Career Success

Career Success: Navigating the New Work Environment, Third Edition examines the changing setting in which investment professionals find themselves managing their careers. The authors offer a model of intentional career management and career planning that emphasizes deep awareness of self and the professional environment. This book includes guided exercises and case studies for applying the principles learned as well as multimedia content and interviews with leading investment professionals. With all these practical tools, readers will be able to put the career management and career planning model to work in their own careers.

At its core, career management is a process by which you can (1) analyze and solve a career problem at a given point in time and (2) set goals and priorities for the future. It is a combination of problem solving, decision making, and planning.

Career problem solving follows a structured approach:

• identify the exact problem to be solved,
• collect and collate data needed to analyze the problem,
• analyze the data, and
• make decisions to solve the problem.
• set realistic career goals for the future,
• develop implementation strategies, and
• seek feedback and monitor progress toward your goal achievement over time.

The decision-making and career-planning processes are useful in addressing specific challenges that may occur during your career and forming appropriate strategies to help you achieve your career goals. Throughout your career, situations and circumstances will change. Your personality will evolve. You will acquire new skills, qualities, and talents.

As you plan and advance your career, a practical and dynamic career management model can be used to help you achieve compatibility, or “fit,” between you and your work environment.

1. The first step is developing self-awareness: Explore and understand who you are as a person, what motivates you, what values drive your day-to-day conduct, what skills you possess as strengths, and what other lifestyle preferences you have.

   Self-awareness helps you identify what motivates you in terms of career objectives and provides clarity on how you define success for yourself. People with a strong degree of self-awareness are better able to express clearly the value they can offer an organization as an employee and leader.

2. The second step is identifying your ideal work environment: Under what conditions are you most suited to thrive? This step helps you develop a better awareness of your preferences and suitability for a given work culture, including occupational choices, job opportunities, corporate cultures of potential employers, and management styles of prospective leaders.

   Management styles of prospective managers should not be underestimated. It’s been said that employees don’t leave companies; they leave managers. Often, a disproportionate amount of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with your role comes from the relationship you have with your manager.

3. Third is making decisions and planning and assessing your career: Use compatibility, or fit, from the prior steps to make decisions in your career, set realistic goals for the future, and develop implementation strategies.

   The fundamental principle of compatibility should guide your decision making throughout your career. Compatibility refers to a fit between individuals and their work environments. It may seem obvious that we would strive for fit in our careers; however, examples of “misfit” abound for many and contribute greatly to career dissatisfaction.

4. The final step is measuring your impact: Proactively seek feedback on your performance from peers, leaders, and clients and monitor your progress over time.

   It is important to reevaluate your efforts as your career progresses. The ultimate objective of career planning is to consistently enhance your employability and implement strategies so that you have impact at every stage of your career.

In an interview with Navneet Munot, CFA, chief investment officer at SBI Funds Management, he said, “If work is duty, then life is slavery; if work is pleasure, then life is a joy. I never focused on ‘building a career’ but, rather, on doing [work that] is enjoyable, creates value, and impacts other lives in a positive manner.”

In the new work environment, defining and managing your career is your responsibility. Understanding yourself and your environment forms the cornerstone of effective career management and compatibility.

In other words, choose

• a profession that motivates you and is likely to become your passion over time;
• a job, role, or function that leverages your natural strengths;
• a manager whose values and management style suit you and who can become your mentor;
• an employer whose corporate culture is compatible with your values; and
• to take considered risks that force you to grow and develop without compromising your fit with your professional environment.

The career management model proposed here suggests that even in the increasingly VUCA environment modern professionals find themselves in, building a career and doing work that is enjoyable, creates value, and affects others in a positive manner can be perfectly synonymous.

What are your best skills? In what type of jobs will you succeed? Try this assessment to see how well you are managing your career and which resources in Career Success can help you take the next step.