6 Lessons from Professor Carter Cast on Building a Career You’ll Be Proud Of

Cathy Campo
Nov 23, 2025
5 min read

If you’ve been at Kellogg for more than five minutes, you’ve probably heard someone say, “You have to take a class with Carter Cast.” And they’re right. Professor Cast is one of those professors who manages to make every lecture feel like a conversation you didn’t know you needed. Before teaching at Kellogg, he built an incredible career launching Tostitos Scoops! at Frito-Lay, bringing The Sims to life at Electronic Arts, and leading Walmart.com as CEO. But what makes Professor Cast special isn’t just his résumé; it’s the way he brings real-world lessons into the classroom with humility, humor, and honesty. He’s the kind of professor who reminds you that building a great career isn’t about chasing the flashiest title, it’s about curiosity, courage, and knowing who you are.

Don’t have 2,100 bid points to spare? The Kelloggian sat down with Professor Cast for his top six lessons on building a meaningful, resilient career.

1. Go with the growth.

“One thing I stress a lot to students is to go with the growth,” he said. “If you go into industries that have some sort of secular market-trend growth driven by changing consumer behavior, regulation, or technological disruption, those changes can fuel opportunity.”

He explained that high-growth industries create more space to move fast and learn fast. “When I went into gaming in the late ’90s, it was exploding because bandwidth was increasing, gameplay was better, there was less latency and pixelation. And because of all the new hardware systems, Nintendo Wii, Xbox, PlayStation, new platforms were being introduced every year. If you worked for a gaming company, you were throwing software into an increasing install base of customers buying more hardware.”

“That kind of growth,” he added, “accelerates learning and opportunity. You can take advantage of it by working in a high-growth industry and then you can get ahead faster.”

2. Zig when they zag.

Of course, chasing growth doesn’t mean following the crowd. Once you’ve found a growing space, Cast says the real opportunity comes from looking where others aren’t.

That’s where his second principle comes in: take the road less traveled. “I like doing unconventional things,” he said. “Here’s my thing: zig when they zag. If everybody’s going into consulting, maybe you go do something different. I like going against the grain.”

He grinned as he shared one of his favorite analogies. “It’s sort of like O’Hare,” he said. “If there’s a big line to go through security and you walk a little farther down, there’s going to be a shorter line. Most people do what’s safe and popular and that’s where all the competition is. So go to a place where there’s less supply. You have to dig a little deeper to find those opportunities, but they’re worth it.”

3. Build your career from the inside out.

“You want to get skilled in some functional area first, that’s your foundation,” Cast said. “Stay in that area long enough to see different industries or problems, so when you get hired, you know the moves to make because you understand that skill area so well.”

Once that base is set, he tells students to focus on alignment. “We all perform best when the move, the industry, or the job aligns with what we value when there’s a sense of purpose attached to it,” he said.

“Values are what’s important to you. Motives are what give you energy. For me, I’m driven by achievement. I like to keep score and know I’m improving the metrics of what I’m working on. And I’m driven by autonomy. I want freedom to mold my work product. When I have both, I’m at my best.”

His takeaway: “First, get the skill base so you have leverage. Then think about what kind of work gives you energy and aligns with your values. That’s how you find meaning not just momentum.”

4. Be patient, setbacks are part of the story.

Sometimes the hardest lessons come when things don’t go as planned. When Cast left Frito-Lay to join Electronic Arts, he expected to report directly to the head of the division. Just before he started, the company added another executive between them essentially bumping him down a level without warning.

“I almost quit,” he admitted. “It felt like a step back. I went to the people who made me the offer and said, ‘You owed me that conversation.’”

But instead of walking away, he stayed. “It wasn’t easy. I had to eat humble pie for a bit. But there was so much growth happening in the gaming industry that within six months, my responsibilities expanded, and I was doing work I loved.”

That experience reshaped how he thinks about career timing. “Sometimes your impatience can get in your own way,” he said. “Careers aren’t foot races. Things take time to play out.”

5. Stay self-aware; it’s the ultimate career safeguard.

After years of studying why talented people derail, Cast found one constant. “Almost every person I interviewed who got into career trouble lacked self-awareness in some area,” he said. “It might be interpersonal how they behave under stress or a skill gap they never closed. These blind spots can really hurt your effectiveness.”

His solution: seek feedback before you need it. “Lead with vulnerability,” he said. “Say, ‘One thing I think I could have done better was explain the next steps. What did you notice?’ That shows humility and signals that you really want to learn.”

6. Be a learner—always.

When asked what skills matter most in the first decade of a career, Cast didn’t hesitate. “Three things,” he said (and no, he doesn’t come from a consulting background!). “Be a learner, enlist others, and drive for results.”

“Learners stay curious and adaptable. People who can enlist others know how to listen and collaborate. Business is a team sport. And drive for results means you don’t stop until the work is done right. Those three abilities—learning, collaboration, and drive—will serve you well anywhere.”

He also encourages curiosity from day one. “When you start your post-MBA role, you can ask anything and no one will think it’s stupid, they know you’re new,” he said. “Get out and talk to customers, suppliers, colleagues. Learn what matters most from their perspective. Then synthesize that and bring it to your boss. That’s how you build credibility fast.”

At the heart of each lesson was the same reminder: growth is the real goal. It’s not about chasing the next title, it’s about building the self-awareness, resilience, and curiosity to keep moving forward. As Professor Cast would say, careers aren’t ladders. They’re built step by step, choice by choice, from the inside out.