How to Manage Your Career
To accomplish the first step in career management-discovering what position is right for you-two things are required. You must have an accurate view of where you are now-specifically, knowledge of your skills, interests, and preferred lifestyle. Additionally, you must have a personal definition of career success-that is, an understanding of the work roles and activities that help you feel successful and the future positions that will satisfy your career, social, and family needs. Having settled upon a career choice-one for which you are qualified and which will satisfy your needs-you need a realistic plan to progress from where you are now to where you want to be, both in the short and long term, if your plans and actions are flexible, and if they enable you to capitalize on opportunities and make the best of constraints, they are more likely to result in the career success you desire. These three elements – self-assessment, establishment of career objectives and career planning and actions are the essence of individual career management.
The following case history of Todd Newman (fictitious name), who is about to graduate with an MBA degree, shows the amount of time, effort, and thoughtfulness an effective self-assessment and career development plan require-as well as the impressive results they can deliver. Later in this chapter, we shall explain how you too can assess your skills and plan your career.
Career Development Plan
During the past six months I have thought about who I am, what I like and dislike, what makes me happy and unhappy, when I am comfortable or uncomfortable, and what I want to do with my life. I do not believe that I will ever come to firm conclusions on these matters because I am constantly changing. But some things are relatively static, and I do have some definite preferences.
I want to work in a people-oriented environment in which I can assume responsibility and avoid technically oriented procedures. This partially limits my career options, and excludes careers which are numbers-oriented or highly analytical. I am not inclined to pursue a career in accounting, finance, or computer science. Instead I consider line management, consulting, or personnel as viable alternatives.
I have never considered marketing. My educational training in that field is limited. Furthermore, when I think of marketing I picture the highly ambitious manager who is actively monitoring the activities of both colleagues and competitors to make sure that he or she is a step ahead at all times. I envision a successful marketer as having deceived the public, something which is contrary to my values.
I enjoy interacting with people in a helping mode. I am concerned with getting along with others, and am influenced by them in my decision making. Although I realize that my characterization of a marketing professional is a stereotype, I believe that those qualities were instrumental in my disassociation from that area of business.
Line management is a viable career alternative for me, but I am eliminating it from consideration at this time. On the positive side, I evaluate a career in line management as providing the interactive environment I desire. It would give me a chance to assume responsibility as well as the opportunity to motivate others. On the other hand, line management also means maintaining an operation in a line environment. This would require such activities as developing budgets, maintaining equipment, and forecasting future needs. Therefore, while the "people side" of the job is consistent with my self-assessment, the equally important operations side of the job deviates somewhat from my interests.
Business consulting is another option I am currently eliminating. As a business consultant I would be analyzing management and business problems. This would allow me to be actively involved in critical decision making and planning, which is consistent with my enjoyment of responsibility and setting and achieving high work standards. These factors seem to indicate a good individual career fit, but there is more to the consultant's job: A good consultant is a confident decision maker and is able to confront others easily and sell ideas. I am not that self-assured. Although a consultant interacts with people in a helping fashion, much of the work is individual and project-oriented. Interaction with clients is limited during the first few years. Thus, affiliation with other people would play a subordinate role in my job responsibilities in this type of work. Also, extensive travel is typical. While travel is consistent with my preference for an active schedule, it would also create some inner tension, since it would disturb my close ties with family and friends. Another characteristic of the job that is inconsistent with my self-assessment is that a consultant functions in a relatively unstructured environment and usually works on several projects simultaneously. I prefer structured and organized activities.
I have decided to pursue a career in human-resource management. Specifically, I am looking for a position with a large company, where I will be able to gain experience in each of the functional areas that compose the human-resource department. I would like to be part of an on-the-job training program that will allow me to work on three or four separate assignments in a variety of task areas during my first two years. Initially I hope to gain a generalist background in the areas of labor relations, equal employment opportunity, compensation and benefits, wage and salary administration, training and development, and recruitment and selection. This short-term career objective will provide me with an optimal type of experience, for after this generalist training I will be better equipped to make an educated decision to either remain a generalist (and supervise a personnel department), or specialize in a specific functional area.
Personnel administrators must be able to communicate effectively and work with people at all levels of education and experience. They also must be able to see both the employee's and employer's points of view. In addition, they should be able to work as part of a team. I enjoy affiliation with people and am concerned about getting along with them. Also, a personnel administrator must be a good business person and manager. He or she must have the ability to supervise and accept responsibility. I like responsibility and the chance to assume a leadership role. In addition, my MBA degree has given me a general understanding of business. The informational interview I had with an employment specialist at General Foods indicated that human-resource management positions generally require flexibility and the ability to handle a dynamic, fast-moving, challenging work environment I enjoy a busy schedule. Although I sometimes resist change, once a change is accepted, I adjust rapidly. This past summer, for example, involved lots of activity and changes. I was usually on the go, interviewing different corporate executives and placement directors."
