Successful career management: driving in the fast lane

Krishan Deeljore HR Lead of Accenture in Mauritius

Frank Parsons (1854–1908) is known as the Father of vocational guidance. On 1st May 1908, he presented a report based on a study of 80 people who received counseling. Shortly after his death, his entire work was published in a book called Choosing a Vocation which is still referred to as the cornerstone in career counseling more than 100 years later.

The framework developed by Parsons rests upon three main pillars: a clear understanding of oneself, aptitudes, abilities, interests, resources, limitations, and other qualities; a knowledge of the requirements and conditions of success, advantages and disadvantages, compensations, opportunities, and prospects; and true reasoning of the relations between these two groups of facts.

Produce the best conditions

According to Parsons, ideal career choices are based on matching personal traits (aptitudes, abilities, resources, personality) with job factors (wages, environment, etc.) to produce the best conditions of vocational success.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the formation of multinational enterprises (MNE) triggered the creation of matrix structures and new career models which meant stronger focus on career management and the emergence of adjacent fields such as talent management. Parsons’ model was described as being too simplistic but his methodology is still very much relevant today.

Generally speaking, a career is a 35-year long journey. Our personal interests will change. The nature of job and required competencies will also evolve tremendously. The first step in successful career management is about setting yourself short, medium and long-term goals. Ask yourself the following questions: Where and who do I want to be in 5, 10, 20 years?

I remember going to an interview for the post of HR Officer at the beginning of my career. When the Group HR Manager asked me where I see myself in 5 years, I swiftly replied: in your position. This made him laugh hysterically, but my reply was far from being naive and pretentious because I had already given this a long thought and actually meant every word.

Four years later, I was shortlisted for this same role. Although I was not selected, this experience made me realize how important it was to set career goals very early on and not to lose sight of them.

I have seen many people make career decisions based on salary package or glamorous job title. In most cases, they proved to be wrong moves. Before resigning and accepting a new offer, ask yourself: is this move in line with your medium and longterm career goals?

We have sole responsibility for career decisions we make and as far as possible, external factors should not make you lose sight of your objectives. This is where a career counselor can put things into perspective by creating an effective correlation between your internal psychology and the external factors.

Career counseling

Career counseling can be helpful for people of all ages in different stages of life. It should ideally start when secondary school students are choosing between Arts, Economics or Science subjects. Later on, during university studies, careers guidance is required to inform fresh graduates about career opportunities on the job market.

The role of professional career counselors is to advise and suggest a change in career or change in job. In today’s dynamic business environment, the more experienced and qualified resources are hungry for international exposure, diversity and faster growth. Organizations are finding it challenging to retain their future leaders.

At Accenture, career counseling is part and parcel of the employee experience because we recognize that personal growth is a combination of performance, behaviour, experience and aspirations. In order to develop and retain our best performers, it is essential that we manage and encourage their careers.

From start of employment, each employee is assigned a dedicated career counselor. Typically, the career counselor is a more senior colleague who will help counselees grow their career by providing coaching, mentoring and exposure to career opportunities.

In this model, career counselors play a vital role in the performance management process, firstly as the go-to person for any advice or general information throughout the performance cycle, and secondly by providing guiding counselees put in place a realistic career development plan.

This is achieved through: establishing rapport with the counselees to get to know them professionally and personally; regularly engaging in discussions and check points with counselees to see how they are progressing against objectives; helping counselees with difficult situations and problem solving; providing the bigger picture, i.e. keeping counselees aware of the opportunities available throughout the organization; and assessing counselees’ skills and abilities, and constantly encouraging personal growth and development.

The underlying benefit of this model is to build lasting relationships between the business and its people. It enables a valuable understanding of each individual’s drivers and long-term visions as they strive to take the business and its people to new heights, by effectively managing both employee careers and business growth.