Kudos to Miguel Sosa for inspiring this post after a conversation on choosing a career and entrepreneurship.
This approach involves three lines, each an average for a career path you can choose. One thing upfront: don't expect your own journey to look exactly like these lines. Zoom in and it looks more like a volatile stock chart, full of the highs and lows that happen in life.
Line 1: Linear job
If you want a very structured environment, this is your line. It fits large corporations and institutions with a defined career path and growth plan. It typically spans a 10 to 20 year career, and volatility stays very low unless there is a major economic or intra-company crisis.
Example Analyst → Associate → VP → MD at a large corporation.
Line 2: Growth job
Under this line you feel that more speed is needed and that you can handle more uncertainty in projects. Speed is higher and there are points where you could break down. There is still some structure, though most things are self-learned and checked with managers every once in a while.
The good thing about the world nowadays is that technology brings more of these opportunities, where you wear different hats at a startup. It is as close as you can get to building a business without being the founder, and it teaches you the ropes of what it takes to build one.
Example 0.1% to 5% equity as an early adopter in a startup.
Line 3: Entrepreneurship
I can't speak from experience here, but every entrepreneurship story I've read or heard is about ultra-highs and ultra-lows for a sustained stretch before things click. You probably hold a lot of equity on this path, so it is expected to be more volatile. The stakes are higher and the entrepreneur controls most of the outcome.
Example 25% to 100% equity.
What it takes to jump from one line to another
Of course this is not absolute. The lines have their own derivatives. There are entrepreneurship ventures that run more linear, like a services business or an agency. And you may find yourself at a growth company in a high-volatility industry that swings almost like an entrepreneurship venture, driven by market cycles or the evolution of technology.
Choose a line that fits what you want.