Smart People in Wrong Careers – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1226

Smart People in Wrong Careers – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1226

Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1226 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here.

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Preamble

This blog post is based on a recent McKinsey article. Link at the end.

Why Smart People End Up in the Wrong Careers – And What Leaders and Professionals Can Do About It

In today’s rapidly changing world of work, something curious, and costly, is happening. High-achieving, capable, intelligent professionals are often in careers that feel wrong for them. They may be successful on paper, receiving promotions, recognition, and strong performance evaluations, yet feel a profound sense of misalignment between what they do and who they are.

A recent McKinsey Talks Talent conversation explores this phenomenon with author Suzy Welch, drawing on ideas from her book titled ‘Becoming You’ and insights from McKinsey leaders and talent experts. The episode tackles a central question: Why do so many bright, capable people end up in careers that don’t fit their skills, values, or aspirations? And how can we avoid this trap?

In an era when career paths have become more fluid, purpose-driven work is rising in importance, and technology is reshaping jobs faster than ever, understanding this dynamic is critical, for individuals, for organizations that want to retain top talent, and for society at large.

The “Wrong Career” Paradox: Doing Well but Feeling Wrong

One of the most striking observations from the McKinsey conversation is that many professionals feel disconnected from their work even when they are objectively successful, earning good salaries, receiving favorable feedback, and advancing through the ranks.

This isn’t simply a matter of dissatisfaction with workload or compensation. The root of the problem lies deeper: people may be excelling in roles that don’t fit their unique combination of values, aptitudes, and interests. They are often doing “everything right”, but still feel wrong because:

• Their work doesn’t align with their personal values

• Their aptitudes are not fully leveraged or mismatched

• They are pursuing roles that look good externally but lack internal satisfaction

• They are focused on success metrics set by others, not by themselves

This disconnect explains why high performers can still feel unfulfilled, confusing achievement with meaning. Success in a career does not automatically translate into fit or purpose.

The Career Framework That Fails Us

Much of traditional career guidance assumes a linear path: go to school, get good grades, choose a major, pick a career, move up the ladder. But that model is rapidly eroding under several pressures:

• AI and automation are disrupting established job categories and blurring career boundaries.

• Gig work, contract roles, and portfolio careers are becoming more common.

• Values and purpose considerations are shaping career choices more than ever before.

• Workers, especially younger ones, care about identity, impact, and autonomy.

In this new landscape, the outdated notion of a single path defined by titles and progression stages leaves many workers poorly equipped to assess whether their work truly fits them.

Equally problematic is that most career frameworks emphasize “optimization”, maximizing credentials, climbing the ladder, achieving status, rather than “alignment” between a person’s interests, aptitudes, and the real economic needs of the world. When individuals chase titles rather than fit, they risk ending up in a “comfortable” but hollow career trajectory.

Unpacking the Three Data Sets You Really Need to Align

According to Welch’s framework, echoed in the McKinsey discussion, sustainable career satisfaction lies at the intersection of three critical factors:

A. Your Values

These are not generic virtues like honesty or diligence. Instead, values are practical priorities that determine what you want from work, such as autonomy, creativity, financial security, leadership influence, or social impact.

B. Your Aptitudes

These are your natural cognitive and emotional strengths, not merely the skills you’ve acquired. Aptitudes determine how you think, learn, solve problems, and interact with others in ways that don’t always show up on a résumé.

C. What the World Needs (Economically Viable Interests)

It’s not enough to love something and be good at it; there must be economic demand for it. A fulfilling career must be both personally meaningful and commercially sustainable.

The challenge for many professionals is that they do not intentionally explore or integrate all three dimensions. They may focus on values without considering economic viability or prioritize economic opportunity without truly understanding their aptitudes, creating pathways that feel comfortable on the outside but hollow on the inside.

The “B+ Life” Trap: Settling for Almost Right

A powerful metaphor introduced in the conversation, and credited to Welch, is the idea of the “B+ life.”

A B+ career feels “good enough.” It pays well, offers stability, and looks impressive to others. But it lacks core fulfilment, the deeper sense that your work takes advantage of your unique strengths and reflects your authentic self.

Many professionals end up here because they fear risk and choose the safe route, optimize for external benchmarks, prestige, salary, status, instead of internal fit, and lose clarity about what they actually value most.

The danger of the “B+ life” is not failure; it is that it squeaks loudly enough to sound like success, blinding people to the fact that their career could be deeply better.

A New Strategy for Career Fulfillment

So how can professionals, and the leaders who develop them, avoid the “wrong career” trap? Here are evidence-based strategies drawn from the McKinsey dialogue.

Start With Self-Discovery: Invest time and tools in understanding your values, aptitudes, and interests. This is not philosophical fluff; it is a strategic exercise that reveals where your strengths intersect with meaningful work.

Treat Career Fit as a Discipline, Not Just Motivation: Meaningful career decisions require thoughtful analysis and experimentation, not just inspiration. Approach your career like a portfolio: test, reflect, pivot, and reinvest in what actually works.

Measure Fit, Not Just Performance: Organizations should expand talent metrics beyond performance outcomes to include role fit indicators — such as engagement, cognitive match, and sustained satisfaction. This creates intentional pathways for people to grow into roles that match them, not just reward them.

Sum Up

The McKinsey conversation reminds us that today’s world of work is not just changing; it is redefining what meaningful work feels like. Smart people end up in the wrong careers not because they lack ability, but because the old models of career design focus on optimization, not alignment.

In a world increasingly shaped by automation, fluid job structures, and emerging values around purpose and impact, the ability to navigate your career with clarity about who you are,  and how that maps onto meaningful work the world still needs, may be one of the most important skills you can cultivate.

Ultimately, the worst career mistake isn’t failure; it is success in something that isn’t truly yours.

Concluded.

Disclaimers: Pictures in these blogs are taken from free resources at Pexels, Pixabay, Unsplash, and Google. Credit is given where available. If a copyright claim is lodged, we shall remove the picture with appropriate regrets.

For most blogs, I research from several sources which are open to public. Their links are mentioned under references. There is no intent to infringe upon anyone’s copyrights. If, any claim is lodged, it will be acknowledged and duly recognized immediately.

Reference:

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/how-smart-people-end-up-in-the-wrong-careers?stcr=ED4446ABA6AF472D846FCD8E3C4B99E4&cid=mgp_opr-eml-alt-pop-mgp-glb--&hlkid=3d90296fb74b4b44928ebabde7e5bcbc&hctky=15999472&hdpid=c8266a0b-8fbe-418c-9f43-a952e365a3b0