Career Components

Ask someone what they do for a living. They will normally respond with a specific title or something general to an industry. “I work for a public utility, ComEd.” Or, “I’m a teacher (grade, middle, high schools or college or university.” They may say an accountant, a case manager, project manager, sales rep, or any of hundreds of things.

I was working with a SCORE client the other day, and he stated that he wanted to offer an educational program to high school students that would help prepare them for the world of work. His early thoughts have been focused on the various industries that hire people. He centered on what those industries do, the kind of work they expect their employees to handle. That started him on naming the job titles or professions like lawyer, accountant, manager, salesman, engineer, and so forth. But something nagged within me.

As I tried to articulate my concerns, I eventually wound up with what kind of roles a worker may expect to perform in employment, but I wasn’t thinking of accountant, lawyer, etc. No, I was thinking about what a salesman ‘does’ that is of value to an employer. Sales is not about writing orders from clients and getting the company to deliver the goods to the client. No, the sales rep has to understand his products and services completely, imagine how they will serve the client’s needs, and then ask the customer to identify the specifics of his needs. Filling those needs is what the salesman does. He analyzes information from the client side, then from his company’s side, and forms a specific connection between the two. That takes analysis, product knowledge, communication skills with the clients, and a host of other skillsets. How do I get a client to answer questions, and provide needed information so I can serve his real needs, in depth needs? How do I inform my employer that some of our products and services could use some customizing to better fit the customer’s needs? Am I analyzing the sales situation correctly? Do I have enough information?

And the list of these questions brings into view, the intellectual facets of the job. Analyzing. Product knowledge. Customer processes, specifics of needs. Communication skills both ways – with the customer and with his own corporate organization. What about language skills, articulation, analytical skills, math and logic disciplines, and so much more?

A career is made up of many roles to different audiences. Self is one; boss or authority figures, another. Co-workers still another, to say nothing about understanding the culture and particulars of a customer’s corporate situation.

I realized all of this when I accompanied my brother-in-law on a trip to a family cabin. The ladies and kids were already there, but he and I drove up together to better fit our work schedules. Turned out the route would fit his sales route perfectly in Wisconsin. I watched what he did and discussed the facets of his work.

Once home and back on my job, I wondered how the university perceived its role in helping students find jobs. We called that function, Placement Services. However, it assumed we and the students knew clearly what kind of job they were looking for. Of course, we tried to place student academic majors and degrees with an industry or a profession. That is, of course, way too general. What are the jobs likely to require the employee to do in the job? How much professional background is needed (accounting, engineering, teaching process, etc.), and how much industry knowledge is required? What does a public utility do, and what kinds of jobs does it entail? Turns out, all companies need people who can project ideas clearly to other people and groups. It needs employees to think, calculate and analyze data to best understand work procedures and product qualities. Also, customer needs down to the human level.

How does an employee lead others, cooperate with others, organize projects and manage these types of things? Needed skillsets are of a more general sort than a hard and fast professional content or industrial standard.

Some people need to work with physical movement and toil. It feels good to them, right for them. Others hope for a quiet office work environment, sedentary and intellectual. Some need a blend of the two, thinking on their feet, moving around to different sites, encountering different kinds of people and work environments. Field agent, sales rep, or plumber, electrician or carpenter. So many differences among these folk. So much to think about when helping people ‘see’ themselves in a job or industry.

What does the person need. How does that person fit in with the specific work scene?

Those questions and lessons will help anyone find a better, more fitting job. Seems simple, but it isn’t.

October 19, 2022

 

 

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