by Helen Burton
""Did I hear my name mentioned?" Paul's voice cut through their laughter. "A glass of red wine, my dear."
"Thank you." Lou patted the seat next to her. "David has been telling me all about SEEFAR."
Paul collapsed next to Lou and put his arm along the seat behind her. "I'm a pretty good salesman, aren't I? Just give me a little bit more time and a few more delayed flights and I'll make a fortune for you"
Lou rejoined, "Not if you give them all away!"
Lou pointed at the flight information screen. "Sorry, no more delayed flights for us. It looks like we're finally boarding."
She quickly polished off the rest of her wine; they gathered their things and started to head off towards the departure gate.
"You must look us up the next time you're in Cairns, mate," said Paul.
"I certainly will," said David. "And maybe over a few more beers you might tell me what really happened to that CEO?"
Paul put his arm around Lou's shoulder and she smiled up at him. "I could tell you, mate, but then I'd have to kill you." Paul slapped him on the back and then put his arm around Lou's shoulders as she smiled up at him. They turned and headed down the gangway. David started to laugh and then stopped. Something Paul had said during the weekend suddenly clicked. He let out a low whistle. "Holy cow!" He just had to ask. "Hey, wait a minute."
Summary
Results
What short-term key actions — in the next one to two years — do you need to take to actively manage your career and develop or maintain job satisfaction and employability?
On reflection, what is your mid-term direction?
What are your long-term aspirations?
Using SEEFAR
Career management is a process best undertaken with the assistance of an experienced career coach, who is able to explore, investigate and analyse the results of each activity, and who can identify themes and assist with the development of a personal strategy to achieve results.
However, it is possible to complete the activities under each section of SEEFAR yourself and use them to develop your own personal career strategy. To make this easier, in Part Three we have provided case studies, referencing the results of these activities undertaken by the Medivalue team. Perhaps you'll identify with some of their issues. (Refer to the table in Part Three for a summary of career issues by character).
Career Management Strategy One
Self-understanding and Identity
Why devote time and energy to managing your career? Two simple reasons: to maintain or improve your job satisfaction and to increase your employability.
Exercise 1A: Job satisfaction
Begin by rating your level of job satisfaction in your current/most recent role, for example, how you feel about your job in terms of enjoyment, satisfaction and level of happiness.
Think about the reasons behind your rating. Maybe you like the task content of your role, but you find the environment you work in unpleasant. Perhaps you value the professional and skills development opportunities, but you don't like your boss.
Think about the following factors and allocate each as either a positive, negative or neutral contributor to your job-satisfaction rating.
Task content — how you spend your day
Environment, for example, where you work, physical conditions
Culture, for example, the people you work with, their values and behaviours
Your boss
Development opportunities
Work/life balance, for example, the hours you work, flexibility
Any other factors you think contributed to your rating.
Exercise 1B: Employability
Rate your own assessment of your current level of employability, for example, your level of skills and the degree to which they are in demand and marketable. If you could not do tomorrow what you do today, say through job loss or injury, how quickly could you reposition yourself in a satisfactory new role?
If you are not sure how employable you are, find out now by following the process below:
Scan the internet for the roles that require your skills and qualifications. Are those roles commanding a salary package in line with your financial objectives?
Make an appointment with a recruitment agency or head hunter to discuss your marketability.
Contact professional bodies in your industry or sector and obtain advice on current areas of demand within your profession.
Exercise 1C: Satisfaction/employability matrix
Now that you've rated both criteria — job satisfaction and employability — look at the following matrix to determine where you are located.
Plot your Job Satisfaction axis against the Employability axis and draw a cross at the intersection of the two lines to see which quadrant you are currently positioned in.
Maintenance — Congratulations! You are in the fortunate position of having a satisfying role and high level of employability. Your focus will be on maintaining this in the future.
Investigation — You enjoy your job, but should you be unable to continue in that role, you may experience difficulty sourcing another. Your focus will be on investigating other options — a contingency plan!
