Climb the ladder at a giant bank, or an unknown small company? Work for the government, or run your own business? Gain work experience with a giant newspaper, or a tiny independent operation?
Sometimes your career path seems to hold more forks than a cutlery drawer. Options often fall into two categories: the safe choice (with a well-known company, working in a well-known field, living in a well-known city) and the less obvious (but secretly, to you, more interesting) choice that takes you off the beaten path and into career no man’s land.
To date, my own career path has bifurcated in this way in several places. One of the first times this happened was four years ago, when I decided to move to Spain just as the country was about to hit the biggest economic crisis since the end of the civil war.
And another, just a couple of months ago, was this: I was lucky enough to have had two successful interviews — one for a full-time job with a stable, large company offering a competitive salary and a structured career path, and the other for a part-time position with a startup that would give me basic rent money and extra hours to put my dreams of starting my own business into practice.
I went for the job with the startup. In both cases, I feel that, in the long term, going for the outside choice has given and will continue to give greater return than the obvious safe choice. Here’s why you should always give due consideration to taking risks and going down the road less traveled by:
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