Career Plans vs. Reality

I Made a 5-Year Plan in Year One

As a new hire, my company asked me to write a "career development plan." I had to set a 5-year goal. Here's what I wrote:

Year 1: Master React. Year 2: Expand to full-stack. Year 3: Get promoted to senior. Year 4: Become a team lead. Year 5: Get famous through a tech blog.

A clean, step-by-step growth trajectory. I even included specific targets and deadlines for each stage. When my team lead said "nice plan," I felt proud.

I'm now in year 5. Not a single item on that list has been achieved.

Here's What Actually Happened

Year 1: I did use React, but the company migrated to Vue.js. Instead of mastering React, I had to learn Vue from scratch.

Year 2: Full-stack? I couldn't even handle frontend alone. The company got acquired, and I spent 6 months adapting to a new codebase.

Year 3: Senior promotion? I got passed over twice. Same story I wrote about in another post.

Year 4: I did take on a team lead role, but it was nothing like I'd imagined. I spent more time in meetings than coding, and the people management stress made me step down after 3 months.

Year 5: I'm blogging, but "famous" is a stretch.

(Writing this list out made me a little sad.)

Why the Plan Went Off the Rails

Two main reasons. First, unpredictable external factors. Company acquisitions, tech stack changes, org restructuring. You can't plan for those. Second, I changed. What I wanted at year 1 was different from what I want at year 5. I wanted to be a team lead, but when I actually tried it, I realized I'm someone who'd rather write code.

Plans going sideways is normal, but you don't know that when you're making them. How could present-me possibly know what future-me-in-5-years will want?

So Are Career Plans Pointless?

Not completely. They gave me direction. "I want to grow" and "I want to deepen technically" as broad directions haven't changed. The specific steps just shifted.

Here's how I plan now. Six-month plans instead of five-year plans. Directional goals instead of specific technical targets. "Broaden backend capabilities" instead of "learn Go." If Go doesn't fit, I can switch to Rust without the plan breaking.

Other People's Career Paths

It wasn't just me. I asked 6 peers "did things go according to your year-one plan?" Zero said yes. One went from developer to PM. One started a company, failed, and came back to development. One moved overseas. Everyone was on unexpected paths.

What I've Learned

There's a saying that a career is a jungle gym, not a ladder. You don't just go up — you move sideways, sometimes down, finding your place as you go. On a ladder, falling one rung is failure. On a jungle gym, it's just a different direction.

That's a nice metaphor, but in reality, not knowing your direction is anxiety-inducing. "Is this right?" crosses my mind constantly. I don't think that anxiety ever fully goes away. I think you just have to keep moving despite it.

Six months from now, I'll probably read this post and think something completely different. I'll have to wait and see.