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In Your Career : Passenger or Driver?

Whether you have been working for some time and are already moving towards a career change or just completing secondary or tertiary studies and are ramping up for your first career or vocation, knowing the lie of the work landscape is critical to knowing how to plan and manage your career. Taking an active approach from the moment you enter the workforce or begin to renegotiate a career change, will help ensure personal and vocational goals are met.

Consider some of these current trends and future predictions:

• The nature of work is changing rapidly and will continue to do so. 
• Companies are opting for temporary and contract workers to cater for peaks in business, rather than increase their employees.
• Five to seven career changes in a life time will be the order of the future.
• Job security will be a privilege few will enjoy.
• Local economies more and more tied to the global, are increasingly uncertain.

Being a passenger in your work life won't work. You can't afford to 'go along for the ride' and see what happens. Understanding the forces affecting careers in the 21st Century and the implications for successful career self-management are some of the critical factors in securing realistic and satisfying work.

In a review of career issues and ideas surfacing in North America and Australia, there is clear consensus about the need for job seekers to sit firmly at the controls of their career. Some of the most significant strategies surfacing as critical, are the following:

Redefine Yourself
People need to view themselves outside the boundaries of their organization. They may find that while they are good performers inside their organization, they may become frozen. People become so closely identified with a particular industry, profession or organization that they and others stop viewing their skills as transferable. Rather, begin to view yourself as the owner of a self managed portfolio of skills and abilities that can be applied to a range of jobs
and projects. For example, if you are an IT lecturer, you might see yourself as an IT professional with strong interpersonal and leadership skills who contracts professional knowledge and expertise to the teaching profession.

Know Yourself
The first step in actively managing your career development is to know your key strengths, core skills and strong interests; this way you are more likely to choose a vocational direction that most closely matches your unique qualities. Work satisfaction, something we're all looking for, is thus far more likely. A career assessment can help with this vigorous self assessment. Being articulate about how you can add value, is a first step in knowing how these skills can be reassembled in different ways as you move through your work life.

Apply Marketing Strategies to… You
Marketing doesn't mean forever bombarding the market place with your qualifications and skills. When looking for work, it does mean that you need to have a resume which clearly describes your core skills and achievements. No more is a chronology of jobs and duties useful to employers. Having an effective resume is as critical for those just beginning their work life as for those with a work history. Young people are often surprised at the range of skills they, in fact, have already developed but haven't recognised or acknowledged. Employers are rarely willing to take a leap of faith. This document needs to demonstrate clearly how you can add value to their business. Let key people know about your accomplishments and how these can be applied to their needs. How are you doing this now?

Cultivate Long Term Relationships
With employment mobility very much on the cards, you may find yourself five years down the road working for a previous manager (The recent South Australian election result illustrates this point. Both sides of Parliament, former colleagues as well as former adversaries are courting Independent Members of Parliament once scorned). Regard everyone you work with…. client, co-worker or boss as a potential workmate.

Enjoy Life Long Learning
Continue to create career choices for yourself by actively pursuing learning opportunities that will stretch you. Can you describe one important thing you have learned over the past three months and one you'll be acquiring in the next? The more you learn the more career options you'll have.

Stay Current
Not only do we live in Australia, we also live in the Australasian region. Keeping abreast of the regional and global environment in which we live keeps us in touch with economic and cultural trends which may have a critical impact on our work.

Read Widely
Whether you're reading industry journals, overseas newspapers, financial magazines or tuning in to ABC radio or perhaps online forum discussions focusing on popular social issues, reading widely, indeed retaining a curiosity about the world around us, helps keeps us informed about likely changes which in turn alert us to the necessity for work or career changes and new career plans.
Helen Campbell Harder

If you are considering a career change or need career planning advice take the first step today. Contact Helen who is a professional careers counsellor and psychologist in Adelaide.