Fallacies about career management

Don’t you perform all your daily chores like having breakfast, bathing and sleeping? Don’t you go to a doctor if you feel sick? Don’t you fulfill your domestic and social obligations? The question list could be endless and the answers to all of them will be ‘yes’; and which manifest good personal management. So, why don’t you dovetail career management also into your schedule?

A large majority of people have a lackadaisical approach to their careers. They have knee-jerk reactions to all aspects and do not adopt a hands-on approach. Regrettably, they also have a tendency to take their careers seriously only when the going gets tough.

There are many mistaken beliefs about career management. They are generally based on assumptions brought about by either lack of knowledge or experience. Some widespread fallacies are:

·   Learning finishes at college: No, it does not. You should strive to improve upon your skills by attending training programmes and adopting self-improvement techniques. You have to keep abreast of everything related to your profession to be regarded as a professional. 

·   Good jobs are advertised:  Only one out of ten jobs is advertised openly. This means that you compete against nine contenders for a job. To get rid of this disadvantage, you should concentrate on widening your contact base rather than wasting your time on searching ‘situations vacant’ columns unnecessarily.

·   Resume is supreme in job hunt:  A resume is an important apparatus, however there are many more too. If you seek a good appointment, you must also have attainment accounts to narrate, entry and egress assertions, a well-arranged story of your life and top accounts that you want to strike, to name just a few.

·   Placement agencies are unfailing:  Recruiters and placement agencies help you get a job, but they cannot be dependent on them for it. You must make use of your friends and acquaintances to get to know about new openings – the larger the list, the better it will be for you. However, remember that the only person who is capable of finding you a new job is you alone.  

·   Employers take the best contender:  The best do not necessarily get selected for jobs. Candidates capable of selling themselves better make the grade because they come better primed for interviews and display remarkable self-confidence. Being highly qualified is one thing, but being the best is another.

·   There is no need build up on a job:  Misfortune can strike anytime; your employment today can be lost tomorrow. In order to preclude such a blow, you need to manage your career on a continuous basis. Important assignments like revising and renewing your life story or widening your contact list should be a daily affair.

·   A job well done infuses job security:  Today, organizational amalgamations are quite common and so are retrenchments. Companies are increasingly contracting out tasks. So, no job can be regarded a permanent. Therefore, it is you alone who is responsible for your career security?

·   Into a job, widening contact base is irrelevant: Ups and downs in your career can be best addressed by maintaining contact with people as it is an innate component of all career management efforts. You may not really need their help today, but who knows that tomorrow it may be required. Therefore, the present should be used to help others.

·   Employers give liberal pay packets:  No employee is generous to dole out fat pay packets to his employees. In most cases, a low pay offer is made on the pretext of probation. It is assumed that you have done your homework too and expect that you agree to a middle ground.

·   Career advancement is the duty of employers:  In yesteryears, this aspect was relevant, but not anymore. Since it is your career, the responsibility to manage it is yours and yours alone. Therefore, you need to be in command of yourself and it, even if it amounts to seeking help from career specialists.  

If you harbour any of the above fallacies, you need to shed them straight away. In doing so, you will be able create a real upbeat effect on your career. The maiden action is however, to alter your outlook and then observe creative and dynamic behaviour.