Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga shared some interesting career advice and business lessons with a group of Stanford Graduate School of Business students at a View From the Top event on April 14.
I liked the following two points from this article:
Know when to leave
There are a lot of reasons to change jobs or to angle for a different position within the same company. First and foremost, counsels Banga, it’s time to leave a job when you’re no longer learning new things. “In my case, [I changed jobs] when I felt I had learned what I could; my mind was flat, and I had reached a point where I was stagnating.” And when you reach that point, he says, “don’t procrastinate. If you want to move jobs or move roles within the company, think about it, but go for it.”
Stay humble
If you’re not willing to learn from people, and to adapt and adjust you can’t be in a company like [MasterCard] and succeed, says Banga. I don’t know that you can divorce that from success. You can be successful without humility, but you won’t enjoy it as much.”
Both points, in effect, relates to continuous learning. We should always be striving to learn the maximum in our jobs. And for that, we need to be humble to get the most from others. At the same time, when we feel the learning is no longer happening at the pace or of the kind we want to have, we should try moving to a place which can offer that opportunity.