PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT | LESSON 7

WHAT IS A CAREER?
Career comes from the French word 'carriere' which means
'road' or 'racecourse'. It is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person's "course or progress
through life. It is a series of related jobs held over a period of time. Therefore it is understood that career
covers a range of aspects in an individual's life, learning and work. Career is also frequently understood
to relate to the working aspects of an individual's life.

Career may also denote an occupation or a profession that usually involves special training or formal
education and skills about lifework. In this case "a career" is seen as a sequence of related jobs usually
pursued within a single industry or sector e.g. "a career in law" or "a career in the building trade" ( https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Career)

Planning for your Career

Several considerations should be taken into account to choose a career path. Parents most of the time
have their suggested professions. An individual will have his own choice according to his own self or
maybe as inspired by friends. Taking a Vocational Interest Test might be of help to measure your aptitude
on some skills or gauge your interests on varied areas of work. Relative to this are some ways to assure
success in one's journey onto the world of professional work.

Competencies Essential in the Workplace

Employers look for specific job skills and competencies that job hunters possess. These comprise of the
set of criteria that will be the basis for choosing the 'right person for the right job'. Hiring the best individual
entails understanding of what they can do and contribute to the company or organization. One should
therefore possess these set of skills and competencies which they can utilize for their competitive
advantage. Here under are the necessary competencies cited by Cripe and Mansfield (2002) in their book
"The Value-Added Employee."

I. Competencies Dealing with People

1. Establishing Focus: The ability to develop and communicate goals in support of the business'
mission.
2. Providing Motivational Support: The ability to enhance others' commitment to their work.
3. Fostering Teamwork: As a team member, the ability and desire to work cooperatively with others
on a team; as a team leader, the ability to demonstrate interest, skill, and success in getting
groups to learn to work together.
4. Empowering Others: The ability to convey confidence in others' ability to be successful, especially
at challenging new tasks; delegating significant responsibility and authority; allowing others to
decide how they will accomplish their goals and resolve issues.
5. Managing Change: The ability to demonstrate support for innovation and for organizational
changes needed to improve the organization's effectiveness; initiating, sponsoring, and
implementing organizational change; helping others to successfully manage organizational
change.
6. Developing Others: The ability to delegate responsibility and to work with others and coach them.
7. Managing Performance: The ability to take responsibility for one's own or member's performance,
by setting clear goals and expectations, tracking progress against the goals, ensuring feedback,
and addressing performance problems and issues promptly.
8. Attention to Communication: The ability to ensure that information is passed on to others who
should be kept informed.
9. Oral Communication: The ability to express oneself clearly in conversations and interactions with
others
10. Written Communication: The ability to express oneself clearly in business writing.
11. Persuasive Communication: The ability to plan and deliver oral and written communications that
make an impact and persuade their intended audiences.
12. Interpersonal Awareness: The ability to notice, interpret, and anticipate others' concerns and
feelings, and to communicate this awareness empathetically to others.
 13. Influencing Others: The ability to gain others' support for ideas, proposals, projects, and solutions.
14. Building Collaborative Relationships: The ability to develop, maintain, and strengthen
partnerships with others inside or outside the organization who can provide information,
assistance, and support.
15. Customer Orientation: The ability to demonstrate concern for satisfying one's external and/or
internal customers.

II. Competencies in Dealing with the Organizational Concerns

1. Diagnostic Information Gathering: The ability to identify the information needed to clarify a
situation, seek that information from appropriate sources, and use skillful questioning to draw out
the information, when others are reluctant to disclose it
2. Analytical Thinking: The ability to tackle a problem by using a logical, systematic, sequential
approach.
3. Forward Thinking: The ability to anticipate the implications and consequences of situations and
take appropriate action to be prepared for possible contingencies.
4. Conceptual Thinking: The ability to find effective solutions by taking a holistic, abstract, or
theoretical perspective.
5. Strategic Thinking: The ability to analyze the organization's competitive position by considering
market and industry trends, existing and potential clients, and strengths and weaknesses as
compared to competitors.
6. Technical Expertise: The ability to demonstrate depth of knowledge and skill in a technical area.
7. Initiative: Identifying what needs to be done and doing it before being asked or before the
situation requires it.
8. Entrepreneurial Orientation: The ability to look for and seize profitable business opportunities;
willingness to take calculated risks to achieve organizational goals.
1. Fostering Innovation: The ability to develop, sponsor, or support the introduction of new and im
improved method, products, procedures, or technologies.
2. Results Orientation: The ability to focus on the desired result of one's own or own department's
output, setting challenging goals, focusing effort on the goals, and meeting or exceeding them.
3. Thoroughness: Ensuring that one's own and members' work and information are complete and
accurate; carefully preparing for meetings and presentations; following up with others to ensure
that agreements and commitments have been fulfilled.
4. Decisiveness: The ability to make difficult decisions in a timely manner.

