Measures to be Taken to Promote and Develop Your Careers

Career development can be viewed from the perspective of the organization or of the individual. We can now focus on individual career development.

In this section we want to identify what employees can do to better manage their own careers.

Career development begins with the individual. Each person must accept his responsibility for career development, or career progress is likely to suffer. The primary responsibility for career planning and development rests on the individual employee.

The responsibility for career development ultimately belongs to each individual.

Once the personal commitment is made, several career development actions may prove useful. The best career choice is one that offers the best match between what you want out of life and what you need.

These actions involve;

Participate in an internship

Companies want persons who have some experiences and who show some initiative.

One of the best ways of showing these attributes is through an internship. Doing an internship is a prerequisite to get a degree. Internship offers you a chance to see what the work is really like, to get a better understanding of an organization’s culture and to see if you fit well into the organization.

The work experience the intern gets and the realistic preview of his profession of choice are invaluable.

Internship experiences also enable a person to list work experience on a resume-something that recruiters view very favorably. If the internship is not possible, consider part-time employment in your field of choice while you pursue your education.

Select first job judiciously

If an individual has a choice, he should select a powerful organization or department’s a place to start his management career.

A powerful department is one in which crucial and important decisions are made.

If you start out in departments that are high in power within the organization, you are more likely to advance rapidly. “The people who get the best jobs have been planning their strategy for one year or more,” says Jay Jessup, author of the personal branding book, Fame 101. He cites Oprah Winfrey as a perfect example: According to Jessup, “Winfrey planned her success every step of the way, and is still thinking ahead five years,”.

Job Performance

Career progress rests largely upon performance. The most important action an individual can undertake to further his career is good job performance.

When performance is substandard, regardless of other career development efforts, even modest career goals are usually unattainable.

Individuals who perform poorly are disregarded quickly by the personnel department and by management decision ­makers.

Exposure

Career progress is furthered by exposure.

Exposure means becoming known by those who decide on promotions, transfers, and other career opportunities. Without exposure, best performers may not get a chance at the opportunities needed to achieve their career goals.

Managers gain exposure primarily through their performance, written reports, oral presentations, committee work, community service, and even the hours they work. It is essential to develop right image.

Because the evaluation of your effectiveness can be very subjective, it is important that your boss and those in power in the organization be made aware of your contributions.

Do not stay too long in your first job

Move quickly through different jobs. Seek early transfer or promotion from your first management job.

For example, in a public university, there are many senior teachers working in the same department.

In view of little opportunities for upward mobility, many mid-level and junior teachers can shift to the newly created department to reap more benefits.

Resignation

When an individual sees greater career opportunities elsewhere, a resignation may be the only way to meet his career goals.

Some employees change employers as part of a conscious career strategy. Ahmed Faysal Sumit, who is a Chartered Accountant, has resigned from his current organization and join another organization with lucrative salary and other benefits.

In the last ten years, he has been resigned three times to further his career. Resigning in order to further one’s career with another employer has been called leveraging.

Organizational Loyalty

In many organizations, people put loyalty to their career above loyalty to their organization.

Sometimes, employers try to buy this loyalty with high pay or benefits; other organizations try to build employee loyalty through good management treatment and effective human resource practices, including career planning and development.

By offering careers, not just jobs, many organizations nurture a pool of talent that consistently allows them to staff senior management positions from among lifelong employees.

And many employees use their dedication and loyalty to the company as a career tactic. In Japan, employees tend to be very loyal to their employer because many firms will hire only entry-level workers.

Mentors and Sponsors

Mentoring has become a very popular concept. Mentorship is a personal development relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person.

The idea is simple an older, more experienced person helps a young person grow and advance by providing advice, support, and encouragement.

Good teachers, coaches, parents and bosses- all performs some mentoring functions.

A mentor is a teacher, an advisor, a sponsor, and a confidant. A mentor is someone who offers informal career advice. If the mentor can nominate the employee for career development activities- such as training programs, transfers or promotions- then the mentor becomes a sponsor. A sponsor is someone in the organization who can create career development opportunities for others.

Often the employee’s sponsor has been the immediate supervisor, although others may serve as nominators. A sponsor is the individual or group that provides the support, similar to a benefactor.

