Its been 8 years since I graduated college and I think I am getting to a point where I should decide what I want to do before life decides for me. The problem with that question is it’s enormous. Industry? Function? Big company, small company?
In a way I have thought about this question couple of times over the last few years - when moving teams at Credit Suisse, deciding to do a MBA, picking between jobs after the MBA. But it was never formalized. I am probably getting to that now since I’m deep enough in the consultant mindset to think in frameworks.
Three dimensions. Two axes, one size.
Environment volatility (x-axis): How much does the world around your job shift — clients, markets, regulations, org structures?
Role fluidity (y-axis): How much does the job ask you to be different things week to week — different modes, different stakeholders, different problems?
Specialization depth (dot size): How narrow and expert-level is the knowledge required? How long before you’re genuinely good at it?
Plot enough roles and something interesting shows up: the roles with the lowest fluidity and volatility tend to have the largest depth, and vice versa. Surgeons, hardware engineers, academic researchers — small movement, big dots. Strategy consultants, startup founders — wide range of motion, smaller dots.
It makes sense when you think about it. Depth and range trade off against each other in how you spend your time. You can go very far in one direction, or you can cover a lot of ground. Rarely both.
At Credit Suisse I spent over a year building the same product. Stable team, familiar codebase, known stakeholders. I could wake up and jump straight into work without any preamble. Comfortable, predictable, fine — but if I’m being honest, a little flat. The kind of job where you get very good at a specific thing and not much else moves.
EY is the opposite. My clients change. The sub-teams within those clients change. I’ve worked across five sectors and eight clients in two years. Before every engagement I’m rebuilding context from scratch. And I love that.
That contrast is what made me want to draw the map. The two roles felt completely different in ways I couldn’t articulate well until I started thinking about these three dimensions.
Not what sounds good on paper — what a Tuesday actually feels like.
Most career conversations skip this layer entirely. They jump straight to industries, titles, compensation bands. Important, but the wrong starting point. Figure out what kind of work fits the way you prefer to operate. Success and growth becomes easier from there.