Your career is a Jungle Gym not a Ladder

Sheryl Sandberg aptly describes our career trajectories as Jungle Gyms and not Career Ladders in her book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead Our career paths to date very much reflect this. Our job changes have not always been upwards in a neat ladder way and we have benefited hugely from this. ​

We have gathered a range of skills and experience from working in different sectors, different roles, and complete career direction shifts. It has also given us perspective on nature conservation. We can see the whole picture much better now from the point of view of NGOs, government, private sector and at the site-scale to the global scale.

So don’t beat yourself up if your career isn’t climbing nicely along some predefined path. Rejoice in your journey - your unique journey that provides you with a unique perspective. As Marie Forleo says ‘The world needs that special gift that only you have’. You are an amazing wonder woman with your own unique set of skills and experiences gained from travelling your own path. These are your strengths. Use these and go forth and wonder woman the world.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost