Same pants... for the rest of your life!

The Scenerio:

Hiring Manager: "So what do you want to do"

Candidate: "I'd like to do XYZ but I would also be interested in working later on in ABC!"

Hiring Manager: "Well I think you could really do well doing GHI so you're hired! Congrats... Hear is your uniform, this is what you will wear for the rest of your career!"

Candidate: "The rest of my career?"

Hiring Manager: "Yes, the rest of your career"

Candidate: **sad and dissapointed look on face**

Is this what you want when you choose a job, a company or an industry? Is this how you treat the people you hire or source for a position?

We would never truly want to force anyone to wear the same shirt, pair of pants, britches day after day. Besides being icky it would also be depressingly constricting. So why would we expect a person, over their working life, to do the exact same career, specialty or job title?

Now largely this is not what we as individuals wish for ourselves, but many times as managers or supervisors this is what we often do to the people who work for us. Especially when they are really good at that one job regardless of the level.

So what do you think? Is this what too many companies and hiring managers do? Is it easy in this economy for organizations to place these career restrictions on people?

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