Growth Opportunities

When employees expand their abilities, they complement the organization’s objectives. For example, enrolling in a training program, taking noncredit courses, pursuing an additional degree can contribute to employee growth.

These growth opportunities aid both the personnel department’s objectives of developing internal replacements and the individual’s personal career plan.

Membership in the private clubs and professional associations may also afford growth opportunities. Community service activities provide opportunities for growth and recognition.

Key Subordinate

Successful managers rely on subordinates who aid the manager’s development and performance. The subordinates may possess highly specialized knowledge and skills that the manager may learn from them.

Or the employee may perform a crucial role in helping a manager achieve good performance. In either case, employees of this type are key subordinates. They exhibit loyalty and dedication to their bosses.

They gather and interpret information, offer skills that supplement those of their managers, and work unselfishly to further their managers’ careers. They also benefit by moving up the career ladder when the manager is promoted and by receiving important delegations that serve to develop their careers.

These people complement personnel department objectives through their teamwork, motivation, and dedication.

Develop a Network

Our final suggestion is based on the recognition that a network of friends, colleagues, neighbors, customers, suppliers, and so on can be a useful tool for career development.

Learn the power structure

Know and understand the organization’s power structure. You need to learn who is really in charge,-who has the good contrail on whom, what are the major debts and dependencies.

Support your boss

Your immediate future is in the hands of your current boss.

He evaluates your performance and you do not have enough power to successfully challenge your boss. You should make the effort to help your boss succeed. Be supportive.

Do not undermine your boss or speak negatively of your boss to others. If your boss’s performance is poor or his power is negligible, you need to transfer to another unit.

People start to find ways to develop competencies and to achieve in order to increase control over their life.

College internships are an (excellent exploration tool. Individuals are given opportunity to see their future co-workers firsthand and to do a real job

The internship may lead to a job offer.

Exploration is preparing for work. Our career choices are affected by advices and examples of our relatives, teachers, friends, and coaches. They all provide us certain directions.

Establishment

It is a stage in which one begins to search for work. It includes getting one’s first job. It is acceptance of a job.

After a new entrant chooses his career from different given alternatives, he needs to be provided with regular feedback on his performance.

Such feedback helps the new employee to understand the effectiveness of his performance and at the same time; he can initiate required collective action to overcome his deficiencies.

The employee is inducted and oriented. It begins with uncertainties anxieties and is dominated by two problems: finding a niche and making your mark.

Finding the right job takes time for many of us. We change a series of job in which we feel more comfortable. Making your mark is characterized by making mistakes, learning from those mistakes and assuming increased responsibilities.

Individuals at this stage cannot reach their peak productivity. The career takes lots of time and energy. At this time the employee is considered seasoned veteran.

Mid-career

It is a career stage marked by a continuous improvement in performance, leveling off in performance, or beginning of deterioration of performance.

In mid-career, an employee generally enters a period of maximum productivity. He is becoming more of a teacher/ mentor than a learner.

Few employees during this stage are becoming stagnant. These employees are plateaued, not failed.

Plateauing is a condition of stagnating in one’s current job. They are technically competent and they may be satisfied to contribute a sufficient amount of time and energy to the organization to meet production commitments; they may be easier to manage than someone who wants more.

These employees are not deadwood but good, reliable employee and solid citizens. There are some employees whose performance begin to deteriorate. They lose their interest and productivity is low.

Organizations are often limited to relegating such employees to easy jobs, reprimanding them, demoting them or terminating them.

Late-career

It is the stage in which individuals are no longer learning about their jobs. It’s not expected that they should be trying to outdo levels of performance from previous years.

They can teach others based on the knowledge they have gained. More jobs involving teaching others. One begins to look forward to retirement and the opportunities of doing something different.

It is a psychological preparation for retirement. An employee find sources of self-improvement, and new sources of job satisfaction through teaching others.

Decline

This stage indicates formal preparation for retirement. An employee learns to accept reduced role.

Work responsibilities are fewer. He learns to accept a less structured life due to absence of work. Those who are financially sound to lead a better life in retirement are more likely to engage in activities that they desire.

But financially weak persons may not be able to retire and they have to seek gainful employment in some capacity to supplement their retirement income.