Nearly a decade later, an old question feels more relevant than ever.
In 2017, when I launched my second company, Archer Career Partners, I wrote one of my first blog posts exploring a deceptively simple question:
What is a career?
At the time, Archer Career Partners was a global career coaching and advisory firm, working with individuals and a small group of universities. My work centered on helping people navigate career decisions, pursue professional growth, and define what success meant to them.
Recently, I pulled that original article out of the archives. Reading it nearly a decade later, I was struck by how much has changed in the world of work—and how relevant the central message remains. We've experienced a global pandemic, the normalization of remote and hybrid work, major shifts in workplace expectations, and now the rapid integration of artificial intelligence into nearly every profession. Traditional career paths are being challenged, skills are evolving, and the relationship between individuals and organizations continues to change.
Yet, amid all this transformation, I believe one question deserves more attention than ever:
What does it mean to have a successful career?
And perhaps more importantly, who gets to define that success?
What Is a Career, Anyway?
We use the word career constantly. We talk about career planning, career advancement, career changes, career readiness, and career success. But how often do we stop to consider what the word actually means?
In his 1976 book, Douglas T. Hall defined a career as:
"The individually-perceived sequence of attitudes and behaviors associated with work-related experiences and activities over the span of a person's life."
I was drawn to this definition in 2017, and I still am. What stands out to me today is the emphasis on the individual's perception and the idea that a career unfolds over a lifetime.
A career is not simply a series of jobs, promotions, or titles. It is a collection of experiences, decisions, relationships, challenges, accomplishments, and opportunities that shape who we become professionally—and, in many ways, personally.
Some of those experiences move us forward in predictable ways. Others take us in unexpected directions.
A career may include changing industries, pursuing additional education, starting a company, stepping away from the workforce, returning after a break, or deliberately choosing not to pursue the next promotion. None of these decisions automatically determines whether a career is successful. What matters is how those experiences connect to our goals, values, priorities, and evolving definitions of success.
Your career is more than the positions you've held. It's the professional life you're building over time.
The Problem With Traditional Measures of Career Success
Throughout much of my professional life, I've observed how easily we default to traditional measures of career success.
Salary. Title. Promotions. Organizational influence. The size of a team. The scope of a budget. The prestige of an employer.
These are tangible, visible, and relatively easy to compare. And they matter.
Compensation can provide financial stability and opportunity. Promotions can reflect expanded responsibility and professional growth. Leadership positions can create opportunities to influence organizations and people. But these measures tell only part of the story.
Someone can have an impressive title and feel professionally unfulfilled. Another person can step away from a high-paying position, pursue a new direction, and experience an entirely different kind of success. I've seen both. I've experienced both.
And I've come to believe that one of the most important career skills we can develop is the ability to define success for ourselves rather than relying exclusively on how others measure it.
8 Dimensions of Career Success That Still Matter
When I wrote my original article, I had recently discovered research by Kristen M. Shockley and her colleagues that challenged traditional ways of measuring career success. Their research, published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior in 2016, introduced the Subjective Career Success Inventory, identifying eight dimensions that help us understand how individuals experience career success.
I found this work compelling because it offered something practical: a framework for reflecting on career success beyond job titles and compensation. Nearly a decade later, I believe these dimensions are even more relevant.
They are:
Authenticity: Are you able to be yourself and act consistently with your values in your professional life?
Growth and Development: Are you continuously learning, building capabilities, and expanding your opportunities?
Influence: Are you able to contribute ideas, shape decisions, and make an impact in ways that matter to you?
Meaningful Work: Does your work provide a sense of purpose, contribution, or personal significance?
Personal Life: Does your career support the life you want outside of work, including your relationships, responsibilities, health, and interests?
Quality Work: Are you producing work you are proud of and meeting standards that matter to you?
Recognition: Are your contributions acknowledged and valued in ways that are meaningful to you?
Satisfaction: When you consider your career as a whole, are you satisfied with the direction you're heading?
What I appreciate about this framework is that it doesn't suggest everyone should pursue the same things. Instead, it encourages us to understand what matters most to us. For one person, career success may mean leading a large organization. For another, it may mean developing deep expertise, mentoring others, pursuing meaningful work, or having greater flexibility for family and personal priorities.
And here's something I've learned over time: your definition of career success will probably change.
What matters at 25 may look very different at 35, 45, or 60.
That's not a failure of career planning. It's a natural part of career development.
Why This Matters Even More in 2026
The world of work in 2026 is fundamentally different from the one many of us entered. Artificial intelligence is changing how work gets done. Skills that were once highly valued are evolving, while new capabilities are becoming increasingly important.
The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 highlights the growing importance of skills such as AI and technological literacy, creative thinking, resilience, flexibility, and lifelong learning. These changes present exciting opportunities, but they also create uncertainty.
Professionals are asking important questions:
Will my skills remain relevant?
How should I incorporate AI into my work?
Should I pursue a promotion, change organizations, or explore a different career path?
Is another degree or professional credential worth the investment?
How do I create professional stability in a world where change seems constant?
How do I balance ambition with my personal life and well-being?
Am I pursuing opportunities I genuinely want, or following expectations I've inherited from others?
These are not simply job-search questions. They are career questions.
And they reinforce something I believed when I founded Archer Career Partners: career development is not a one-time activity. It is a lifelong process of reflection, learning, decision-making, and action. The challenge is not to predict every turn your career will take. That's increasingly unrealistic.
