As any stand-up comedian will tell you, the best material comes from your audience. I'm not a comedian but every time I run a career development workshop I gain more supplies for the resource larder. Last week as I stood before forty eager undergraduate bunnies I posed my usual question: "Where do you see yourself in five years' time in terms of your career and personal development?" For those of you free-wheelers out there who have rolled, tumbleweed-like, into your Lexus-driving, six-figure-salary career having never given a thought to much past tomorrow, bear with me. The point is not about shoe-horning yourself into a box.
So back to the vision for five years hence. A back-row inhabitant of the class, jolted alert by the question, piped up: "Hang on a minute Jill. Do you mean where do we see ourselves in five years time or where do we want to see ourselves?" A random question and worth its weight in gold for driving home the point. I invited her to interpret it any way she wished. In the workshops my unsuspecting charges are forced into a lot of navel gazing. They are asked to unearth and dissect their values, interests, personality and skill sets (the VIPS) and are then given a final question: "If you could have any career tomorrow, what would it be?"
And again, back to my wing-woman in row twelve: where you see yourself in five years needs to match where you want to see yourself (the "any career tomorrow" question). If not, what's the point? In sport generally and in rugby specifically we would hope not to find, or at least, not find many who would give different answers to the two questions. In business it’s a little different. A 2012 Mercer survey of 30,000 workers worldwide, showed that between 28% and 56% of those researched said they wanted to leave their jobs. The reality is that the majority of those won’t - a job pays the bills. I met one of them a year ago. He has worked not one, not ten, not twenty but thirty years in a job and for a company he despises. Don't let it happen to you. If you have 15 minutes to invest then Larry Smith's morosely titled TED talk "Why you will fail to have a great career" is one to watch.
In the Irish post-primary school system pupils sit tests known as the DATs (Differential Aptitude Tests) to help them gain insight into what they are good at and therefore what career area might suit them. Without adding in an interest profiler and, crucially, the pupil also having a conversation with a trained and knowledgeable professional to tease out whether their perceptions of particular career types meet reality, such 'testing' occurs in a vacuum. As recruiters we ask candidates to complete similar aptitude tests specific to the jobs we have to offer. We might also ask them to complete personality questionnaires of various hues and satisfy ourselves that if they respond in particular ways they are a 'good fit' for us.
The bottom line is, are you netting someone who is passionate about the type of work they will be doing for you? An aptitude test may tell you that Leinster Lock Mike McCarthy has a great suitability for a career as a ballet dancer but this is useless if he has no interest in getting his head around a pas-de-deux. It's not just about aptitude, it's not just about fitting a personality profile, it's about having a research-informed hunger for the career you are in. That sort of knowledge comes only from apprising yourself of lots of different options and exploring them thoroughly: reading job-profiles on-line or watching video clips of professionals talking about their roles, chatting to different people in a range of careers and organisations and, critically, dipping a toe in the pond through shadowing or work-based placements.
Pro-rugby players are like bees. They lead short, busy and glorious playing lives. In the after-glow of a glittering career, and particularly for those who have enjoyed a more public media profile, organisations will likely be lining up to attract 'names' into their ranks. In an ideal world ex-players will seamlessly waltz into a perfect partnership with an employer or into a successful career as an entrepreneur but a match which is to be mutually beneficial over the longer term takes effort to discover.
The road after rugby is long and the early post-playing days can bring an inevitable period of grieving for a career which, in the majority of cases, involved 'living the dream' every day. Whether in rugby or in business, invest the time needed with those who can help you to find what other dreams exist - the ones in which you can be your best self.
Jill Barrett is a Dublin-based Career & Personal Development Coach working with clients in the sports & leisure, education, healthcare and business sectors. She writes on a freelance basis for the Irish Independent and GTI Publishers. In 2008 she organised a charity event raising €105k in donations and over €100k in sponsorship for the Irish Republic’s first Children’s Hospice, Laura Lynn House and Horizon House, Northern Ireland first Children’s Hospice. E-mail: theheadcoachireland@gmail.com / Tel: 00-353-(0)879837881.
No comments:
Post a Comment