Monday, July 22, 2013
What's your Flight Plan ?
By Monique Valcour
Embrace the fact that you are the pilot of your career. No one else has direct access to your ambitions, interests and values, and no one is going to take you by the hand and help you create a fulfilling career. The more you practice career crafting, the better you get at it... Pay close attention to developments in your industry and to the strategic direction of your firm. Understand your firm's core competencies — the parts of its operation that drive its competitiveness in the marketplace — and make sure that you play a contributing role. Look for ways to get involved in growth areas... A sustainable career is dynamic and flexible; it features continuous learning, periodic renewal, the security that comes from employability and a harmonious fit with your skills, interests and values. The keys to crafting a sustainable career are knowing yourself — what interests you, what you do best and not so well, what energises you — and being acutely attuned to the fields and companies you're interested in, so that you can identify places where you can add value.
The "follow your passion" self-help industry tends to underemphasise this key point: all of the self-awareness in the world is of little use if you can't pitch your passion to a buyer. A sustainable career is built upon the ability to show that you can fill a need that someone is willing to pay for.
(From "Craft a sustainable career")
Embrace the fact that you are the pilot of your career. No one else has direct access to your ambitions, interests and values, and no one is going to take you by the hand and help you create a fulfilling career. The more you practice career crafting, the better you get at it... Pay close attention to developments in your industry and to the strategic direction of your firm. Understand your firm's core competencies — the parts of its operation that drive its competitiveness in the marketplace — and make sure that you play a contributing role. Look for ways to get involved in growth areas... A sustainable career is dynamic and flexible; it features continuous learning, periodic renewal, the security that comes from employability and a harmonious fit with your skills, interests and values. The keys to crafting a sustainable career are knowing yourself — what interests you, what you do best and not so well, what energises you — and being acutely attuned to the fields and companies you're interested in, so that you can identify places where you can add value.
The "follow your passion" self-help industry tends to underemphasise this key point: all of the self-awareness in the world is of little use if you can't pitch your passion to a buyer. A sustainable career is built upon the ability to show that you can fill a need that someone is willing to pay for.
(From "Craft a sustainable career")