Exploration — You are highly employable, suggesting you are very experienced and qualified in your role. However, you no longer derive enjoyment from what you do. Your focus will be to explore other options that will increase your job satisfaction.
Call to Action — You don't enjoy what you do, and you cannot easily source another role. Read on without delay!
Exercise 1D: Other factors to consider
Are there any other factors that might impact on your career choices?
Health — If you have health problems it's vital that you address them and factor in any required changes to your work life into your personal career strategy.
Family/relationships
Notes
Factors that I have identified are:
People close to you — your partner, children, parents, friends — have an impact on your life, and therefore, your career choices. As you work through this process, we encourage you to discuss the results of each phase with the important person/people in your life. What are their needs and wants and how do they affect your career options and decisions?
Exercise 1E: Career review
Reviewing your career history is important to any career-planning exercise. Understanding where you've come from and revisiting your employment history builds a platform to examine your future career.
Review your current resume. If you haven't got a resume or kept it up-to-date, jot down the jobs that you've had in sequence from last to first.
Reflect on your past career positions. What were the reasons you chose your current profession or area of work?
Did you make a clear choice or simply fall into a job or course of study because it was easy and available?
How much influence did your parents or other people close to you have on that decision?
If you've had more than one job, what prompted you to make the change each time?
Exercise 1F: Career options
We all have thoughts and ideas about our future. Some of these options may seem unrealistic or dreamlike; some might be in new fields or involve self-employment; others might be with your current employer if you are happy where you are and would like to maintain your positioning. It's likely some of these options will develop into immediately achievable short-term goals; others may be more relevant to a mid- to long-term plan; and others may be eliminated as "not right for me". Whatever the case, it is important to put these ideas down on paper so that they can be explored in more detail throughout the planning process.
Jot down all your current career options, including everything that you've thought about, no matter how crazy and unrealistic it might seem.
Improve your self-understanding of your identity by considering the following areas:
Exercise 1G: Values
Values are those ideals and b
eliefs that you care deeply about.
They are indicated in your goals, attitudes, interests, feelings, activities and behaviour, and define what is important to you — what gives meaning to your life?
They form the basis on which you make choices and decisions about what you will and will not do, and therefore, are important to your career decisions.
Each of us has developed a unique system of values that determines how we feel about our work and the contribution it makes to society. Extensive research has found that individuals who pursue work that is congruent with their values feel satisfied and successful in their careers. If you choose to pursue a career in an organisation with requirements or culture that are at odds with your values, you will not be happy with the choice. Being in such a position can result in discontent, sickness, depression, anger and a sense of disappointment. Relating your values to your work decisions and choices helps you determine your reasons for wanting to work, the characteristics of occupations that are appealing to you and your career goals.
The first table below is a list of values that relate to career choices. Select 10 values that are most important to you and number them in order of importance on a scale of 1 through 10, with 1 being the most important value and 10 the least important.
Use the second table to think about your work and how you currently live your values. Which values are met by your current work situation? For example, if you chose autonomy, and you are currently being micro-managed by a boss who won't let you make any decisions, then that value is not being met.
Exercise 1H: Task analysis
List all the tasks and functions that are part of your current role and identify the proportion of your time spent doing them (Note: Things you dislike doing, even if they are things you are good at, should not comprise more than ten percent of your work time.)
Exercise 1L: Skills development
Think about your top five current skills, for example, problem solving, coaching, analysing, and list them below. Now think about the skills you would like to develop in the future and list them to be developed.
Exercise 1J: Resumé
Update your resumé with new qualifications, professional development, skills and current achievements. If you don't have a resumé, consider using some of the free online services to develop one or engage the services of a career coach.
Exercise 1K: Personality preferences
Personality profiles add value to the assessment phase of a career strategy in determining your fit with your work environment.
If you have undertaken leadership or personality profiling, review your profiles and note down your strong preferences and motivators.
If you have not had this experience, consider undertaking some profiling. For more information on personality profiles and their role in career management, speak to your HR manager or local career coach.
To access professional career coaches to assist with the activities in this section contact the Career Development Association of Australia at www.cdaa.org.au.
