When being asked
I believe there are good career opportunities for me at Company X
what do you understand? Some people will associate this directly to climbing the hierarchy ladder of the company. I have the feeling the reality is a lot more diverse. "career opportunities" mean different things to different people.
So I asked around me (friends, family, colleague) what was their take about it, outside of going higher in the hierarchy.
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change of titles (role recognition).
This doesn't necessary imply climbing the hierarchy ladder, it can just mean you are recognized for a certain expertise.
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change of salary/work status (money/time).
Sometimes, people don't want to change their status but want a better compensation, or a better working schedule (aka working 4 days a week with the same salary).
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change of responsibilities (practical work being done in the team)
Some will see this as a possibility to learn new tricks, to diversify the work they do on a daily basis.
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change of team (working on different things inside the company)
Working on a different team because you think they do something super interesting there is appealing.
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being mentored (inside your own company)
It's a bit similar to the two previous one, but there's a framework inside the company where you are not helping and/or bringing your skills to the project, but you go partially in another team to learn the work of this team. Think about it as a kind of internal internship.
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change of region/country
Working in a different country or region in the same country when it's your own choice. This flexibility is a gem for me. I did it a couple of times. When working at W3C, I moved from the office on the French Riviera to working from home in Montreal (Canada). And a bit later, I moved from Montreal to the W3C office in Japan. At Mozilla too, (after moving back to Montreal for a couple of years), I moved from Montreal to Japan again. There are career opportunities because they allow you to work in a different setting with different people and communities, and this in itself makes the life a lot richer.
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Having dedicated/planned time for Conference or Courses
Being able to follow a class on a topic which helps the individual to grow is super useful. But for this to be successful, it has to be understood that it requires time. Time to follow the courses, time to do the homework of the course.
I'm pretty sure there are other possibilities. Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts.
Otsukare!