Skip to content

The Hero’s Journey is Your Career

The Hero’s Journey

Within each of us, in the collective unconscious, there lies a hero — an archetype that Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung believed lays dormant until called to action. Studying world mythology, Joseph Campbell built upon Jung’s work. In The Power of Myth, Mr. Campbell writes that no matter what the myth, the hero’s journey remains the same.

Your Career is the Hero’s Journey

All heroes must leave what is familiar, venture forth, do battle, and then return, forever changed, with new talents and gifts to share.  For those of us in executive search, that means we deal with something far more important than recruiting metrics and candidate tracking systems: with each and every recruiting engagement, we bear witness to the hero’s journey.

The Hero's Journey

First Comes the Call to Action

The hero’s journey begins with a call to action. For executive search, this would be the point at which a candidate is first given notice that everything is going to change.  That step is often followed by a refusal of the call.  A candidate may not be ready to make a move out of fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or a sense of duty or obligation.

Executive Recruiter, the Hero’s Guide

In the myth of The Hero’s Journey, once the hero has committed to the quest, a magical guide or helper appears. For our careers, that would be an executive search firm. The most gifted recruiters and executive search consultants naturally assume that role, helping usher candidates across the threshold to enter the world of the unknown — unknown possibilities.

Executive search done well is inspired. It helps executives who have worked hard to become the best of the best get the recognition they deserve. We introduce exceptional candidates to once-in-a-lifetime wealth-creation opportunities — that are so lucrative they lift a family up for generations. But beyond the material benefits — we are participants in a spiritual quest that involves forces far greater than any one of us, including Jung’s collective unconscious and Campbell’s monomyth. Campbell believes that discovering our own Hero’s Journey offers us the path to transcendence.

Joseph Campbell’s work lives on. A series of television interviews of the author by journalist Bill Moyers entitled The Power of Myth can still be viewed on Apple TV and YouTube.

Ep. 1: Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth — The Hero’s Adventure

Thanks for reading! We welcome your comments. If you enjoyed our post, please show the love and share it with your friends by clicking the buttons below. It makes it easier for others to find the post.

Feel good. Share the knowledge.
nv-author-image

Krista Bradford

Krista Bradford is CEO of the retained executive search firm The Good Search and of its research division Intellerati. A former award-winning television journalist and investigative reporter, Ms. Bradford now pursues truth, justice, and great talent in the executive suite.View Author posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *