Managing your career– more important than ever

As an adult educator and an advisor to hundreds of students during my 19 years at Gwinnett Technical College, the most important obligation I have to students is career advice. This process always seems to center around how to make someone more employable. This advice is not only applicable for students but also for the seasoned professional, especially during these days of corporate mergers, downsizing, and bankruptcies.

Learning how to manage your career has become more important than ever.

In managing a career, we need to use some of the same skills that employers use to manage a company. Successful careers and successful companies have three things in common: a great product or service that the consumer (employer) is willing to buy; a strategy and a clear direction; the ability to adapt to change.

Do you have updated knowledge and skills that are valuable to employers? If I am the president of a chair company and I do not adapt and improve my product to meet the current demands, my competition will take over my market share. My chair company cannot sit still and neither can my career. As the loss of jobs in the auto industry and in corporations such as Kraft and AT&T has shown us, we can’t depend on lifetime employment. We must take an aggressive approach to ensure that there is a need for our “service/product.”

We need to look at our career as the chair company. We should be always changing and always improving. Take advantage of seminars and other learning opportunities. Get cross-trained into another department or job. Become more valuable to the organization. Even if your job is eliminated, you are more marketable to other companies.

Do you have a clear long-term strategy? When a company understands its product or service, its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, key components of an effective marketing plan or business plan can be developed. This process gives direction and helps companies make better decisions. Similarly, we also must know our product so that personal long-term employment goals can be established. What can we bring to the table? A self-assessment test such as the Myers-Briggs or the DISC can assist you in knowing and discovering your “product.” Understanding your natural abilities and talents help you make better employment decisions.

Too many applicants accept a position in a company without thinking how the job or future employer can help or hinder his/her future. We are seduced by better pay or benefits without examining the job in relationship to career goals. Interview the interviewer to help determine if the job and potential employer matches your career strategy. A wrong career decision such as working for a boss who does not care about your success can have a dangerous impact on your career goals.

Most successful companies in business for more than 20 years will attribute their success to their ability to deal with change. I recently helped a friend move his photography studio. We had to throw away all of his dark room equipment because of the change by his industry to digital photography. Several years ago this equipment was worth some money but because of his reluctance to accept change, he held on to this equipment until it was basically worthless.

The book, “Who Moved My Cheese” by Spencer Johnson, is required reading for all of my students. In managing your career, it is not whether change will occur but when. Our acceptance and reaction to change is key. We can complain all we want about new technology, mergers or new products, but if we don’t get the necessary training to stay in step, our careers will suffer.

Prepare yourself for possible changes in your career at all times by networking with professional associations. Keep your resume updated and always be aware of employment opportunities. Remember no one cares more about your career than you do.

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