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Article from Smart Investor Magazine, August 2000
Survival Skills for the Modern Corporate Warrior
Getting From Here To There
Having completed all the steps covered in previous issues of Smart Investor, it is now time to sit down with your career counsellor. Typically, your counsellor should be discussing the following :-
Where are you now?
Specific areas covered would include what you have identified earlier, such as your strengths, areas for improvement, inclinations and preferences. In addition, your counsellor will also perform a career-influence interview that will take you back to your childhood days. The purpose of this is to identify the various elements that have shaped your career. These questions could include :-
· Where were you born and raised?
· What sort of student were you academically?
· How did people describe your personality when you were growing up?
· What extracurricular activities did you engage in?
· What was your first job out of college? How did you come by it?
Where do you want to go:
· In your personal life?
· In your career?
· In your social life?
When exploring options, always be conscious of the need to strive for a balance in your life, which consists of various areas, such as finance, family life, social life and work.
Setting goals : How do you get there?
Some goals may be achievable in the short term while others could take longer to attain. Typically, you should establish strategies in the following time frames :-
Short term - 1 – 12 months
Medium term - 1 – 3 years
Long term - 3 or more years
Like a job search exercise, the most effective way of ensuring you have more than a fair chance of achieving your goals is the use of your network. Work with your mentors and circle of contacts and have them refer you to their network where appropriate.
Your career counsellor should be familiar and up-to-date with continuous changes in the job market as well as economic conditions in the local as well as regional or even global scene. He must be able to help you look at various career options, some of which could be “outside-the-box”, like becoming an entrepreneur. It is your counsellor’s role to help you decide the appropriate direction to take. Ultimately, however, you have to take ownership of your own destiny.
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