Not Your Father’s Career: Career Management for the 21st Century

By Marti Benjamin

When I was 16, I landed a part-time position in the credit department of the Sears department store in my hometown. Over a late-night snack at the kitchen table, my father told me how pleased he was that a big company that would provide job security for the rest of my life had hired me. He saw the next 50 years of my life unfolding in that same department store until I reached retirement age and could exit, pension in hand. For his generation, that was successful career management.

The days of lifetime employment are gone for most of today’s workers and professionals. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average length of time in a position is now three years and the average worker changes career fields completely at least three times in his or her lifetime. Some experts estimate that young workers entering the labor force today will have five or six distinctly different careers during their work life.

Career lattices have replaced career ladders. Rather than a linear progression from entry level to management, today’s careerists are moving sideways and even backward in order to gain the skills and experience needed to achieve their career goals.

New Realities of the Workforce

My father never expected his work life to provide personal fulfillment and satisfaction but my adult children and I do. He felt life began after 5:00 pm; we see work as consuming too much of our life for it to be anything less than gratifying.Many employers now recognize that an 80-hour work-week does not produce the best results. Meanwhile, fewer workers are willing to sacrifice a balanced life-time for family, recreation, intellectual interests, hobbies, community service and personal growth-for the hope of promotion and business success. I say, good for them; our communities will be better for their commitment to life-work balance!

21st Century Career Strategy

In this ever-shifting world of work, how do you prepare for careers that haven’t been invented yet? The constant factors in career management are your core strengths and motivations: what do you do better than others doing the same work? Which of your personal qualities are most beneficial in the work place?

Several objective assessment instruments, such as the Career Factors Inventory, the Motivational Appraisal of Personal Potential (MAPP) and the Strengths Finder? profile are widely available to help you identify your unique talents. As new careers emerge, a solid understanding of your strengths, preferences and motivations provides the basis for choosing which will be a good fit. Your best career strategy will be nothing like the one that worked for my father. It will include all of the following (and more!):

Learning. Twenty-first century career management demands a commitment to lifelong learning. As new technologies are developed and old processes streamlined, the ability to learn becomes a competitive edge. Understand how you learn and the environment best suited to you, and make sure you stay engaged.

Curiosity. Develop a strong curiosity about trends and developments in your career field. The Internet makes it easy to acquire information, but make sure you are using objective sources (not opinions and assumptions) and search multiple sites with different points of view to develop a comprehensive picture. Consider how trends in technology, population growth, emerging industries and social issues will impact your field in the short-term (3-5 years) and the longer term.

Skill-based Jobs. In his book, Re-Imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age, management guru Tom Peters describes a world where workers engage in sequential projects in which they learn skills that will further their careers while simultaneously creating value for their employers. These teams come together to produce a specific outcome; they share common goals, bring different skills, rely on collaboration and reduce the time required to complete the work. The team then disbands and new teams are configured for the next project.

Responsibility. Andy Grove, widely known as the CEO of Intel Corporation, told his employees that they, not the company, were responsible for their careers. While Intel provided tuition reimbursement and paid sabbaticals, Grove stood firm in his conviction that career management was an individual, not a corporate, responsibility and that promotions and significant projects would go to those actively engaged in developing their careers.

Emotional Intelligence. In the world of project work and personal responsibility for career management, everyone needs relationship skills. Much more than just staying connected on LinkedIn or Facebook or handing out business cards at networking events, emotional intelligence competencies include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management; these skills drive career success in today’s fast-paced and highly inter-dependent business world.

Support Team. The lifelong process of career management depends upon a strong career support team. You need at least three different kinds of expertise on your team: friends and family to provide encouragement, mentors for understanding the culture of the company and the requirements of the industry, and a Career Coach or Counselor for assessments, career plans and objective feedback.

Consider these questions as you develop your 21st Century career management strategy:

*What am I learning now that increases my value to a company or market?

*What am I investing in my career success?

Marti Benjamin is a Professional Certified Coach and a Certified Career Management Coach. She is the president of Business Energetix-Success Coaching providing business, career and team coaching. Contact her at Marti@BusinessEnergetix.com or 775.337.0661.

About the Author

Marti Benjamin is founder and President of Business Energetix, a Business Coaching firm supporting executives, business owners and solo professionals in business innovation, growth and expansion. Marti brings more than 25 years of experience as a successful business executive to the Business Coaching profession.

