...By Vishal Patil
It is often very difficult for many students to decide about their career path. This is due to myriads of options open in front of them leading to confusion. Moreover lack of required knowledge about industry and career paths within the industries may lead to incorrect decisions which in turn lead to frustrations or dissatisfaction.
In this article, I am sharing some of my thoughts regarding analysis that should be done before choosing the industry, the company and the role one wants to take up. These factors may be very useful to consider whilst taking the decision about careers. There are four categories for assessment of a job viz. Individual, Industry, Company and General. Under each one of the categories the various factors those should be considered for job assessment are presented below.
1. Individual Factors
Long-term Career Objective
In the personal interviews of companies, a question often asked is "What is your long term career objective?". Indeed this question is hard to answer, as it requires a lot of self-analysis, introspection, study etc. However its very important question to consider, as unless one answers it there is no clarity in what one is planning to do in future. It is essential to assess whether the job being considered is aligned with the long-term career objectives. The learning and value addition that will be provided by the job should be inline with one's ultimate career aspiration.
Personal Liking
It’s hard to continue to work for long hours day in and day out on a job which one would not really like to do. People often end up getting into a job because of herd mentality, peer pressure or lack of commitment to pursue their long term objectives. These often lead to job dissatisfaction and frustration. Therefore personal liking towards a particular job becomes immensely important to consider.
Personality Match
Personality traits become important when it comes to performing the job in day to day operations. Each job type demands certain set of qualities from individuals performing it. Its better to be honest while assessing whether one's personality matches with traits demanded by the job. In case of mismatch one should be willing to work towards develop the required qualities.
2. Company Related Factors
Professionalism and Work Culture
The maturity of policies followed by a company depicts its professionalism. Policies such as performance based career growth, focus on career development of individuals, and respect for individuals can be of great importance to consider. Going through the company website and understanding its policies can be helpful before applying for a job in a company.
Work culture of a company can be found out from the existing employees and from the news reports. Work culture can be quite crucial to provide conducive environment for employees to perform better. Therefore it becomes important to consider.
Financial State and Company Outlook
Financial state and outlook of a company becomes vital to consider especially when the company is not very well known. A quick look at the financial statements can come in very handy while deciding whether to apply to the company. If the company is public, having a look at the annual report can be quite beneficial. Private companies can be judged based on the financial information they provide during their pre-placement talks.
Brand Name
Brand name of the company which one works for make a lot of difference during career advancement. Well known companies are usually known for their rigorous selection process and employee development practices. Hence people working in such companies can be valued greatly in the job market. Nevertheless it's necessary to understand that the role one plays for big brand name is also equally important!
Vision and Values
Great companies are driven by grand visions. Vision and values are not just fancy terminologies coming out of books, they really are matters worth looking at. The vision statement of a company gives an idea about where the company ideally wants to be. Would someone ever sail on a ship whose course is not decided or poorly defined?
Further the values that the company considers important must be understood in order to decide whether these are inline with one's own personal values. These are soft factors which if ignored could lead to conflicts while performing the role in the organization.
Cross-Functional Movement
Some companies have fixed career streams whereas others allow cross functional movement. There are pros and cons in being a specialist or a generalist. One needs to decide whether to follow a predetermined career stream leading to a specialist’s role or to be generalist and lay hands on different aspects of business. One's long term career objective can guide in deciding about this factor.
3. Industry Related Factors
Industry Outlook
Needless to say that current state of the industry and its future outlook is crucial to check before taking a job in it. Check out analyst reports about the industry. The amount of jobs and growth opportunities that will be available in future can be estimated from such reports.
Industry Characteristics
Some industries pose certain challenges based on specific characteristics. For example, retailing has very low margin, hence pay is likely to be low in retailing. ITES is characterized with high attrition, hence people Manager’s job is bit challenging in it. IT is typified as knowledge driven industry, hence one has to continuously learn new things in IT sector. Consider these characteristics to decide whethe to consider a particular role in a specific industry.
4. General Factors
Money (Current and Future)
This almost always becomes the most important criteria based on which people choose their job. Care must be taken while determining how good/bad the salary offered by the company is. Companies may inflate the figures of cost to company (CTC) and include several components under it. Looking at the gross salary figure will prove to be useful in such case.
Many people get overwhelmed by the current salary figures and fail to see the future value of the job. It is very much possible that one gets high salary job which in turn will have lesser value in the future compared to other low salary jobs which may be of great value in future. Hence future value of the job offered is equally important to consider.
Location/Travelling
Job location should be carefully chosen before taking up certain offer. There are several factors to consider about the location – local language of people, culture, cost of living, job opportunities available to name a few. Also if the job is transferable or involves frequent travelling it is imperative to check out details of all those locations.
Shifting Across Industries
Some jobs are generic and are available in any industry (e.g. Recruitment Manager) whereas some are very specific to certain industry (e.g. Project Manager in IT). Consider the nature of job in order to determine the scope available in future in case cross industry change is sought.
Ultimately each individual is responsible for shaping up their own destiny in the corporate world. The first job that taken is a crucial stepping stone in the career. A quick analysis of available information about the job and various related factors can be quite useful while choosing the right job. Hopefully the information provided in this article will be useful for selecting the right career path.
Orion Edutech Pune - Satara road provides superior quality BPO, I.T. and Soft Skills training to students. The unique relocation facilitation service offered by us makes it easier for students to relocate to Pune and take up jobs in the corporate world after undergoing desired training.
Orion Edutech, Pune - Satara road provides superior quality BPO, I.T. and Soft Skills training with 100% Job Guarantee to students. The unique relocation facilitation service offered by us makes it easier for students to relocate to Pune and take up jobs in the corporate world after undergoing desired training. Please visit our centre for more information and shape your career in the corporate world.