Todd Newman's Career Management
The above excerpt from Todd Newman's career development plan shows that through self-assessment and analysis of career objectives, Steve has arrived at a reasonable idea of what he is looking for. He also tested some of his assumptions and stereotypes regarding human-resource management by interviewing an employment specialist at General Foods and working as a summer intern in personnel.
Steve put his career plan into motion by tailoring his resume and cover letters to the human-resource management area. Many of his past activities, projects, and work roles were reanalyzed to emphasize accomplishments in human-resource management. His career objective was clearly stated on his resume, and the experience and qualifications he listed highlighted human-resource functions.
Since relatively few organizations recruit for human-resource management positions at Todd Newman's graduate school, Steve decided to augment his five on-campus interviews with a letter campaign. Steve mailed out thirty-five letters to Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the New York metropolitan area. His cover letter indicated his career preference for on-the-job experience in a variety of human-resource functions over the first two years.
His thirty-five letters generated ten interview offers. Of these Steve accepted eight. He also went to five interviews set up by the college placement office. From these thirteen first interviews, he received eleven call-back interviews. He accepted six of these, and obtained four competitive job offers from which he selected the one he felt best fit his career plan.
The success of Todd Newman's job search was partially due to his efforts in self-assessment, establishing career objectives, developing a workable career plan, and taking targeted career actions. He succeeded also because he focused his efforts on those organizations that offered him the career opportunities he wanted. As a result, he did not waste time and energy generating career opportunities that were inappropriate for him.
Performing the self-assessment and developing a career plan do not guarantee your landing the ideal job. Some individuals who form accurate self-assessments do not receive as many or as favorable job offers as Steve did, either because their search is poorly focused, the opportunities in their preferred area are few, or their records and job-related abilities are not favorable. Others lack the necessary job search skills. Nevertheless, career planning gives you a definite head-start. Recruiters report that individuals who have specific career goals receive far more favorable reactions than those who have vague or ambiguous goals. Any successful career management program must begin with self-assessment.
How Career Objectives Help You Plan Your Career
As the Cheshire Cat said to Alice, it doesn't matter which way you go if you don't know where you want to end up. But of course we all know where we want to end up-or do we? When asked what their career goals are, most people respond in socially acceptable generalities. Responses we have heard from students and young managers include: "a high-level position in marketing or finance," "accountant and general partner at a big-eight public accounting firm," "president of my own firm," "a high-level manager in a Fortune 500 company." While these are career objectives, they are generally sought with relatively little knowledge of the work roles and activities associated with these positions.
Few people systematically investigate target jobs and the career paths that will lead to the attainment of these jobs. Establishing career objectives requires more than merely stating a possible target job. It is knowing (1) the target job's work-related activities, (2) its social and political aspects, (3) its demands on your personal time and family, and (4) the series of possible positions that would prepare you to perform effectively in the target job. The process of assessing organizations and positions discussed below provides methods of learning about them that enable you to understand fully these four aspects of a target position.
Evaluating Organizations and Positions
Just as individuals have varied identities, so do organizations and positions. The attributes of an organization are often defined by the organization's work and social climate; by its authority, task, reward, and power structures; and by its policies and decision-making methods. Positions can be characterized by the functions they fulfill, various dimensions of the work, and who reports to whom. Part of managing your career involves investigating these organizational and position-related attributes so that your goals, job assignments, and developmental activities reflect organizational reality. Through investigation you can discover whether particular organizations and positions do or do not fit your goals, skills, or interests.
Essentially, you assess organizations and positions in much the same way as you assess yourself. However, there is one notable addition: You must also analyze the fit between you and the organization or position. Once again, you should collect information from many sources, with little evaluation during the collection phase. Once a substantial amount of information is available, then examine it and compare it with your self-assessment.
Guidelines for Assessing Organizations and Positions
- Generate information about organizations or positions that may fit your career identity. Do not evaluate the information.
- Generate information from multiple methods and sources.
- Interpret information in the form and context in which it is generated.
- Analyze information; identify organizational or positional attributes.
- Assess the accuracy and pervasiveness of these attributes relative to your self-assessment.
- Analyze the fit between your identity and the organization's attributes.
Written material and information from non-employees can help define the general dimensions of an industry or company. Interviews with potential supervisors and peers, as well as direct observation, provide the richest information on career possibilities and will meaningfully augment other information you obtain on job activities.
Having gathered information from a variety of sources, you must analyze the fit between you and the organization or position. Your self-assessment defines the areas for exploration through your identity statements, which indicate your areas of strength, weakness, and interest. Does the target job utilize your strengths, minimize your weaknesses, and conform to your interests? Information-seeking questions that are tailored to your needs can be asked in interviews with friends, associates, and incumbents in target jobs. By exploring a target job, it is possible to refine your career objectives, evolve a career development plan, and take positive career development action.
