders with a track record of seeking out and steering through major shifts.
Kieran
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