How is a Career Like an Investment Portfolio?

Jon Jacobs writes:

"Career path." That's a phrase often spoken by HR staffers eager to show young employees that management is meeting their need for professional growth. Does the phrase mean anything - or is it simply hot air?

The question never occurred to me before I joined JobsintheMoney just over a year ago. Like many of you, perhaps, all of my career moves were driven by opportunism, more a string of chance events than a consciously planned "path." On the other hand, a widely cited body of research has documented that careers, like investment portfolios, benefit from a coherent planning process that includes written goals, timetables and periodic monitoring.

Read his column.