Cameron has announced a crack down on benefit cheats and scroungers and my good friend ThatsTheWayItGoes09 has now had to go on a community initiative program. In my experience they do not. Government Programs are only as good as the people who are paid to run them. Most of these people treat all of their clients as dole scum and as such they brush them off with contempt. I have been on a number of schemes in the past and the attitude has always been the same. They are either patronising or Condescending to the people joining them. It doesn’t matter if you are like me who was always dressed as if an interview were about to happen or the chav type that just wants the free go on the games machines. We are all put in the same boat.

More Business Careers Articles

You want to know how to become an entrepreneur? It’s simple… but not easy. If it were easy everyone would work for themselves building businesses.

Four Cornerstones to Become an Entrepreneur

1) Desire- This is the single most important quality. You must have a desire strong enough to go against the grain. Failure cannot be an option. Whatever it takes… you will succeed. Some people call this having a strong why. Why will I do whatever (morally) it takes to succeed in business? We have found that many entrepreneurs have a desire to entrepreneurs.html” target=”_blank”>make a difference in the world. It’s not just about them.

2) Work Ethic- There is no such thing as get-rich-quick. Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows over time. You have to be willing to put forth a persistent effort to build a business. Do you work hard for others? Good. But why? If you do it to please others rather than to please God you could be in trouble. You will have to work as hard for yourself as you do for others without their approval as a motivating factor. You have to be self motivated.

3) Teachable- Pride has no place if you want to learn how to become an entrepreneur. Humility is needed to learn and lead. If you are teachable you can teach others. The best leaders learn to lead by following someone else’s example first. In business you need to find a business mentor. Someone who is doing what you want to do. Then you need to develop a relationship of trust so you can learn from them.

4) Integrity- Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. Promise less and deliver more. Be true to your word. Be willing to be truthful. This is hard if you are trying to impress others or please people. You will tend to overextend yourself being unable to keep your commitments. People want to know if they can rely on you. They are putting their trust in you to deliver what you offer. Nobody is perfect… be willing to admit your shortcomings. Do not make excuses.

These are the four cornerstones of how to become an entrepreneur. You were never trained in school for this. In fact you were trained to work for someone else… to get a good education so you can get a good job. That’s why most people work for someone else.

Nothing wrong with that… you may need some well trained employees for your own business!

About the Author

Scott and Laurie Prindle of Salt & Light Inc. are successful home business builders with thirty years of experience. On their website http://www.christian-business-opportunities.org they offer valuable resources for those looking for home based businesses. You can also contact their office at (208) 456 2222.

Whilst there are millions of small businesses around, many of them are struggling to survive and many haven’t made it past the first quarter.

It is therefore quite clear that setting up and starting a small business is easy enough but to ensure that it is not still born it needs to be based on a well researched idea that you are confident will work.

So to give your new business venture a more than reasonable chance of success make sure that the start up idea you use is viable and able to generate a sustainable income.

Of the many obstacles to starting a new business, not having enough start up capital to make your new business idea work is probably the most common.

Well having access to plenty of capital will certainly not guarantee the success of your start up business ideas.

In fact there are many good & viable ideas, as per the ones below, that you can use to start up a business with little or no capital so don’t think that access to funding should be a limiting factor in the success of your venture.

3 Start Up Business Ideas That You Can Use Without Start Up Capital

1. Consulting

If you are something of an expert in your field, whether it is in finance, IT or fashion you can use your skills to hire out to companies on a consultancy basis.

This could be done from home or may involve travelling to your client’s offices from time to time depending on their requirements.

Obviously if you are an account or have a similar profession you could set up your own practice from home with little or no overheads.

2. Freelance Writing

There are always assignments for freelance writers – all you need to do is do a search on the internet and you will get an idea of how much work there is for article writers.

Furthermore webmasters are always looking for people to write articles for them – you can register as a writer at Elance who continually need freelance writers for assignments.

3. Freelance Photography

If you fancy yourself as a fairly decent photographer your services could be in demand.

You could provide freelance photography services or sell your digital images for money.

So by doing some research & brainstorming you will quickly come up with some inspirational & potentially profitable start up business ideas that you can use for your home business with very little risk or cost.

PS. – Start making money today from your home based business with these 5 (free) Profitable Start Up Business Ideas here…

or

go to the following link to get these 5 Start Up Business Ideas That You Can Use to Make Money From Home:

http://www.internetbusiness-entrepreneur.com/start-up-business-ideas.htm

About the Author

The author is continually exploring new ideas & resources for internet entrepreneurs…