Managing your career

Your career should not just be allowed to happen . You need to manage it - just as you would manage anything else which is important.
As an MBA program participant/recent MBA graduate - you are inevitably at an important career decision stage. A positive and clear view about your future career must be the background against which you make any immediate job decisions.

This is a complex and very personal subject - but here are some general points. Get further information /help/advice - if you think you need it.

There are some basic things to consider - Self Assessment, Career Tactics, Personal Development and Scanning.

Know yourself

• Think about your competences and your achievements.
• Do this regularly - as both you, and the world about you change.
• As a minimum - you should do this for yourself - but on occasions you might choose to get some help eg get others to assess you if possible- eg as part of an annual appraisal - or a ‘360 degree’ assessment. You might also get professional help from career professionals - such services are often offered to MBA students as part of a placement service.
• You should aim to achieve the following.
• List your existing competences. If possible compare them against published competence profiles for particular levels of jobs , and thus -
• Identify your competence gaps/weaknesses.
• Be clear about your present values - ie what influences your behaviour.
• Be clear about your current objectives - ie what drives you.
• Decide which of your competence gaps are important - ie which you will need to repair.
• Identify ways to gain these missing competences.
• Decide if a career will help you get closer to your objectives and fill the competence gaps.

Career Tactics

In general people who feel that they are in the right career- aim to develop their career in a ‘linear’ manner - step by step onwards and upwards. However if you feel that you are in the wrong career - don’t hang around for your world to get better - get yourself into a better situation - you will need to take the risk to get the right opportunities - they will not come to you.

Self Development

Your development is your responsibility - not someone elses. As a manager your professional development is what you do for yourself - not what someone does to you. You need to make it happen. But remember development is not just about taking courses like your MBA - it is about benefiting from experience. The most important and influential thing you can do for yourself is to equip yourself to recognise formative/developmental experiences and to be equipped to benefit from them. Try to manage your career such that you are regularly faced with new experiences. - consistent of course with being able to cope and being seen to succeed.

Scanning

Keep looking around yourself. Benchmark yourself against people you know - eg your contemporaries - and for this (and many other reasons) keep in touch with them and meet regularly. Look for opportunities - and let it be known that you welcome them. Don’t set your sights any lower than the people who you consider to be your equals.

Be prepared to take risks - especially in the early part of your career.

Tips-

1. Recognize your knowledge/skill obsolescence - just as important to managers as to technical people.
2. Be prepared to make sacrifices - success does not come easy.
3. Don’t expect someone else to be responsible for your career - even if you are in a large organisation and even if they tell you they will look after you! Usually organisations have different priorities.
4. Don’t try to copy someone else - but do try to learn from them.
5. Try to be visible - you are aiming to promote yourself.
6. Cultivate relationships with people who will/can influence your career.
7. Don’t make excuses, or deceive yourself if things go wrong - assume it was something you should have managed better -and learn from it.
8. Move when you are at the top.
9. Don’t be underutilized - ask for more responsibility/challenge- or move.
10. Sell yourself on your accomplishments.
11. Try not to let safety begin to be sufficient.
12. Associate with people you admire - some of it will rub off.
13. Build and sustain a stable and supportive family situation.