Careers

Careers/ telephoning I

The term career is usually understood as: The particular occupation for which you

are trained The sum of your life experiences

including education, paid and unpaid work, volunteer and family activities

A profession for which one trains and which is undertaken as a permanent calling (the total of professional positions)

A career is also viewed as: A lifelong process, unique to each

person A process that involves a sequence of

work and leisure activities. It includes career development and participation in occupations

A lifestyle concept of activities in which one engages throughout a lifetime

However, today people talk about the death of the traditional career...

One of the reasons for that is the growth of outsourcing (paying an outside firm to handle your internal company functions). Outsourcing is done to save money, improve quality or free company resources for other activities.

Another reason is teleworking:

It is the use of telematics to allow people to work away from offices and factories

Teleworking can be done from home but it requires access to communication and computer equipment (e-mail and the Internet)

Telecommuting: employment at home while communicating with the workplace by phone, or fax or modem

This kind of work is usually done by freelancers:

A freelancer is a self-employed person who works independently directly with the clients

A freelancer does not have a full-time employment, he/she depends on himself/herself to find job and clients

Still, many people go to a job in a building where they have an office...

The length of time that most people spend in a particular job is called TENURE. The average tenure is seven years.

The tenure depends on the employee’s personal choice (which may be to change jobs very often) or it might depend on the company’s success in business (long low-profit periods often result in layoffs).

In the business world layoffs are termed DOWNSIZING:

It means firing employees When a company has to make its

business more competitive, efficient it often restructures human resources department. Some people are made redundant (they are no longer needed).

A company can also decide to delayer (to reduce the number of management levels)

Other ways of managing people’s careers are different selection procedures and recruitment:

Recruitment is an activity in which an organization attracts candidates for job openings

It is the process of finding possible candidates for a job or function. It is done ba an employment agency or a member of staff in an oragnisation looking for recruits

Remuneration is, yet, another way of managing people’s careers:

A payment, salary, money received for the duites of work that you perform

Remuneration can include:commissions, bonuses, overtime pay, pay for holidays, vacations and sickness, value of meals and lodging.

Performance reviews are very important in a career:

Annual or more frequent meetings with employees to tell them how they are doing and how they might progress further on the career ladder

Performance reviews might require further training and professional development

However, if a manager is made redundant he can:

Become a portfolio worker, offering his services to a number of clients

He can describe himself as a consultant, but in fact many of them would prefer to work in a salaried job

Enjoy his new-found freedom and flexibility that it offers

But, these freelancers need to:

Maintain their degree of employability by keeping up with the latest trends and skills

Attend short courses, learn foreign languages

Seek opportunities which would bring them better and better jobs