An individual should seek professional help in writing resumes and ads and in presenting his qualifications in a letter or interview. These are skill areas that usually require a little practice, so the astute individual goes out on interviews and answers ads for jobs of marginal interest just for the experience.
In John's case, he draws up, with the help of his college placement director, a list of companies of about the right size and with products that seem to meet his specifications. He prepares his resume and slants the covering letter to reflect both his immediate and his longer-term job interests. He includes two or three items from his resume that emphasize the strengths he would bring to a shop engineering position. He writes companies not interviewing on campus; he signs up to sec representatives of others who are making the recruiting rounds.
Obtaining a desirable job does not complete the plan. If a career is in mind, the plan should include actions at least up to the first review point. Additional steps should be taken to make a smooth transition and a success of the job. These may well include obtaining sound information about the company or organization joined, acquiring good product and service knowledge, continuing courses to improve one's knowledge and skill, and getting a better grasp of the organization structure and information about the people who man it. These steps certainly must include the development of a plan (with the help of the new boss) to be sure assigned work is carried out with excellence.
Obtaining the Contribution of Others
Managing a career requires careful programming of information from other people. This means identifying the sorts of information you do not have and finding the sources and avenues of obtaining it. It also means learning how systems function, and which procedures or instructions must be followed, and how to follow them most effectively. Further, career management requires that you identify influential people and determine how to demonstrate your talents and interests to them. In the example, John needed suggestions of likely employers from the placement director. He also needed information from men doing the kinds of work he was considering and advice from interested interviewers to help him reexamine the assumptions he had made about his qualifications.
Once on the job, he will need feedback from his manager to help him perform well, as well as help from his associates. Such help is not often volunteered. Disinterested third parties must have their interest aroused. Special efforts need to be made to find common ground with them, to involve them in planning when possible, and occasionally trade offs should be offered. There are some ground rules for obtaining help from others.
- Ask for it. No one can read your mind. If you need something from someone, make the need known.
- Be sure he understands why you want it and how important it is to you. The vague, general request often produces no result, so be explicit in stating what you want, how you plan to use it, and what its use will do for you. If you have a time limit, say so.
- Ask the right person. Don't go around someone or over his head or ask someone not responsible for the matter to do you a favor.
- Don't impose. Don't ask for more than the person has a responsibility for giving.
- Follow up. If time is short, ask in advance whether the request will be met on time. But don't nag. There is a nice balance between displaying interest in the result and following up every few minutes in an obnoxious manner.
- Thank him when he produces. If the effort was unusual, make sure his boss knows what he did.
No plan is worthy of the name without some milestones along the way. Dates for career plans may not be quite so definite as those for product developments, but they can at least specify the first six-month period during which progress will be reviewed and assumptions examined.
In John's case, it will probably be two years before he takes his first serious look. Has he gotten past the preparatory position in design engineering and been selected for a shop engineering assignment? Does he like the work and find it satisfying? Are the pressures and short-term problems challenging? What about the company he has chosen, and the people for whom and with whom he works? Do choices for the future appear as he thought they would, or are new opportunities evolving?
In addition to answering these questions, a person should turn back to the career-launching checklist to be sure he is adding to his knowledge about his working self. He should rethink his three fundamental decisions and, on the basis of his answers, revise his action plans.
The Employee's Responsibilities
It should be obvious that each person must carry out this kind of management process for his own career. To yield the programming to someone else is to abandon responsibility for one's life and one's contribution to society. However, to try to do it alone, to fail to elicit the informative help of others, is to live in an unreal world. To remain the passive object of others' actions is no solution either. While all around us there are pressures that help or hinder, that draw us toward or away from a particular course of action, in the end each individual must take the responsibility for deciding to respond or not, to take action or not, and thus reassert his essential responsibility for his life. Let's look at the specifics of personal responsibilities for career management.
The charge to "Know thyself" is hardly a new idea. Today, with the testing and counseling services available in high schools and colleges, in the military and the service organizations, and in business and industry, it is easy to think that it is the responsibility of such services to open our eyes to our abilities and to let our employer know how our talents can best be used in his firm. Instead, the individual should take and keep the initiative. If a man is to manage his career to his best advantage, he will view the suggestions and evaluations of others as useful information to be considered in the light of his own awareness of his strengths and interests. Weighing the total information puts him in a position to decide among the career choices open to him.
How should an individual make a self-evaluation? Fortunately, the things we like to do are usually things we do well. Start by taking a blank piece of paper divided by a line down the center. Put strengths on which to build a career on one side and deficiencies in talent on the other. Next, list courses you liked best and least and job duties you especially enjoyed or disliked greatly. Add community work and extracurricular activities you accomplished well and those you didn't.
Then think about the circumstances that surrounded some of the things you've listed as pluses. Were there certain kinds of people who helped make them pleasurable? Were you working pretty independently or tied closely to a team effort? Did you have loose or tight time limits? Were there any other factors that contributed to your pleasure in accomplishment? Do the same thing with the negatives. Is there a common thread to be aware of? Do you work best with certain kinds of people and under certain conditions? These matters can be important in making decisions.
You probably can't weigh the picture objectively. The probing, evaluations, and observations of others can help you. Possible sources include school placement counselors, past and present employers, personnel officers, management consultants, market and economic forecasters, and trends indicated in classified ads. It's important to find people with an awareness of likely growth areas in business, industry, and government. The issue is not simply what fields you are suited for but what growth areas could use your kinds of talents. Timing is important, too. Preferably, the peak demand for your talents should occur at about the time you have acquired experience and your talents have matured. Thus, matching your assets to growth fields is the key to much of career progress. Naturally, the match is seldom perfect, but with some adaptation and adjustments, it can provide a strong career objective.
