DR . PHIL GAR DN ERCOLLEGI ATE EM PLOYM EN T R ESE AR CH

IN STITU TEM ICHIGA N STATE U N I VE R SITY

FOR STU DE N TS I N TR A N SITION

N ATI ON AL R ESOU R CE CEN TE RHOU STON

N OVE MB ER 13 , 2010FOR SL I DES CON TACT M E AT

GA R DN E R P@M SU.E DU

Coming Full Circle:Jobs, Skills, Professional

Experience and Young Adults

The Test: Do You Know Someone Who …..?

Lacks motivation

Holds lofty and unrealistic expectations (impatient)

Is ignorant of the world of work (ill prepared)

Has no respect for business cultureDisplays a poor work ethicExcels in social skills for team oriented environmentPossesses no internal guidance system

(external voices telling them what to do)

“What’s in it for me?”

BOOMERS: INVESTMENT BANKERS

Monetary success

Professional prestige

Elevated goals (for all behind them)

Don’t share well (it’s mine)

Control

PrincipalsLegacy

Make sure it stays as we built it

IT’S ALL ABOUT MANAGING KNOWLEDGE AND

DEVELOPING SKILLS

Networked Intelligence Economy

Knowledge/Networked Economy Requires transdisciplinary individuals

Sourcing High quality labor at lowest price Technology substitution

Workforce Succession When will they ever leave?

Lost Knowledge Leave your brains behind Grandpa!

Economic Shifts and the Skills Gap

The Shifts

What Jobs Will Leave?

Skill Usage: The Funnel

Apply LearningWriting EffectivelyTeamworkGrasp Realities WorkplaceAcquire LearningDemonstrating Initiative

Communicate OrallyThink AnalyticallyAcquire LearningEvaluate AlternativesCreative SolutionsTeamworkLeadershipUtilize technologyGrasp RealitiesDemonstrating Initiative

The First Turn

BASED ON SKILLS REFORMATION 1.0

S E E W W W. C A R E E R N E T W O R K . M S U. E D UC L I C K O N G U I D E S T O F I N D 1 2 E S S E N T I A L S

Benchmark: 12 EssentialsDeveloping

professional competencies

Communicating effectively

Solving ProblemsBalancing Work

and lifeEmbracing ChangeWorking Effectively

in a Team

Working in a Diverse Environment

Managing time and priorities

Navigating across boundaries

Acquiring knowledgeThinking CriticallyPerforming with

integrity

Advanced Skills for Professionals: Star Performers

Self-management

Perspective

Networking

Teamwork effectiveness

LeadershipFollowership

Show&Tell

Organizational savvy

Kelley, R. & Caplan.J. (1993). How Bell Labs Creates Star Performers. Harvard Business Review: July 1993

A Model for Professional Expertise

Taking InitiativeTechnical Competence

Cognitive Abilities

The Full Circle

The New Standards◦ Build and sustain professional relationships◦ Analyze, evaluate and interpret data ◦ Engage in continuous learning ◦ Communicate through persuasion and

justification ◦ Plan and manage a project ◦ Create new knowledge◦ Seek global understanding◦ Mentor and develop others◦ Build a team◦ Initiative: The Holy Grail

Paper is available at www.ceri.msu.edu

College graduates must come to the organizations as a

STAR PERFORMER!

TODAY

The New Look for Young Professionals

THE T PROFESSIONALIDEO’S TERMINOLOGYAPPLICABLE TO ALL

EDUCATION LEVELS

The I Professional: Going Deep

Deep in at least one discipline

(analytic thinking & problem

solving)

Tinkers

Claude Levi Strauss◦ Tinker vs. Engineer◦ Tinker redefines the means to

do something◦ “Tinker Toys”

Judy Estrin CEO JLABS◦ Today’s best talent

Deep understanding (respect) Breadth

(communicate/boundaries) Infectious excitement (passion) Compulsive tinker (drive)

T-Shaped Professionals(Both Deep and Broad)

Many disciplines(understanding & communications)

Many systems(understanding & communications)D

eep in at least one discipline(analytic thinking &

problem solving)

Deep in at least one system

(analytic thinking & problem

solving)

Boundary Crossing Competencies communication, teamwork, perspective, networks, critical thinking, organizational culture, global understanding, project management, etc

Jim Spohrer, IBM Labs

ME

See www.ceri.edu

InternshipsCo-opsCareer-related employmentOther engagement: no longer equal

Preparatory experiences

The “New Starting Job”

Competency Eng FT5 yrs ago

Eng InternToday

NonengFT5 yrs ago

NonengIntToday

Analyze 31% 30% 30% 22%Communicat. 35% 26% 34% 34%Teamwork 30% 33% 36% 31%Customer Ser.

