How many times in your career have you jumped into an entirely different industry or area of expertise?

Our reader poll today asks: How many times in your career have you jumped into an entirely different industry or area of expertise?

• Never  21.11%
• 1-2  40.69%
• 3-5  28.51%
• More than 5  9.69%

Learning new things. While 62% of you report only moving to a different industry or area of expertise two or less times, 38% have made multiple jumps over the course of your careers. Learning new things can be scary and entering new industries or functions requires you to ascend a steep learning curve. Those jumps are not without risks either. All that said, the benefits of making those jumps can be many. You’ll learn new things and find different ways of looking at the world. You’ll experience new cultures in those new departments or companies. You’ll become a better problem solver because you’ll understand more facets of a problem and be able to make more connections between domains of expertise. If you’re given the opportunity to make a jump and it feels like your current career trajectory is stalled, consider the new role. You’ll learn a lot and it could reinvigorate your career.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.