Tag Archives: careers

Post-commencement career advancement

May 28, 2019 By in Career Management, Learning, Teaching, Uncategorized Tags: , , , Leave a comment

There’s a lot of graduating going on these days and more to come.  Bravo to all the teachers and learners who are making it happen.  It’s time for celebration and reflection.  A common commencement address theme is that of the career.  My research suggests that some students don’t think seriously about their careers until long after graduation. My teaching experience is further evidence of this – despite best efforts.  It was also my workplace experience that many people don’t look ahead at their careers. Most people spend more time thinking about jobs.

Recently I asked 48 Canadian senior executives about their careers to identify barriers and enablers to career advancement.  The interviews were quite personal and very reflective.  In many cases these executives from across Canada shared their life stories with me.  Most of these people had achieved career success seemingly by all standards. Following a reasonably rigorous methodology, I identified the most common barriers and enablers to their career advancement.

The research considered early career, mid career, and mature career phases.  A key observation from early career reflection was that careers start in school.   Executives considered their early years and education as part of their career story.  At mid career, the most common enablers to career advancement identified in this research were:

Lessons

There were fewer barriers described by participants which suggests an overall forward progression for their careers.  They typically had worked in 5.3 organizations and had 9.3 positions over their careers.  Half had lived and worked in more than one region of Canada. Of the barriers, more were described by women than men.

Career highlites for these executives came from advancing the careers of others and from paying it forward through mentorship.  Mature career reflection featured this theme of sharing career luck with others who are at an earlier career stage. There were a few laments about promotions missed, and money lost but mostly it was full circle, back to commencement, right around when it all began.

So, graduates, soon-to-be graduates, and students consider these two questions:  When did your career start?  What are your emerging career advancement enablers?  Maybe you’re experiencing post-commencement career advancement.

Reflect yes, but don’t beat yourself up

May 15, 2019 By in Career Management, Learning, Teaching, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

Dwelling on missed opportunities or mistakes is human nature.  A colleague recently lamented that she had left a great job to find a better one, only to realize that the grass was much greener in her original position.  She repeatedly regretted her decision and in some ways was paralyzed by it.  Researchers have found that obsessing over regrets has a negative impact on mood and sleep, can increase impulsivity, and can be a risk factor for binge eating and misusing alcohol (Taitz, 2019).

Abstract lights

Participant memories about negative career experiences were quite clear – even those long ago.  Reflection should be positive.

When asked about career regrets in a study of Canadian technology executives the most common answer was denial of negative reflection, “Oh I don’t dwell on  the past” (Fauteux, 2017).  When pressed during interviews, participants described a range of regrets including assignments not pursued, transfers not accepted, promotions not lobbied for, and other moments in time that could have been (better).  Their memories were quite clear about decisions made long ago.  No doubt you have some career regrets, I do! Its important not to let them get a hold of you.

Psychologists suggest that in order to avoid regret spiral you need to interrupt your negative thought pattern and look to the positive.  Taitz, 2019 describes this as interrupting your obsessing and treating yourself like your ideal mentor would.  Don’t beat yourself up – practice self compassion.  Her science explains once again what we know intuitively but sometimes can’t put into practice – see the sliver lining.  Life long learners who use reflection may know this best – there is positive value in every experience.

Kintsugi is a Japanese art which literally translated means “golden repair.” It is a philosophy of repairing broken things, including imperfections which are considered part of an item’s history.  So, life long learners, take time to reflect, look for the positive in every experience, and repair the broken thing(s) which are part of your career.