A speaker (business-school instructor) critiques the common assumption that careers follow a single, linear stair-step trajectory after business school. They argue this assumption is wrong and reference Michael Driver’s framework proposing four distinct career types determined by psychology, claiming all professionals fit into one of them.
I teach at a fancy business school and we do so many things right. I love teaching there. But there's one thing that we don't always get right, which is this assumption that our students have one kind of career trajectory. We don't all assume they're going to go into one industry, some into manufacturing and some into consulting and some into financial services. We don't make any assumptions about that. But we often make the mistake of assuming that our students are going to have this shape to their careers. They're going to come out of business school, they're going to take a job, and then they're only going to change jobs when they get a better job in terms of position or power or prestige or wealth, that's when they're going to change. And so it's kind of a stair step approach up or you might think of as a linear career. The assumption of a lot of business schools and a lot of universities and the whole education system for that matter, is that we all have this kind of linear trajectory to our careers. Change when you can do better and you're going to do that until, well, the end. That's kind of how it works. That assumption is wrong. According to Michael Driver, on the contrary, there's four different distinct career types based on your psychology, and everybody who's a professional in some way, shape or form fits into one of these four career types.
