1. and used with the permission of the author.
JOBTALKS
Managing Your Career
Indiana University Kelley School of Business C. Randall Powell, Ph.D
Contents used in this presentation are adapted from Career Planning Strategies
and used with the permission of the author.

2. First Job Realities What Can You Expect? Job Realities
Ever job change requires an assessment of the new job's realities. Your future depends on how you approach a new job. This presentation assumes that a career can be managed.
The best starting point in any new job is first to try to determine what's going to be expected of you. Your long term career success relates to your performance during the first few months in a new position.
The best way to address these concerns is to make immediate plans to manage your own career progress rather than let the new job control you.
Career management is an important phase of sound career planning.

3. Investigate Before You Accept
First job lays important groundwork for future
Often psychological barrier to leaving a joblater
Plan, don't just jump at first opportunity
Don't Take First Job Cartoon
The reason the first job after training is so critical is that it lays important groundwork for the future.
After a few months on the new job, you can easily be labeled as an “expert” in a given field. You often become locked into this career field as your new on-the-job training builds upon previous academic training of prior work experience.
There is often a psychological barrier to leaving a job and moving to a different career field. For one thing, you often must take a lower salary when you decide to start over in a new career.
As a result, you do not want to jump at the first opportunity that comes your way. Take time to do some planning.

4. Long-Term Goal is to Avoid Burnout!
Avoid becoming complacent
Not responding quickly to external influences
Assess environmental differences from school to work
Dead Wood Cartoon
Your long term career goal is to avoid the “burnout” or “dead wood” phrases of career development.
Too many individuals become complacent in their careers far sooner than they anticipated. They may be quite capable of being a very productive employee, but external influences force them into this situation.
Your goal is to pick the right environment that is challenging and rewarding for years, not just satisfying at the present time.
There are a number of environmental differences that you should assess as you change from a learning environment to a work environment.

5. Career Advancement Probably Measured in Years
Promotions cause chain reactions
Often a longtime frame between promotions as you progress upward
Difficult to stay patient
Time Frame Cartoon
Career advancement does not come in weeks and months. Your career progress is most likely to be measured in years.
As you move up in an organization, the reporting structure gets narrower. There are fewer people above you. There must often be a chain reaction of career changes for many people when promotions occur.
Anticipate a longer time frame between promotions as you progress upward in your chosen career field.

6. Work Environment = One Boss
Know your future boss
Have mutual understanding
In college you have multiple professors
Easy to avoid some professors
Fired Cartoon
In the academic environment, you had several bosses that you could turn to for assistance. In the work environment, there is one boss, and you can rarely appeal decision to a higher power. Your boss is a most important person to you.
Make certain when you move to a new assignment that you know your future boss. Can you develop a supportive working relationship with that person?
Your future development and promotion often rest with your boss. Only if you start off with the same mutual understandings about what is expected of you can you expect to succeed.
Can you develop a working relationship?

7. Promotional Differences
School: assessment is grades
Work: assessment is sometimes nebulous
Politics
Personality
Unforeseen events
Personal disasters
How you are assessed is rarely objective
Assessment
In academic training programs, your basic assessment vehicle was a grade at the end of the course. You could usually tell where you stood in your learning progress.
In the work setting, the assessment of your performance is often nebulous. The factors on which you will be evaluated are not always explained to you. It is assumed that you will see what the boss wants done and respond accordingly.
Organizational politics, personality clashes, unforeseen events, or personal disasters, make the performance appraisal less than a science. How you are assessed and evaluated in your career can rarely be totally objective.

8. Promotional Differences
Feedback (formal and informal)
Careers can be delayed and unrelated to performance
Feedback
The way you discover how you are doing is through formal and informal feedback. Most bosses are reluctant to give positive feedback but quick to deliver negative feedback. The so-often needed “pat on the back” is difficult for many bosses to give.
In your academic preparation, you probably got frequent and immediate feedback. Grades are a formalized way of doing this. It was also possible to get personal help if that was needed.
For reasons unknown to you and unrelated to job performance, your career could legitimately be delayed. You should recognize that you may not always get the feedback that you want and deserve.

9. Environmental Differences
Atmosphere
During school, casual and people are concerned
Work is different
Performance standards
Jobs are task oriented
Project deadlines
Different levels of stress and pressure
Atmosphere
The work atmosphere is often much different from the training atmosphere. In school, there may be a laid-back attitude that in the end everything will work out as planned.
The atmosphere during training usually is casual and leisurely paced with you in control. There are faculty, friends, loved ones, counselors, and so on who are concerned about your personal and professional development.
Although the work environment should not be painted as the opposite of that, most people will acknowledge that the atmosphere is much different.
Jobs are task oriented. There are strict performance standards. “B” and “C” level work may be unsatisfactory. There are always firm project deadlines. This can create far greater stress and anxiety for some people while presenting a desired challenge and excitement for others.

