Use the JIT method of learning to get ahead

Historically, people would spend a lifetime in one knowledge area, and become masters at it. They learned via on the job experiences. They would change companies, but stay in the same role and knowledge space. If you wanted to be VP of procurement, you would start off as a little peon moving boxes that have been procured. Through this experience, you would learn about the box moving part of procurement. Then, 2 years later, you get a promotion to the order taker part of procurement, while working here, you would learn the how to take orders. All of your learning takes place as experiential learning, where you learn only through on the job experiences.

20Somethings are masters of JIT learning -- Just In Time. We realized that learning everything through experiential on the job experiences is hugely timeconsuming, inefficient and stupid. We grew up in an age of internet. If we need to know more about box moving, we go ask someone who is a box mover! This way, we learn about box moving without having to even doing it. Of course, there is no substitute for experience, so we only learn 80% of what the experts know. Because we learn the most important stuff so fast, we can build up a wide variety of knowledge very quickly. We won't be as good as the experts, but we will have a broader knowledge base. I've tried to illustrate the difference here:

20Something TakeAway:

Use this style of learning to your advantange! Don't try to become the biggest expert in your field! Just learn a lot from the people who have been doing it for 30 years and branch out your knowledge base. You will never compete with the greyhairs if you go head to head. Get involved in different areas in your company, and learn from the experts in each one. A mile wide and an inch deep is so much better than an inch wide and a mile deep.