The challenge is to develop the self-awareness, capabilities, relationships, and confidence to navigate change while staying connected to what matters to you.
A Personal Perspective: Learning to Redefine Success
This topic has always been personal for me. Years before launching Archer Career Partners, I made a significant career transition, leaving traditional management consulting to pursue opportunities in MBA career services and academia. At the time, I was following my interests and a growing desire to help individuals and organizations advance talent. I was also influenced by the work of Mark Albion, whose ideas about pursuing meaningful work challenged me to think differently about professional success.
That transition ultimately shaped much of the work I've pursued throughout my career.
But it wasn't always easy.
When I moved away from a traditional corporate career path, I sometimes struggled to measure my own success. I watched colleagues and friends continue advancing through familiar corporate milestones—new titles, expanded responsibilities, larger organizations, and increased compensation. I was genuinely happy for them.
Yet, at times, I wondered whether I was falling behind.
I was doing work I found meaningful. I was building new capabilities. I was having an impact on students, professionals, and organizations. But I didn't always have a clear way to articulate that success, even to myself. Over time, that changed.
I began to recognize that the benchmarks I had previously used were no longer the only ones that mattered. My priorities evolved. My perspective broadened. I developed a deeper appreciation for professional autonomy, meaningful relationships, continued learning, and the opportunity to help others achieve their goals. I also became more comfortable recognizing that career success isn't always linear.
There are setbacks. There are difficult decisions. There are periods when progress is less visible.
And there are times when what appears to be a step backward is actually the beginning of something important. I've learned that success isn't always about moving up. Sometimes it's about moving toward something that matters more.
A Career Reflection Exercise: Define Success on Your Own Terms
If you are at a career crossroads—or simply haven't taken time to reflect recently—I encourage you to revisit the eight dimensions of subjective career success. Think about your career as it exists today, not where you believe you should be.
Ask yourself:
1. Authenticity: Am I doing work that aligns with my values, interests, and strengths? Where am I compromising too much of who I am?
2. Growth and Development: Am I building skills and capabilities that will create future opportunities? What should I be learning now to remain relevant and adaptable?
3. Influence: Am I making the contributions I want to make? Where do I have opportunities to shape ideas, decisions, or outcomes?
4. Meaningful Work: What aspects of my work give me a sense of purpose? What would I like to contribute more of?
5. Personal Life: Is my career supporting the broader life I want to build? What trade-offs am I making, and are they intentional?
6. Quality Work: Am I proud of the work I produce? Am I challenging myself to improve while maintaining realistic expectations?
7. Recognition: Do I feel that my contributions are valued? What kinds of feedback, appreciation, or acknowledgment matter most to me?
8. Satisfaction: When I look at my career as a whole, am I satisfied with my direction? If not, what would I like to change?
Here's an additional step I would encourage.
For each dimension, consider two questions:
How satisfied am I with this aspect of my career today?
How important is this dimension to me at this stage of my life?
Those answers may reveal something important. You might discover that you're highly satisfied in an area that is no longer a major priority. Or you may recognize a significant gap between what matters most to you and what you're currently experiencing. That gap can provide a starting point for meaningful action.
You don't have to reinvent your career overnight. Sometimes the most productive next step is a conversation, a new learning experience, a stretch assignment, or a small adjustment in how you approach your current role. The goal is to make more intentional decisions about the direction you're heading.
Your Career Is a Long-Term Investment
In my work as a career advisor, educator, and entrepreneur, I've consistently encouraged people to balance short-term decisions with a longer-term perspective.
That advice hasn't changed. In fact, I believe it's more important today. The next job matters. The next promotion matters. The next opportunity matters. But none of these should be evaluated in isolation.
A career is built over decades. It involves making decisions with imperfect information, responding to unexpected opportunities, and adjusting your direction as your goals and circumstances evolve.
The most successful career isn't necessarily the one that looks most impressive from the outside. It's the one that reflects the life you're intentionally working to build. That requires defining success, revisiting that definition periodically, and having the courage to make changes when your current path no longer aligns with your priorities. It also requires recognizing that careers are rarely built alone. Relationships, mentors, colleagues, sponsors, educators, and communities all contribute to our growth and opportunities.
As I reflect on the years since founding Archer Career Partners, I'm especially grateful for the individuals and organizations I've had the opportunity to work with and learn from. Their ambitions, challenges, transitions, and successes have continued to shape my thinking about careers and professional development. And they have reinforced a belief that sits at the center of my work:
Everyone deserves the opportunity to build a career that is meaningful, rewarding, and aligned with their definition of success.
A Final Thought
When I asked "What is a career?" back in 2017, I was thinking about the relationship between work, professional advancement, and personal fulfillment. Nearly a decade later, I'm still asking the question.
But today, I would add another: Are you measuring your career by someone else's definition of success? Or your own?
In a world of rapid change, professional uncertainty, and seemingly endless comparisons, taking the time to answer that question may be one of the most valuable investments you can make in yourself. Your career is not simply what has happened to you professionally.
It's also what you choose to pursue next.
Dream Big and Take the Chance to Advance.
References
Hall, D. T. (1976). Careers in Organizations. Goodyear Publishing Company.
Shockley, K. M., Ureksoy, H., Rodopman, O. B., Poteat, L. F., & Dullaghan, T. R. (2016). Development of a new scale to measure subjective career success: A mixed-methods study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37(1), 128–153. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2046
World Economic Forum. (2025). The Future of Jobs Report 2025. https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/