MGMT5940 Career Management Skills
Week 2, Lecture 2
Careers
For 18 years, people have been guessing that education has something to do with the rest of our
lives. Not many know how to use their education to help them succeed! This is why we have this
course, so that we can live out the rest of our lives!
The canyon shouldn’t be there!
What’s the goal? We want multiple job offers shortly after graduating!
Career
1. Intrinsic Success
o Intrinsic – comes from within, something you give or find yourself
o Are you happy? Do you like the work you’re doing? Do you like your boss? Are you
committed to the organisation?
2. Extrinsic Success
o Extrinsic – external, from the outside, from your parents, your lecture, payment,
results, etc.
o How good is the university is you went to? How much money are you making? What
are the benefits? What is your job title?
Many individuals, particularly in their 40s and 50s are high in extrinsic success and low in intrinsic
success. This doesn’t just affect the individual but also their partner, their children, other people
around them etc. This is a big deal!
Giving Yourself Permission
Life/Education Decision Points
o Primary to High School
o High School to University
o University to Graduate School
Who are the major influencers in your career decision making?
o Is it your parents? Your spiritual advisor? Your career’s councillor? Who did you talk
to when making the following transitions?
Relative to Giving Yourself Permission – what are the: Obstacles? Boundaries? Challenges?
Lack of experience (work & life)
o What someone says is only from their perspective – but we believe them, take
everything they say as gospel. They were telling you to be an accountant but what
they were really telling you was to do what you love!
Money
o A job offer may be tempting, but it may not be something you like to do. You take
the job anyway because the money is good – high in extrinsic interest but low in
intrinsic interest.
Parents
o My parents don’t want me to do that, but they want me to do that
I think I can be great, but I’m not sure – lack of self-belief
o Even when other people tell you this
Lack of Self-awareness?
o Don’t know what you’re good at? Don’t know what you’re interested in?
Do what you love, the money will follow
If you’re naturally given this thing, at some point it will manifest itself as a need to be
actualised
o If you’re a genius, it’ll come up again, again, and again
Embarrassment of riches – a lot of aptitudes
o Hard to choose – missing out on other things
It can manifest itself in an avocational way
o A hobby, a joy, something you volunteer, something you do naturally and not in a
pain environment
M. Sinetar says:
- We are not born to struggle
o We were not born to fall in the grand canyon
o Because, we can figure this out.
- Is it our job to fulfil responsibilities to others
o Yes, but it’s not the only reason why we have careers
What is the estimated % of American’s working population does not enjoy the work they do?
95%!!
Dr. Dave wants us to give ourselves permission to be in the 5% group!
The Right Livelihood
- The natural order of things
- When you have skills, characteristics, values, shoe size, etc. that is passed down from
generation to generation that are uniquely yours.
Conscious Choice
- Choose what you will and pay for it
There are 3 things M. Sinetar says (3 main take-aways from the book):
1. Do what you love
2. Do what you’re great at
3. Work hard at it – Do what it takes
Then the money will follow
What is your definition of a career?
Table 1 – pp1545-1548
Consensus definition: Work activities, organisation, - not leisure, hobbies, nor family-related
Protean Career Orientation
- Tim Hall 1996
- The era of the organisational career e.g. careers of starting out as an auditor up to partner,
the linear career that you move up – defined from the organisation’s perspective
- The marketplace changes externally
- And so people started changing internally
- Demands of the changing workplaces as well as one’s needs for self-fulfilment (external and
internal)
Reconceptualisation Protean Orientation
- Defined 2 dimensions of the protean career
o 1. Values Driven
o 2. Self-Directed Career Management
Boundaryless Career
- Beyond boundary of single employer
Reconceptualisation Boundaryless Career
1. Physical Career Mobility
o Job level: up, down, lateral
o Pay and benefits
o Job title
2. Psychological Career Mobility
o Job satisfaction
o Self-esteem
o Advancement
o Job loss
o Career interruptions
o Family demands
NOW, what does this mean to YOU?
- Not from an Academic perspective, nor as a practitioner
- We want your individual perspective
o This is the most important thing. The career, is your career.
Careers
- Internal
- External
The Contingent model
o It’s a mix of internal and external – it’s the balance, the evolution
o Having the courage to make the decision to move forward but you listen to reality,
as well as do what you love
Internal to Individual
o Career Scope
o Due 3rd September
External to individual
o Career Entry Action Plan
o Due 22nd October
For Next Week:
- Lecture Readings
o 1. Heslin, Turban, 2016. Enabling Career Success as an Emergent Process,
Organisational Dynamics, pp. 155-164
o 2. Christensen, 2010, How will you measure your life? HBR, pp. 46-51
o 3. Mayrhofer, Briscoe, Hall, Dickman, Career Success around the Globe: Insights
from the 5C Project, Organisational Dynamics, pp. 197-205.
- Lecture Assignment
o Search Interest Inventories and identify 6 types. How many items are there? Old or
new? Free or fee? What are your perceptions of price etc? Preference for one or
two over the others?
