When I was just starting out in the "real world" after my attempt to be a "pepetual college student" was brought to a close, one of my managers had the concept of:
Doing jobs in order to get the techical skill merit badge.
His idea is that as a person moves forward in their career, they should take on tasks that are not necessarily part of their job, simply to learn the skills involved.
(of course, this was all in the context of a particular task he wanted *me* to do)
Being talked into reluctanly accepting responsibility for a task (actually "Captial Equipment Czar") I learn a lot about captial equipment acquistion, but also a lot about not just the financial machinations but also the arbitary actions of large organizations! It was very educational and I learned a lot... likely a lot more than people expected, like how to get things done!
These commentaries are a set of tools and techniques that I have acquired over the years from doing things like