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I would probably have topped out at program management had I stayed at Xerox. Wouldn’t have had the line management appetite for managing labs/centers/budgets.
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It takes about a decade past trying a career before you gain enough perspective to decipher your experience. But you can tell whether it’s working/not working right then if you’re honest with yourself. Even if you don’t know why/how. That’s all you need to know to stay/quit.
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Things I now know I’m no good for: traditional academia, startup entrepreneurship, journalism, theater/acting/directing, middle management, industry analyst, patent generating machine (“fellows” in industrial R&D), marketing. I quit all those things at the right time.
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Was that the consensus among your peers or supervisors as well? I tend to believe in similar terms about my careers, but it’s difficult to get the external view early when is most effective.