In the previous blog post we saw that career development is
a three-way matching process linking an educational
component, a vocational component,
and a personal goals component. The same
process applies equally to current as
well as to aspiring employees, e.g.,
college students.
Current Employees
For current employees, their educational component is largely defined by the academic history they
have accumulated in terms of degrees, certificates, internships and
transcripts.
Career development success for these employees will require
both an initial and an evolving win-win arrangement between the employer and
the employee. For that to happen initially and over time will require that the
goals and expectations of both entities be met, both initially and over time.
Career development success—in both the short and long
term—clearly requires great self-awareness and other-awareness of the initial
and evolving goals and expectations of both entities.
Aspiring Employees
For aspiring employees, e.g., college students, their
educational component is incomplete and may still be carefully shaped to
provide advantages in the career development matching process cited above.
As with current employees, students will eventually have to
seek and forge win-win agreements with future employers in which the goals and
expectations of both entities are met, initially and over time.
Career development success for students will also require
great self-awareness and other-awareness of the initial and evolving goals and
expectations of both entities.
The Career
Development Process for College Students
Consider two likely expectations of college students: 1)
having to become financially self-sufficient after graduation, and 2) receiving
good career development support toward that end from their university. To understand
the career development process at a basic level, one must study it from the
point of view of the three entities representing the three components: the university,
the employer and the student.
First, each entity typically desires a mutually beneficial
relationship with the other two! For
example:
What Students Seek
Students seek to connect with universities that will provide:
1) the right major; and 2) effective career development support while they are students
and up to that first great job after college, and beyond. Students also typically seek to connect with
future employers who will provide fair compensation and job satisfaction in
exchange for employee competence, dedication and hard work.
What Employers Seek
Employers seek relationships with employees that bring value to the employer’s enterprise, in
exchange for the large investments employers must make into all employee positions
that are created and filled. Employers
also seek relationships with universities that can help them recruit the best
and brightest new graduates coming out of the universities and into the job
market each year.
What Universities Seek
Universities seek to connect with students who will commit
to a lifelong relationship of “giving back” their time, talent and treasure to
their university, in exchange for a marketable degree and lifelong career
development support. Universities also
seek to connect with employers who will hire their graduates and provide financial
support through corporate or associated foundation giving programs.
The National Career
Development Association definition of the career development process
describes the interaction between the three components as follows:
“Career development occurs as educational and vocational
pursuits interact with personal goals.”
These three components must be treated differently, with the
first two seen as pursuits, or quests, happening earlier—though perhaps at the
same time—with personal goals coming into the picture later as a decision
criterion. This assumes of course that
the career development process has produced multiple offers from which the employee
then chooses the one best meeting his or her personal goals.
Complicating this rosy picture is the fact that the other
two entities also have goals, some if not all of which differ from those of the
employee. We must recognize, however,
that the three-way matching process is itself a quest, the goal of which—that
all three must achieve a win—may not be fulfilled.
Believers in Stephen Covey’s Habit 4: Think Win-Win, know this dynamic well and, while always ready
to think win-win, are prepared for “no
deal” if the circumstances are not quite right at that particular time. There
is no guarantee that the three entities will share enough common goals to allow
a win-win-win.
The definition of the career development process suggests what’s
needed for employee success in landing the right career path: To achieve it requires a clear understanding
of the employer’s goals, both generally and specifically with respect to the
career opportunity in question. Unless the
employee’s credentials and experience align with the employer’s goals and
expectations, success is simply not likely.
A successful career development process is one
in which the employer and employee share enough common goals to forge a win-win
scenario, in which each gets to decide what is a win for them.
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