CAREER OPTIONS

Chapter 13 Lecture 1

Education is about more than finding

a job; it is about how you are going to
live your life.
 Finding Work/Changing Jobs

 Clarify your personal mission and values

 Emphasize your portfolio of skills
 Sell organizations not only on what they already do but on
what they need that you can do
• Web development
• Envisioning the future
• Setting up employee volunteer programs
• Managing cross-sector partnerships
 If you can’t sell it to a company, then start your own
 Clarify Personal Mission and
Values
 What are you good at?
 What do you love?
 Where do you want to be 20 years from
now?
 When your work life is done, what do you
want remembered?
 Resources for Career Direction

 Most university placement centers provide career assessments

 Career and personality tests online
• http://discoveryourpersonality.com
• Such as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Career Report—finds the 50 most
popular and 25 least popular careers for your type ($55)
 Campbell Interest and Skill Survey—how you compare with happily
employed people in various occupations
• www.pearsonassessments.com/tests/ciss.htm ($17.95)
 Books: What Color is your Parachute?—helps you create an image of
your dream job ($17.95)
 The Portfolio Career

People seek to acquire a variety of skills. They work

in different parts of the organization or move to
different organizations to acquire desired skills
–Charles Handy
Be entrepreneurial—seek opportunities to develop
your skills
 Talents In a Global Manager’s
Portfolio
 Technical skills, e.g., computer skills
 Communication skills, written and oral
 Interpersonal skills with a vast range of people
 Ability to learn continuously
 View of the big picture and the details
 Team skills
 Flexibility, willingness to adapt to changing needs
 Cross disciplinary boundaries
 Make decisions under uncertainty
Sell Organizations on What They Need and
on What They Don’t Know They Need

THE FOLLOWING GUIDELINES ARE SIMILAR TO PRINCIPLES OF STRATEGIC

MANAGEMENT

1. Overarching principle: think of yourself as a business.

2. Define your product or service. What is your area of expertise?
3. Know your target market. To whom are you going to sell your skills/abilities?
4. What is your "value proposition"—what are you offering that causes a buyer to use
you?
5. Drive for quality and customer satisfaction, even if the customer is someone else in
your organization—like your boss.
6. Know your profession or field and what's going on there. Are you in an obsolete
profession?
7. Invest in your own growth and development. What new products and services are you
able to provide?
8. Be willing to consider changing your business or starting a new one.
 Global Shifts Affect Work

 Downsizing/reengineering/outsourcing
 Projects/portfolio workers
 Limited loyalty
 Virtuality
 Flex-work
 Hoteling
 24 on-call
 Lack of privacy
 Isolation
 They Alter Managerial Jobs

 Managers
• Receive broad goals from leaders
• Have to be self-directed
• Depend on others who are self-directed
• Work in multiple teams and with diverse
groups of people
 Job Titles We Now See

 Chief…Officer
 Mentoring Director
 Business Etiquette Advisor
 Fitness Manager
 Business Concierge
 Catering Manager (for Internet food orders)
 Ombudsperson for Ethics or Diversity Y
 Recognize Options/Propose
Opportunities
 Theme: businesses are looking at more
qualitative concerns while other sectors are
more “business-like”
 Accounting Options

 Booking knowledge
 Social auditing
 Environmental accounting, auditing
 Waste accounting
 Finance Options

 “COUNTING” INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL

 SOCIAL INVESTMENT COUNSELING
 ONLINE INVESTMENTS
 DISINTERMEDIATION OF ONLINE
FINANCIAL SERVICES
 LONG-LIFE INVESTING
 MERGERS/ACQUISITIONS
 Economic Options

 FACTORING IN QUALITATIVE VARIABLES

LIKE QUALITY OF LIFE
 COSTING STRESS AND OTHER SUBJECTS
OF LAWSUITS
 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BEYOND
TRADE, e.g., microenterprise, barter and swaps
 International Business Options

 Managing diversity cross-culturally

 Training for cultural empathy
 Relational skills development
 Multilingual networker for business
alliances
 Management Options

 Managing organizational learning, e.g. Chief

Knowledge Manager
 Managing conflict, stress, change
 Corporate public relations
 Reputation manager
 Managing corporate volunteerism
 Continuous improvements
 Quality management
 Marketing Options

 E-commerce
 Data mining
 Niche marketing
 Green retailing
 Demographic intensity
 Computer Options

 Computer forensics
 IT security
 Mobile security
 Advance to “chief security officer” in IT
 Liberal Arts Options

 Envisioning
 Writing
 Critical thinking
 Cross-sector partner manager
 Staffing strategist or futurist to track events
Interview Accuracy in Predicting
Performance
 Standard interviews—7%
 Resumé analysis—37%
 Work sample or pen and paper skills tests—
44%
 Assessment centers—44%
 Behavioral/situational interviews—54%
Interviews Break with Tradition: The
Situational Interview
 Usually this is a role play in which the applicant
demonstrates what she/he will do when faced with
a “real” organizational challenge
• In a banking setting, the interviewer might play the role
of an irate customer on the phone who is angry about
money lost when trade wasn’t executed in a timely
fashion; it is set up as an obvious error on the part of
the banker
 Interview Questions also Cross
Boundaries
 Microsoft questions from an interview:
• Who do you consider the smartest person? Why?
• What’s your weakest subject in school? Why?
• Why did you learn many languages? (specific to this
individual and reading from the resumé)
• At work, what makes you decide it’s time to go home?
 Interview Questions also Cross
Boundaries
 Microsoft questions from an interview:
• Who do you consider the smartest person? Why?
• What’s your weakest subject in school? Why?
• Why did you learn many languages? (specific to this
individual and reading from the resume)
• At work, what makes you decide it’s time to go home?
 Learn From Informational
Interviews
 You are seeking expert advice and information—15 minutes–1 hour
• You’re not asking for a job, but you are trying to develop a network
 Do your research; know about the company and don’t ask any
questions you couldn’t have answered on your own
 Be enthusiastic, interested and grateful for the time
 Dress business-like—match your choices to the company’s (look at
the annual report)
 When time is up, you be the one to note it
 Follow up with written thanks