27% 11% 28% 15%

Global 11% 12% 13% 11%Innovation 7% 10% 9% 6%Diversity 9% 6% 11% 4%Plan 39% 34% 37% 31%Project 45% 46% 27% 38%

The Evidence

Employer Expectations: “Not What They Used To Be!”

Yesterday’s Outcomesare

Today’s Intern Expectations

Definition of a HSECharacteristics

Knowing what your interests are Frequency

How do you gain practice? Feedback

Reflection on practice Reflection in practice Timing: on going continual

Difficulty

Internship: A High Stakes Event

“ IF I AM LEARNING, FOR INSTANCE, RUSSIAN, I AM CONFRONTED BY AN AUTHORITATIVE STRUCTURE

WHICH COMMANDS MY RESPECT. THE TASK IS DIFFICULT AND THE GOAL IS DISTANT AND

PERHAPS NEVER ENTIRELY ATTAINABLE. MY WORK IS A PROGRESSIVE REVELATION OF SOMETHING

WHICH EXISTS INDEPENDENTLY OF ME. ATTENTION IS REWARDED BY A KNOWLEDGE OF

REALITY. LOVE OF RUSSIAN LEADS ME AWAY FROM MYSELF TOWARDS SOMETHING ALIEN TO ME,

SOMETHING WHICH MY CONSCIOUSNESS CANNOT TAKE OVER, SWALLOW UP, DENY OR MAKE UNREAL.

IRIS MURDOCHSOVEREIGNTY OF GOOD

Difficult

Professional Experience Year

Sandwiched between junior and senior year12 to 16 month assignment in workplaceFull-time PaidBoundary spanning takes 8 to 16 months in

workplace to accomplish; traditional internship only learn to transition

Outcome More mature 20% starting salary premium Job offer in-hand

“STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS NEED STRUCTURAL SOLUTIONS.”

MOHAMED EL-ERIAN, CEO PIMCO

Think Anew

Joseph Schumpeter

On the expansion of higher education beyond labor market demand creates: “employment in substandard work or at wages below those

of the better-paid manual workers.” “it may create unemployability of a particularly disconcerting

type. The man who has gone through college or university easily becomes psychically unemployable in manual occupations without necessarily acquiring employability in, say, professional work.”

“…the ideal of making educational facilities of any type available to all who can be induced to use them. This ideal is so strongly held that any doubts about it are almost considered to nothing short of indecent….” Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy 1942

Production Education Knowledge Education

Passing examsMeeting course deadlinesDisciplined study for sake

of mastery of knowledgeWillingness to confirm to

an organizational discipline

Develop the disposition needed to develop competence in a bureaucracy

FlexibilityLooking over rim at

other disciplinesCultivation of a

different sort of selfPsychological and

social aptitudesLiberal arts have to be

relevant

Education Wars

Training versus Doing

Two paths: liberal and servileMove from production of goods to production

of brandsEscalating demand for educational

credentialsDegradation of work is ultimately a cognitive

matter; rooted in separation of thinking and doing Lawrence Katz The Wheelwright

Creativity comes from disjunctive thinking and is a product of mastery that is cultivated through practice

The discussion we are not having together

One Paradox

a surplus of resources &

a shortage of critical skills

Two Questions

1) Do successful organizations recruit more proactively?

OR

2) Are some organizations successful because they recruit more?

Three Required Elements

Short-Term & Longer Range NeedsFocus on Critical Skills

EconomicDevelopment

Employment

Education

Together, business, government and education must:

Make greater investments in science, technology, business, and design/creative education

Must insure that regardless of educational interest all young people possess the skills to contribute in the 21st century

Action Item #1

Together, business and education must:

Enable and evolve to a culture that embracesand enables life-long learning

Action Item #2

Together, everyone must address:

1) The significant shortage of skills required to create competitive advantage for many organizations;

2) Unique needs of the new/developing workforce;

3) Impact of the retirement of the “Baby Boom”;and

4) Need for greater diversity and inclusion in our education programs and workforce

1) Educational segregation

Action Item #3

Together, we must:

align our investment in education, with;We have failed to do this – watch the community collegesWe do not mean vocational education (everyone cannot be a business major)

current and emergent employment needs, in order to many companies still can not articulate their needs

support economic development objectives, and there are none

return our economy to an environment of sustainable growth

less focus on immediate greed more focus on long term prosperity, integration and sustainability

Action Item #4

Revisiting the Gap

What employers say about college students?Why are “we” so negative?The science class: smart without a mapGap widens faster than education want to

adjustMust set higher aspirations and provide a

education framework to get there.