III. Self-Management Competencies

1. Self Confidence: Faith in one's own ideas and capability to be successful; willingness to take an
independent position in the face of opposition.
2. Stress Management: The ability to keep functioning effectively when under pressure and maintain
self- control in the face of hostility or provocation.
3. Personal Credibility: Demonstrated concern that one be perceived as responsible, reliable, and
trustworthy.
4. Flexibility: Openness to different and new ways of doing things; willingness to modify one's
preferred way of doing things.

Personality as a Requisite for Career Success

Hiring the best person for the right job entails more than just the competencies one can offer.
Understanding their personality is also a necessary factor that will determine if they are best fit for the job-
at-hand. Proficiency in the given function is very important but determining if these applicants have the
desired soft skills is a Priority in the hiring process. Soft skills involve ability to solve issues and concerns
with speed, ability to lead and ability to checking on employment ads and checking with some friends or
acquaintances. Example of on-line ads is found at the following:
1. www.jobstreet.com.ph
2. www.workabroad.com.ph
3. www.linkedin.com
4. www.craiglist.com
5. www.jobsdb.com
 6. www.trabaho.com

2. Prepare a Resume
A resume is a summary of statement that describes one's assets, experiences, education and potential in
a way that will maximize the possibility of being hired for a particular job. A resume packages what you
have as an applicant. It shows what you can possible share and contribute to the company through the
skills, abilities, knowledge that is evident in the resume. Hence, formulating and writing the resume should
be deliberate and perfect.

Types of Resume
1. Functional
This type of Resume highlights one's abilities rather than the chronology of one's career. This
type of resume is useful for those who have frequently changed jobs; have stopped working and
decided to return; for those who wanted to have a change in career.

2. Chronological
This is the most common and popular format in writing a resume. It contains an objective and
summary of career experience from the most recent to the oldest. It includes as well the listings of
your employers as well as the applicant's related accomplishments. Information about the applicant's
education and additional skills are included. There should also be listing of trainings and immersions
or pre-service trainings. This type of resume may be the best for those who are experienced. In
writing a Chronological Resume work experience is organized in order by dates of jobs held. This
places more emphasis on your job titles and employment history. This format is excellent if the
applicant is staying in the same field of work and have a continuous work history.

c. Combination or Hybrid Resume

The Hybrid resume combines the best featuresof the chronological and functional formats. Generally, it
leads with a description of functional skills and related qualifications, followed by a reverse-chronological
employment history. This format allows you to state your most relevant qualifications up front, while
providing the employment timeline that many hiring managers like to see. Those who should be using this
are students, New Graduates and Entry-Level Job Seekers: This allows job seekers to emphasize their
skills rather than their short-lived employment history. This is also good for career changers, those
returning to the world of work and older workers with extensive employment history who desires need to
sell their strongest credentials (http://career-advice. monster.com/resumes).

Building an effective and credible Resume.

a. Identify Contacts - the applicant's name, contact number, address, email address, website
address;
b. Give Personal Data - this includes the applicant's civil status, age, gender and the ike;
c. State Career Objective - the goal of the applicant as a worker which should be parallel to the
goals of the prospective company;
d. Give Educational Background - a listing of the applicant's education from the most recent to the
past. Inclusive of primary education, secondary, vocational, tertiary education etc.
e. Enumerate Work Experience - this is a listing of the applicant's work experience from the most
recent to the past. Position/ role in the company should be included;
f. Cite Trainings, Seminars and Pre-service immersions inclusive of the date, the venue and the
titles.
g. Give Skills and Other interests of Worth - the applicant's abilities and interests should also be
cited but should be aligned to the nature of the prospective work;
h. Provide Personal References of around three relevant persons who are experts or authorities in
their field. They should be very familiar with the applicant. Their contacts should also be included.