Beyond the Corporate Ladder: Ani Filipova on Expanding Career Vision

In a recent LinkedIn post, Ani Filipova shares a powerful personal reflection on how her perception of career opportunities evolved, moving from a limited view to a landscape rich with possibilities. Filipova, who describes herself as a former Regional COO with 25 years of experience and extensive international exposure in London, Singapore, and Hong Kong, initially felt constrained by what she perceived as only two viable paths: moving to another bank or joining one of the Big Four accounting firms.

She recounts her past mindset, stating:

“If you had asked me what I could do next, I would have only mentioned those two options. I wasn’t being modest. I genuinely couldn’t see anything else.”

Filipova emphasizes that this limitation was not due to a lack of external opportunities, but rather an internal inability to recognize them. This “mental filter,” as she calls it, shapes what individuals notice within their professional lives and can inadvertently block out other potential paths. The good news, according to Filipova, is that this filter is not fixed and can be retrained.

Retraining Your Career Opportunity Filter

Filipova outlines three key strategies for retraining this mental filter and broadening one’s perception of career possibilities.

Exploit vs. Explore

The first strategy addresses the common corporate tendency to focus on “exploiting” existing knowledge and skills rather than “exploring” new avenues. Filipova argues that this deep-seated focus on exploitation can lead professionals to stop seeing new options, not because they don’t exist, but because their exploration muscles have atrophied. She notes that most senior corporate careers are heavily weighted towards this exploitative approach.

The “Red Car” Effect

Secondly, Filipova introduces the concept of the “red car effect” to illustrate how our brains actively seek out and notice patterns related to what we already know or have recently focused on. She explains that once a certain experience or focus is established, similar opportunities or instances become more apparent. The more diverse experiences one accumulates, the wider the range of possibilities they are likely to notice.

Leveraging the Adjacent Possible

The third crucial element Filipova highlights is the concept of the “adjacent possible.” This refers to opportunities that are only one step away from one’s current position. Filipova stresses that staying in the same environment limits the visibility of these adjacent opportunities. She shares her own transformative experience:

“I did not suddenly have more options; I simply changed my environment in a big way.”

By significantly altering her environment, Filipova was able to access a new set of possibilities that were previously invisible to her. She concludes by asserting that the number of opportunities available is not predetermined but is a direct result of what individuals have trained themselves to see.

“The number of opportunities in your life and career isn’t set in stone. It’s set by what you’ve trained yourself to see.”

Filipova’s insights offer a compelling perspective for professionals feeling stuck or limited in their career progression, suggesting that the key to unlocking new paths lies in actively retraining one’s perception and willingness to explore beyond familiar territory. She also provides a link to a free Career Optionality quiz to help individuals assess their positioning in areas like Visibility, Income Resilience, Authority, Senior Positioning, and AI Fluency.