career and life planning in challenging times
DESCRIPTION
Career and life planning in challenging times. David Levinson, International Careers Adviser [email protected]. This session aims to…. Help you to reflect on where you are and where you want to get to in your career Reflect on how to make this happen Help you to identify next steps . - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Career and life planning in challenging times
David Levinson, International Careers [email protected]
This session aims to….
Help you to reflect on where you are and where you want to get to in your career
Reflect on how to make this happen
Help you to identify next steps
The skills challengeHow on earth did I
get here?
‘To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive’ Robert Louis Stevenson
‘Life is a journey, not a destination-we determine our destiny by the direction we take’
Anonymous
‘It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end’
Ursula K. LeGuin
Do you know what are you looking for?
Career and life planning…
Most people spend more time planning a car purchase or upgrading their smart phone than they do thinking about their career.
What do you want? What kinds of knowledge and interests do
you want to use?
What kinds of skills do you want to use?
What kind of life style do you want to have?
Are there any potential barriers or conflicts?
Career focused or career blurry?
Why plan at all?
Serendipity or ‘planned happenstance’ (Krumboltz)
Making your own luck
Opening yourself up to possibilities.
Strategies for career success
Logical process of analysis, logic and elimination
Drive to find ‘ideal’ job Matching skills and values
to roles Systematic narrowing
down of choices through comprehensive research and information gathering
Future uncertain and unpredictable
Behavioural strategies to deal with this
Chance events provide opportunities
Must be pro-active Based on ideas and
concepts of theories of chaos
What’s stopping you?
Did you know….
Over half the people in the UK feel they are in the wrong job!
86% are not working in their dream job
Does this matter?
What makes people happy at work?
A sense of purpose / meaning
Friendship / affiliation
Autonomy
What were you “born” to do?
I was born to….
Success for me is….
Complete the following statements:
What is success…?
It could involve shifting from……
HAVEDOBE
to……
BE DO HAVE
It could involve shifting from……
Other peoples’ definition of success
“ railway tracks” – startedso I’ll finish
Failure is not an option Success is always
somewhere else Being unhappy
to……
Focus on internal – what we are in the process of becoming
Being about your passions
Being the best you can be
Failure and sidetracking are allowed!
Being happy!!
What is success…?
Life post-MBALife post-graduation
Better to earn money than wait for your ideal job?
Move in related steps BUT beware of damaging your CV
Pragmatism v Idealism?
How far do you want to move?
Increasing breadth of opportunity increasing likelihood of re-training increasing ‘risk’ increasingly further from ‘comfort zone’ increasing effort to investigate increasing effort required to make the move less value likely to be attached to previous
experience
Use your experience …..
Or should you jump?
Change is the new status-quo
Success at work will require agility, talent and the ability to learn from - rather than fear - failure
Dealing with change….
Your Job Survival Guide, a Manual for Thriving in Change, Gregory Shea, and Robert Gunther.
Focus on your skills & interests
Research what employers want
Brief yourself – LinkedIn, Twitter
Be realistic about your market value
Top Tips
☺Keep developing and learning☺Be open-minded and curious when looking
for opportunities ☺Make the most of your experience and skills ☺Maintain your professional networks
Surviving interesting times
Do……
Change jobs too frequently Fail to demonstrate resultsDo nothing!
Surviving interesting times
Don’t……
Finding opportunities25% advertised vacancies: Websites, agencies
--------------------75% not advertised: Networking, speculative
applications, ‘working your way up’
Using social media to look for work
More than 90% of employers use social media to find senior staff
What is a network?
People you know (and maybe the people who they know) People who know you (and maybe the people who know them) A way of accessing help and advice A way of providing help and advice Reciprocal
Why network?
Personal & professional growth
Become part of a community Learn and exchange
information
Networking: What it’s not
Networking:What it is
Planting the seeds Taking an interest in
people (gets them interested in you)
You identify the people you want to get to know first – it’s a long game
Nurture your network
Be polite Think of good questions
to ask Say thank you Follow up and keep in
touch BUT don’t be a pest!
Yourself
This is the start of your online brand
Use social media platforms to:
Self publicise Find and connect with key people Look for companies to approach for work Find vacancies Explore career ideas Learn new information/get inspired Keep abreast of developments within your field Market a company …
When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional expertise and accomplishments
You can then form connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you
Your network consists of your connections, potentially your connections’ connections, and the people they know, (potentially) linking you to a vast number of qualified professionals and experts
There are over 200 million users on LinkedIn; are you missing out if you’re not on there too??
Final thought…what’s your USP?
Questions