Informed Careers

Happy Thanksgiving and best wishes for a wonderful holiday season and new year.  This is a special time of the year to give thanks for the blessing each of us have received despite the challenging economic environment.

It is also a great time of the year to review your career situation and objectives.  Are you in a satisfying job with growth opportunities?  Is there training and development that would better enable you to perform at another level?  Are you maintaining and growing your network?

Devoting some time during this year end period to thinking and evaluating your career situation, revisiting your career goals, and developing an action plan to pursue in 2010 is a great investment of your time.  Maybe a good time to also update your resume with expected executive hiring growth next year.

Claymore Partners recently completed its Career Management and Planning Survey which was conducted to better understand the state of career management and planning as well as how to best enhance its effectiveness. We also hope that it helps individuals gain insights into their own career planning and management efforts.

The survey was emailed to about five thousand two hundred individuals and 539 participated in the online survey conducted from February 13 to 22, 2008 for a 10% participation rate. The survey respondents were largely business executives age 30 to 50 years old with annual incomes of over $100,000. There was broad industy representation with a slight concentration in financial services and consulting arenas. 

Major Conclusions

Almost all survey respondents indicated that they have a defined a career objective with their career objective primarily focused on the type of job/role and compensation levels. Their career objective was generally established after having a few early positions within their first ten years of employment. However, only a small percentage have established a documented career plan with most primarily managing their careers by examining new positions/jobs in light of their overall career objective. Most respondents recognized the importance of having a career objective and plan for their utlimate career success, financial well being, and personal happiness. The respondents that had documented career plans tended to have higher income levels and more senior positons.

The respondents felt that the most important parts of a career plan are having a defined career objective, skills/competencies for development, and networking approaches. They also feel that they have been most successful in obtaining the education and training needed for success. Respondents generally felt that they could find career information via self directed research and mentors at work to enable them to establish a career objective. However, many are interested in a career service to further aid and enhance their efforts. They are most interested in career services that enable them to better network about their career development and obtain compensation information during their early and mid stage career development.

Key Implications

Successful executives generally have defined career objectives and use them to evaluate career options to enable them to achieve success and happiness. However, their appears to be an opportunity to do a better job of career planning and management to further enhance their knowledge, effectiveness, and ulimate success. Executives are seeking ways to better:

· Develop and update their career planning approaches

· Enhance their career knowledge (especially salary information) and career options (especially in shifting career focus)

· Utilizing a valued career planning and management service that would add value to these efforts

We have just completed a Career Management & Planning survey that we will be sharing the results of on this blog over the next few weeks.  Please contact me directly if you would like an executive summary of the results.   The survey will provide valuable insights into how we are currently managing and planning our careers.

Thought the following article in Kennedy Publication’s Recruiter News would be of interest. 

When contemplating a career change, one’s significant other may actually become the chief career advisor for many say the latest findings of a national poll developed by Accountemps, a specialized staffing service for temporary accounting, finance and bookkeeping professionals. Indeed, 46% of executives state they turn first to spouses or significant others for advice when evaluating a potential job change, up from 42% in 2002. The survey also shows mentors carry greater clout than five years ago, with 41% of respondents saying they would consult their mentors first, as compared to 28% in 2002. Of the respondents asked to whom would they would most likely approach first for advice when evaluating a potential job change, 46% cite spouse or significant other, up 4% from 2002; 41% claim their mentor – an increase of 13% from 2002; and 4% cite co-worker, down from 13% in 2002. “The advice of mentors, colleagues and other confidants helps when weighing the pros and cons of a career transition, but a job change has personal and family implications,” says chairman and author Max Messmer. “A spouse or significant other is not only familiar with a partner’s overall priorities and motivators, but also has a stake in the outcome of his or her career decisions.”