Summary
If you've completed all or some of the above exercises, you've improved your level of self-understanding of your identity. You can reference these results as you start to develop your own personal career strategy.
Career Management Strategy Two
External Image
While self-assessment is an important part of career management, understanding how others perceive us and developing a good, professional reputation in line with our career goals is essential.
Exercise 2A: What is your reputation?
Respond to and reflect on the following questions:
How do you believe you are currently perceived by people with whom you work closely? — How would others describe you?
How have you gained this impression, for example, informal career discussions, performance reviews, 360-degree feedback?
Do key people in your industry know you? If so, what do you believe your reputation is in the marketplace?
Exercise 2B: Creating the right impression
The next exercise is designed to compare your answers to the above questions with feedback from others. Contact at least two people — for example, referees, mentors, colleagues, supervisors — and ask for feedback to these questions. Explain that the information is to help you develop a personal-career strategy. We recommend meeting face-to-face, if possible. Encourage the person responding to be as honest as possible.
Note: Undertake this exercise only when you are in a frame of mind to be open to feedback. If others perceive you to be defensive, they will not be able to give you honest feedback.
Person giving feedback: .............................................
Date: .................................
What do you believe are my greatest strengths?
What areas could I be doing more to develop?
What is my reputation? How am I regarded in this organisation/industry?
After the discussion: Does this feedback match your self-perception of your skills, abilities and reputation?
Exercise 2C: How well networked are you?
Consider the following strategies to manage networking contacts:
1. Do you have a spreadsheet of your contacts — both professionally and personally? If so, now is a good time to review and update your list. You should include:
Name:
Title:
Company:
Contact details:
Interests/things in common/personal details:
Last meeting:
Follow-up actions:
2. Consider the professional memberships you have:
Are they working effectively for you?
Are they allowing you to regularly meet new people and foster ongoing relationships within your profession and outside of your organisation?
3. Set a realistic plan that fits your schedule, to regularly increase your network — for example, arrange one networking function per month and one coffee meeting per month with a professional colleague.
Summary
If you've completed all or some of the above exercises, you've improved your level of understanding about your external image and reputation and begun to consider how you can build effective networks of professional relationships. You can reference these results as you start to develop your own personal career strategy.
Career Management Strategy Three
Environment
An effective career strategy is to always be aware of trends that might impact on your choices.
Exercise 3A: Environment
Think about the realities of the marketplace and carry out some analysis to ensure that you are factoring these important and practical areas into your personal career strategy. For example, futurist Phil Ruthven predicts that careers will be supplanted by contractual "seasons" for individuals, with outsourcing by corporations a continuing trend.
The pace of technological and social change means that work skills are made redundant at increasingly fast rates… It seems reasonable to deduce that in the next 25 years, up to 70 percent of all job categories are likely to change. Of this percentage, half of the existing job categories will disappear; the other half will consist of new jobs that do not yet exist… Success in the future will depend on remaining adaptable, having many job changes and even career changes in our working lives, being as broadly educated as possible, and committing ourselves to continuous life-long learning.
(Peter Ellyard, Australian futurist and strategist, 2001.)
Take a moment to consider the effect on your career of globalisation, technology, economy and politics on your career. Write down what you feel might be the most influential effect/s on your career.
Exercise 3B: Past or present organisation
Is your organisation viable, for example, is your organisation a good fit for you? Does it:
support research and development,
exhibit growth potential,
promote learning culture,
share wealth with employees,
value open communication,
share authority?
Exercise 3C: Profession/occupation
Is your profession core or secondary to your organisation? For example, is it a front-office role, such as sales or customer service, or a back-office function, such as IT, HR or finance?
Exercise 3D: Local marketplace issues
Note any local marketplace issues for you. For example, if you are committed to living in a certain area, what does the employment landscape look like? Are there major employers, growth industries, etc.?
Exercise 3E: Industry
What is your assessment of your industry currently, for example, when considering global and local competition, regulatory impact, expanding products and services?
