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Monday, October 18, 2010

Owning Your Career


Last week, I had the privilege to attend a career building event sponsored by my employer, Coca-Cola.  How very nice, I thought, to work for a company that is willing to pay for its employees to attend a workshop focused solely on their individual careers.

The purpose of the event was to map out the individuals' personality traits, strengths, interests and so on to determine the best career path to take.  Next, everyone focused on where they were in their careers and lives, to determine or re-evaluate their proper course, and to see if they needed to make a "course correction." 

Since the class had people at the beginning of their careers, some fresh out of college, to others looking at retirement in a few years (and all points in between), it was fascinating to hear everybody's perspectives on where they are and where they desire to be in both their work and personal lives. 

We started by breaking down ourselves, assessing the following:
I. Interest and skills:
  • Realistic
  • Investigative
  • Artistic
  • Social
  • Enterprising
  • Conventional
II. Working Styles:
  • Expressive
  • Amiable
  • Driver
  • Analytical
It came as little surprise to me that I am Social/Investigative, and that I am Expressive.  It did surprise me that I didn't have as many matches in the Analytical category as I thought I should have.  After all, I'm an Analyst by trade.  Perhaps I have evolved over time, and I'm not quite as critical or structured as I once was.  I do know that having children torpedoed my functional and organized environment!

These self evaluation tests were based on assessments formulated by The Ryan Group, leaders in human capital management solutions.  Another tool referenced by the class material is the book Don't Waste Your Talent: The 8 Critical Steps to Discovering What You Do Best.

I found the workshop to be both interesting and insightful.  At this point in my career, I may need to "tweak the ship's heading" just a little.  :-)

JM Kelly, The IT Entrepreneur

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