{"id":517222,"date":"2026-04-07T07:33:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T07:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/517222\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T07:33:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T07:33:21","slug":"on-thin-ice-the-reality-of-career-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/517222\/","title":{"rendered":"On Thin Ice: The Reality of Career Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Career<\/a> advice tends to focus primarily on certain contexts\u2014often office jobs, start-ups, academia, or entrepreneurship. But there is much to learn from other careers, some equally prominent.<\/p>\n

As a career researcher and ice skating enthusiast, I couldn’t just watch the recent Netflix documentary “Glitter and Gold<\/a>” without taking notes. The series follows the careers of\u2014and Olympic-level, high-stakes competition<\/a> among\u2014three ice dancing teams representing the U.S., Canada, and France, and the career lessons embedded in it are hard to miss.<\/p>\n

Who Are the Subjects of “Glitter and Gold”?<\/p>\n

U.S.: Madison Chock and Evan Bates have been ice dance partners since 2011 and got married in 2024. They are three-time World Champions (2023, 2024, and 2025) and are known for their creative, artistic, and innovative programs, as well as their distinctive costumes. While they were considered favourites to win gold at the 2026 Olympics, they ultimately lost to the French couple (below).
\nCanada: Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier have been partnered since 2011. They have five World Championship medals and are known for their unique choreography and strong storytelling style. They won the bronze medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics, marking their first-ever Olympic medal.
\nFrance: Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron partnered in March 2025, making it one of the shortest partnerships in the history of the sport. Prior to this, Cizeron was an Olympic Champion alongside Gabriella Papadakis, before Papadakis announced she was ending their partnership in December 2024. Fournier Beaudry had previously skated with Nikolaj S\u00f8rensen (also still her boyfriend), representing Denmark and later Canada, where she is originally from. Their partnership ended following allegations of sexual<\/a> maltreatment involving S\u00f8rensen, who was initially banned from skating for a minimum of six years; however, that suspension was later overturned on jurisdictional grounds and remains under appeal.<\/p>\n

Career Lessons from “Glitter and Gold”<\/p>\n

1. Strong work partnerships take time and sustained effort.<\/p>\n

To achieve perfect coordination on the ice, move as a single body, and withstand the enormous pressure of elite competition, partners need years of collaboration<\/a>. While the French team may appear to be an exception, they benefited from having trained together, sharing a similar technical background, and being close friends.<\/p>\n

2. Your career success doesn’t depend only on you.<\/p>\n

In career research, we often refer to chance events<\/a>. At the Olympic level, teams frequently need to wait for the retirement<\/a> of more experienced competitors to secure a place on the podium. Beyond this, unexpected decisions by others can significantly shape outcomes.<\/p>\n

For example, Guillaume Cizeron’s return to competition with a new partner created unexpected pressure for the U.S. and Canadian teams. Conversely, at the Grand Prix Final, a fall by Fournier Beaudry<\/a> during the final cost them significant points, allowing Team USA<\/a> to take gold easier. Months later, at the Winter Olympics, the French team claimed gold with the same routine, highlighting how unpredictable performance outcomes can be.<\/p>\n

3. Your career may heavily depend on your partner or team.<\/p>\n

In high-stakes partnerships, you carry responsibility not only for your own career but also for your partner’s. This burden can be even greater when partners are also romantically involved.<\/p>\n

In Fournier Beaudry’s case, her former partner’s alleged misconduct could have prematurely ended her career had she not secured a new partnership. In a moment from the documentary, Evan Bates is shown dealing with back pain, raising questions about motivation<\/a>\u2014whether driven by personal goals, responsibility to his partner, or national representation.<\/p>\n

4. High levels of dedication often come with personal sacrifices.<\/p>\n

Career sacrifices are deeply personal and should never be prescribed. However, elite sport makes these trade-offs visible.<\/p>\n

For example, Chock and Bates mention postponing starting a family. Piper Gilles competed while her mother was seriously ill. Gilles herself was also treated for cancer later and returned to professional skating after overcoming the disease. These examples highlight the emotional and personal costs that can accompany high performance.<\/p>\n

5. Gender<\/a> dynamics can shape career experiences.<\/p>\n

In the past, Chock and Bates’ performances were often framed as “look at how stunning Madi is\u2014and Evan is also there.”<\/p>\n

Due to the aesthetic nature of ice dance, female skaters often receive more visual attention<\/a> and may face additional pressure regarding appearance. Costumes are not just artistic tools but performance risks, as seen in skirt-related accidents during both rehearsals and competitions (e.g., Madison Chock and Laurence Fournier Beaudry).<\/p>\n

6. A “mind beyond borders” can be critical for career success.<\/p>\n

Elite careers often require geographic and national flexibility.<\/p>\n

Fournier Beaudry was born in Canada, competed for Denmark, and now represents France. Piper Gilles was born and raised in the U.S. and competes for Canada (her mother’s country). These examples show how career progression may depend on openness<\/a> to cross-border opportunities.<\/p>\n

7. The definition of career success can be highly subjective. <\/p>\n

There is an ongoing debate about the scoring system in competitive skating, despite significant efforts to make judging more objective and fair. While winning a gold, silver, or bronze medal makes a substantial difference for athletes, these outcomes still depend heavily on the reliability of the evaluation systems in place.<\/p>\n

This raises a broader question: To what extent is career success truly objective in any field? The criteria by which success is defined and evaluated are often shaped by systems, norms, and subjective judgments\u2014not just individual performance.<\/p>\n

Conclusion: Careers Are More Relational, Contextual, and Unpredictable Than We Think<\/p>\n

Careers are rarely individual journeys; they are also contextual, shaped by timing, chance events, and the decisions of others. While most of us are not training for the Olympics, the same underlying dynamics apply to our own careers. <\/p>\n

We rely on others more than we often acknowledge. We are affected by circumstances beyond our control. And we are sometimes required to make difficult trade-offs in pursuit of what matters to us.<\/p>\n

The key question, then, becomes: What should our careers mean to us, and how much space should they occupy in a life filled with many possible sources of meaning and joy?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Career advice tends to focus primarily on certain contexts\u2014often office jobs, start-ups, academia, or entrepreneurship. But there is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-517222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}