10. Cultural Differences
How we deal with problems Many options in solving potential solutions Make plausible assumptions Develop and evaluate options with incomplete data Optimize the decision
Problems
Real work solutions rarely are black and white. There are many options and shades of gray in the potential solutions. In the work setting, the goal is to make plausible assumptions, develop and evaluate options, and then optimize the decision. A conclusive solution is often not practical.
These concerns about environmental differences relates to the decision about which job to accept. Your job search may have brought you several job alternatives to evaluate. The preceding environmental difference analysis gave you some general characteristics to anticipate. You now need to focus more on a specific job in a specific organization.
These environmental concerns might cause you to evaluate the type of organization you join very carefully.
Organizational cultures differ on how to deal with issues

11. Decision Factors: How do I choose between my job offers?
Advancement potential
Amount of challenge and responsibility
Type of work
Training and development
Salary and benefits
Employment Decision Factors
Year after year, there are studies conducted as to why individuals selected the job that they chose. Those studies almost invariably reveal these factors and often in this order.
The primary reason for accepting is usually related to a perception of advancement potential. This is followed by an evaluation of the amount of challenge and rapid responsibility given in the job.
The next two factors relate to the desired type of work and future training and development offered by the organization.
Salary and benefits never rank at the top, but they most often appear in the top five factors.

12. Other Decision Factors
Your situation is unique: what is really important?
Employer reputation
People in the organization
Products and services offered
Bonus/commission
Job security
Employment Decision Factors
This evaluation can be approached in a variety of ways. You have to place some relative value upon each factor.
The factors that you choose to evaluate may be different from the five most frequently cited. Your ranking of whichever factors you choose will differ from that of other people. Your situation is unique.
You may prefer to put more emphasis on things like employer reputation, the people you met, the products and services offered, earnings beyond base salary, job security, and so on.
Your decision factors cannot be based upon someone else's list. Compile your own criteria.

13. Salary and Compensation Expectations
Don't let salary become the dominating factor
other factors are more important in the long run
Be realistic but evaluate carefully
Provide a compensation range during negotiations
Lower Demands Cartoon
Salary is only one part of the job decision making evaluation. Be careful not to let it become the dominating and, hence, sole factor. There are many other equally important factors that in the long run are far more important.
But, of course, salary is important and you will want to discuss it with your employer. As you discuss the topic, be realistic.
Provide some concrete rationales behind your specific salary demands. Give a range that you can realistically support and document with available data.

14. Career management is an important part of career planning
Compare Offers
Compare all other factors/then compare salary differences
Cost-of-living is a big factor between locations
Comparing Offers
Once you have added together all appropriate factors of your job offers, you will want to compare the salary differences to each other.
If the offers are in different cities, you may want to account for the differences in the cost of living between the various cities.
To do this, you need to obtain the cost of living index for the same month from your local library. If you divide each salary by the respective index, you will then have comparable figures. The differences between the salaries will give you the relative salary difference between your various offers.
Be careful in evaluating the salary issue fairly between your various offers. Remember that salary is only one of many factors that you are evaluating. You must next try to placed yourself mentally in the new job. Planning ahead puts you in charge. Career management is an important part of career planning.
Career management is an important part of career planning

15. Decision Factor: Advancement Potential
Evaluate where job leads
You can manage your career
Increase in management or technical levels of responsibility
Start low and move progressively
Management Advancement
The factor that most people put at the top of their career decision criteria is advancement. Everyone wants to evaluate where the job leads in the future. Careers can be managed.
There is usually a positive correlation between promotion and salary. Promotions and salary tend to relate to on-the-job experience in your occupation and with your current employer.
Whether your goal is to move into management or increasingly technical levels of responsibility, the standard organizational hierarchy appears to be a strong controlling factor. You must start at the bottom of your occupational and job classification and then progressively move through middle and upper ranks.

16. Salary Guidelines job performance is reviewed annually
appraisals with compensation review annually
Average annual increase is 4-7 percent
Top 25 percent earn 10 percent increases
Rarely are raises over 10 percent
Salary Guidelines
Most salary review and performance appraisals are conducted annually. In recent years, the rate of inflation has played havoc with salary increases. To discuss realistically the magnitude of increases, individuals must think in terms of “real” increases rather than “inflationary” increases.
If you eliminate inflation, the only way to justify a salary increase is due to productivity increases. Given that, a good increase is in the 4-7 percent range. Less than 25 percent of the top performers earn over 10 percent increases and those types of “real” increases rarely occur consistently.
Another point in time when 10 percent raises are possible is at the time of a major promotion. In conclusion, although salary is important, you should view it in context of the whole range of decision criteria.

