توضیحات جورج

BEC : Careers -George

Hello there, it’s George. I guess this is our last lesson in this series of programs and I think it’s a very appropriate one - careers or a career change or what do I do with my career, whatever you want to call it.

AJ and I both mentioned that we have gone through career changes and we both mentioned that we probably either took a step back or laterally to embark on new careers. The point I think that we’re both trying to make here is that, one, we finally over a long period of time found that thing that not only do we enjoy, but we’re pretty good at it. That’s what is important as you think of your career.

I fully understand the need to make money to support yourself, to support your family, to have some of the finer things of life, but that’s where the budgeting process comes in and hopefully you can manage that if you have to do with a little bit less until you can really achieve what you want.

So how do you go about all this? Well, I think what I said in the conversation --the bottom line here is knowledge. Knowledge is what you need to gain. You need to gain knowledge about yourself and you need to gain knowledge about everything, anything, particularly anything that you enjoy or think you might enjoy. How do you do this? There are a million ways. One of them very obviously is formal education. Do you think you might like the finance or accounting type of job or world? Take a formal course, formal training. Go back to school. Get a degree if it really excites you that much or just take some accounting courses or read some accounting books.

Same thing if the marketing side excites you. Read some books, if necessary go back to school. Even if you don’t get a degree, take a few courses in marketing. If manufacturing, distribution, something like that is really what you think you might like, same thing. Any kind of training course, any kind of training is worth taking and I’m talking about these well, maybe they call them training seminars, workshops, whatever the terminology is, if they’re in areas that you think you might enjoy or things that for some reason or other you have this urge to go learn about do it.

It doesn’t even have to be something that’s associated with your job or your career today. It may be something totally different. It may be art history or it may be history of the western civilization or history of Greece or Asia and it has nothing to do with your job. Well, if you’re interested in it then maybe there’s a career in there for you, so get your education on those things.

In terms of the business world, education, skills, the same thing. Some of the key ones no matter what job you do that I think you should be aware of and read and go to seminars and listen to programs on the Internet like the one that you’re listening to right now, some of the areas that you should focus on- Communications Improve your communication skills. No matter where you are and how good you are right now, improve your communication skills. You’re taking that step right now. You’re learning English. You’re learning business English. Continue with that. Hone and improve and become an excellent business English speaker.

Analytical skills Learn to analyze things. Learn to analyze data. Learn to analyze situations. Learn to analyze people as best you can through body language and what they say and how they act. Different kinds of reports, whether they’re financial reports, marketing reports, manufacturing reports, Human Resources reports, government reports that you may see in the newspaper, analyze those. Learn how to be an analytical-thinking person.

Become not only a problem solver, but a problem preventer Learn how to solve the problems certainly within the boundaries of your job or within the boundaries of your department or your overall organization. Not only learn how to solve problems, get to the source of the problem and fix it, but learn how to prevent problem, how to put forth and implement programs, plans and procedures that will prevent problems.

In the management area, I would suggest to you to look at both- Micro and macro management Meaning the unique details of the first line manager that you work for, what their motivation is, what they’re objectives are, what they’re trying to accomplish and then the macro meaning the very large-scale picture of your company. Particularly focus in on that one because here’s a good time to do a little thought process with yourself and determine is this the company I really want to work for. Are these the kind of things that excite me? The goals and the objectives of this company, can I make them my goals and objectives.

That’s a very early step you should take that will help determine whether your career is where you are or somewhere else. It’s not only where you are in terms of the company because as AJ said companies come and go. Your company may go away or you may decide for some reason you don’t like them for personality reasons with management, but you like the kind of industry they’re in. You like the kind of jobs they have. You are excited about the things that they’re accomplishing. There’s a whole industry probably of your kind of company and there are other companies outside the industry that may offer you the same opportunities.

Learn how to delegate Learn how to be a leader Work on those skills that make for good leaders.

Learn organization skills Improve your organization skills. That can start right at home. It can start at home with acting like your home is your own little business. You’ve got your budget plans, your operational plans and your down to earth real jobs like washing the dishes, taking the garbage out and cleaning those diapers once in a while.

Improve your technical skills Stay current with what’s going on in the world of technology. Be aware of new enhancements, new software and what it will do. There’s another great opportunity.

Because of all of these technological changes, you may find something that really excites you in that field and will lead you off to a different industry or maybe even into a technical job. I’m not saying to become a programmer or a real technical whiz at doing something, but just be aware of technological changes, how they can help you and work to your advantage.

Interpersonal skills Be constantly aware of those skills, your persuasive ability, your ability to negotiate, your ability to work well with a group of people, your ability to one on one work with people.

Presentation skills This goes hand in hand sort of with your communication skills, but improve those presentation skills. Work at it. Get into a club or a Dale Carnegie organization or something where you can practice if you don’t have the opportunity in your job. If you do have the opportunity in your job, take advantage of it. They want somebody to make a presentation, hold you hand up and say I’ll do it. Find out where in that chain your niche in life is.

Writing skills Don’t forget your writing skills. Writing is still important. Technology and speaking has still not taken away the need to be a good writer. Make sure your writing skills are really good.

I guess the bottom line of all of this is be prepared to adapt to change, whether it’s a change in the company you work for, a change that you decide to make for yourself or a change that is made not by you but because of some other factor, the economy, the company, the downsizing, all of those words that you’ve heard in our program here.

Adapt to change.

Get yourself prepared for whatever the next opportunity might be and continually strive and work towards that thing that you like and you are good at. Keep working at it. It’s going to take some time, but you’ll get there.

So with that in mind, I’ll leave you. I hope that this program has been useful to you. I’m convinced that if you implement some of the ideas and the thought processes that we’ve been talking about that you will see the reward in your career and in your life.

Good luck and I hope some day to be able to see you and shake your hand.

The End.