Herzberg's explicit substitute for a formal career plan: rather than optimizing moves for role, title, or a mapped-out trajectory, she followed trusted, high-caliber people — specifically the Wiz founders, with whom she had prior working history — across companies and roles, including into a function (marketing) she had not previously worked in. The implicit claim is that proximity to trusted, talented people is a better predictor of a good outcome than the specifics of the role itself. Related to Personal Board of Directors but distinct: this is a criterion for whose company/team to join, not a support structure to consult.
Tamar Yehoshua explicitly rejects the need for a five-year career plan. Her heuristic instead: follow the people you learn the most from, and target companies that function as a "nexus of great people" with real "gravitational pull." Her reasoning is about predictability — financial outcomes (will this company succeed?) are the hardest thing to forecast, while who is good and where you'll actually learn is far more predictable. Skills acquired this way are durable in a way a company's fate is not: "unlike a failed company, [skills] can't be taken away."
A related test for evaluating a specific job offer, not just a company: would this role, if you hired someone else into it, make their career? If yes, it's a strong signal about the role itself, independent of the company's odds of success.
Yehoshua's concrete version of this: target companies that are a "nexus of great people" — where many top-tier people currently work or have worked — because the relationships and reputational proximity persist even if that particular company later fails. The literal tactic: write down the people you most respect for being best-in-class at their function, then look at where they currently work; that list becomes your target-company shortlist. This reframes company selection as person-selection one level removed — you're not researching the company, you're researching who's inside it.