Design a jungle‑gym career with 18‑month growth sprints

Ana’s résumé looked tidy but flat: three years in support, two in QA, and no obvious path to product. Recruiters kept passing. One afternoon, she heard a VP say, “We have more problems than people.” Her pen paused over her notebook. The next day she walked into that VP’s office and asked, “What’s the biggest problem I can solve for you in the next six months?” He blinked, then slid a list across the table. The top item was messy and unowned.

She took it and wrote an 18‑month sprint on a sticky note: Team outcomes—reduce churn by 5%, ship a self‑serve wizard, cut activation time. Personal skills—stakeholder mapping, writing clear specs, driving decisions without authority. She set monthly check‑ins with the VP and logged who saw her impact. When the wizard shipped, support tickets dropped by 18% in two weeks. Her coffee went untouched while the dashboard updated.

A micro‑anecdote: when an engineer left mid‑project, Ana stepped in to coordinate stand‑ups. She wasn’t the expert, but she kept the team unblocked until a replacement arrived. The VP told another VP, and suddenly her name showed up on two more projects. Sixteen months later, a product role opened. The hiring manager said, “I’ve already seen you do this work.”

The mechanism is simple and powerful. Ladders have one path, jungle gyms have many. Growth comes from high‑learning roles where demand outstrips supply. Eighteen‑month plans are long enough to matter, short enough to steer. Asking for the biggest problem reveals leverage. And logging visible wins turns luck into something you can influence: more people know what you can do, so more doors open.

Choose growth over glamour by asking leaders where there are more problems than people, then volunteer for the highest‑leverage mess you can handle. Write an 18‑month sprint with two or three team outcomes and two or three personal skills, and set monthly checkpoints. Track who sees your work and what changes as a result so visibility compounds. You’re not waiting for a perfect path, you’re building one turn at a time. Draft that sprint on a sticky note before your next one‑on‑one.