17. Learning Your New Job Performance is key to success
Know your job description
Learn everything pertinent to what you are expected to do
Solicit suggestions from colleagues and subordinates
Learning Your Job
Since superior performance is your key to first year success, you must put everything into proving your capabilities. Even seasoned executives moving to a new firm often face this credibility gap.
Your first task should be to read everything you find on the job that might be pertinent to what you are expected to do. Know your job description thoroughly, but recognize that job descriptions rarely define the job as your boss wants it done.
You must solicit suggestions from subordinates as well as colleagues. Develop a rapport first and then turn that into job performance.

18. Organizational Politics
Play a major role
Can't be taught
Get someone to show you the ropes (mentor)
Office Politics
Very little is ever written about the role of mentors in your upward mobility. The Peter Principle book is one of the best books in this area.
Organizational politics is something that simply cannot be taught. Yet we all recognize that politics plays a major role in many promotions.
Your goal should be to get someone to show you the ropes, soon. You are handicapped in any game if you do not have a rule book.

19. Why Would You Change Jobs?
You change - employers change
Lack of recognition
Salary growth
Unresponsive management
Why Change Jobs?
After you start to build your track record, it is not uncommon for you to consider a job change. An employer that was perfect for you at a given point in time may not be right for you several months or years later. You change. Employers change.
When search firms canvas potential job changers, they look for several factors to be present. The individuals who have experienced a lack of recognition from their employer are good candidates to move elsewhere.
Other reasons frequently given by job changers is the desire for more salary growth.
Another reason is management's unwillingness to take actions recommended. These factors may force you to want to look around for other employment opportunities.

20. Why Would You Change Jobs?
Underemployed
Restricted responsibilities
Limited future potential
I'm capable of more!
Why Change Jobs?
What once looked like an overwhelming set of job responsibilities can turn out to be restricted after a few months or years doing the job. This attitude may influence you to feel as if you are being under-employed.
You may find yourself thinking that you are capable of doing much than you are currently doing. Looking up the organization's promotion ladder, you may discover that your ability to move up is limited.
These are the kinds of factors that might encourage you to look to a job change.

21. Fired! Me? May not be your decision to change jobs
Many employers lay off and then hire new employee with different skill sets
Are you staying technically competent?
Being Fired Cartoon
Of course, not all job changers are on the market because they made the decision to look around. Employers do fire incompetent employees or ask them to resign gracefully. Other employers simply put indirect handwriting on the wall implying that a person should begin to look around.
In recessions, many employers use the situation to lay off less productive employees. They simultaneously may be hiring new entry level employees to refill the pipeline.
It can be traumatic to find yourself laid off or fired. But thousands of people bounce back aggressively from such experience each year.

22. Career Search Strategies Revisited
Self-assessment
Exploration of career fields
Job search
Career Planning Process
If you ever make the decision to change jobs, you will find yourself beginning the career planning process all over again.
A sound plan will require a thorough self-assessment, an exploration of appropriate career fields, and a formal job search.
After going though the assessment and exploration, you may conclude that there is no need for a job change. If you decide to continue through the placement phase, the job search process will be repeated.

23. Managing Your Career Career planning is a lifelong process
Continuous review process
Continuous learning of job skills
Career Planning Concepts
Career management is part of career planning. Periodically, everyone needs to go through the assessment, exploration, and if needed, the job search routine.
Career planning is a lifelong process. All of us are continually collecting, reviewing, and analyzing new information. The dynamics of the employment scene demands this continuous activity. Wise planning suggests a periodic formal review of your personal situation.
You are continuously learning new job skills. The world is continuously changing. The career planning process should be made a regular part of your life planning activity.

24. Career Goals Change over Time
Goals in life change/reassess career goals
Career can't be immune to life changes
Plan ahead for these changes
Annually conduct your own career review
Multiple Goals
As your goals in life change, there should be a reassessment of your career goals.
It is inevitable that your personal goals in life will change. Popular books like passages regularly document these changes. Your career should not be placed on a pedestal where it is immune to these changes.
Career planning calls for an integration of career and life goals. The two can move into conflict. A mutual resolution may be in order.
Early career management sets up the mechanism for observing these changes in advances and taking action that insures an orderly resolution of life and career goals.
Planning ahead is the essence of career management.
Integrate career goals and life goals

25. Role of Personal Motivation
Success Depends on You
Your Attitude Influences Success
You Can Manage Your Attitude
Personal Motivation Changes Your Attitude
Self-assessment--Career Options?--Search Strategies
Constant renewal
Motivational Slide

26. If you would like to learn more, Career Planning Strategies textbook will supply additional information on this topic.