As Professional Career Services Consultants, we offer assistance in the career management or career decision-making process of the candidates we serve. This typically occurs at three uniquely defined levels:
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Job search... Primarily driven by wage and salary pressures, our Candidates desire to be re-employed as quickly as possible--usually after job loss. Classic outplacement services are directed to this end.
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Career Transition... Primarily driven by the quest for the appropriate next step in a Candidate's career. By its very nature, it is implied that a Candidate has well defined career objectives.
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Career Management... Driven by very broad, strategic issues--inclusive of, yet beyond the scope of simple job change or knowledge of next steps. Given its strategic nature, career management implies an integrity and commitment to a right career path.
From a Candidate's perspective, career management is a noun used to describe the penultimate "navigational location" in one's career "journey". One might also use the term as an active verb, meaning the collection of activities and decision-making events that lead to the state of career management.
From a Consultant's coaching and counseling perspectives, there is a more efficient learning curve to implementing effective job search and career transition tactics when our Candidates have a clear vision of their more strategic career motivation and objectives. Even from a training perspective, we know that a Candidate's learning occurs more readily when individual motivation is taken into account.
The largest missed opportunity (and there are many) involved in this complex equation lies in the Corporate perspective. At every turn, a Corporation is faced by the realities of financial pressure.
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Are we hiring the right people? Recruitment, orientation and training costs are huge... and that's for the right people! Under-employment and over-employment at the point of hire is a deceiving, short term solution to volatile labor market conditions. Career FIT can work for everyone.
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Do we develop our employees effectively? Are we managing our people appropriately to foster retention, personal development, effective succession planning and the like? Dynamic Career FIT process can work for everyone. Training, re-training and other costs of low productivity are huge... and that's during periods of full employment!
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When we "have to," are we letting the right people go? Downsizing creates a real cost drain on a Corporation at the same time that cost-savings are being realized--especially in the mega-sized organizations. With employees you should know what you have... with recruits? Even when your focus is the positive outcomes in #2, downsizing will occur occasionally. Career FIT assures that even when negative outcomes occur, everyone can still keep winning.
CAREER FIT
The old "round peg in a round role" theory of career planning is dysfunctional. In the typical professional environment today, job descriptions are changing faster than ever before to keep up with the challenges of an economy in transition.
Employers and employees alike can seize control of such challenges. Understand the nature of FIT.
From a Candidate's perspective, managing their own career involves three key ingredients:
- Effective and strategic job-changing skills, driven by a Personal Market Plan;
- Continuous research and networking leading to awareness of potential next steps;
- Confidence in knowing that your career is on the right path and moving forward.
From the Corporate perspective, these ingredients can be in synch with corporate success:
- Effective and strategic recruitment process, driven by the need to access, identify and secure the services of the right new hires--well worth the up front investment;
- Continuous attention to the development of existing staff, focused on corporate needs. Pro-active, internal process, here, contributes to employee productivity, flexibility and job satisfaction;
- Confidence in a workforce that is centered on corporate objectives, with clear vision of job requirements and contribution to corporate success.
So, now it's time for a change... which solution is best for employee
and employer alike? Take the path to the best
Career "FIT"!
In order to achieve a good "fit" between you and any future opportunity,
you have to ask yourself some basic questions about yourself and your
employer. The fit depends on how well employment opportunities meet your
needs and how well your skills and abilities meet the employer’s needs.
The employer will make a decision and extend employment to you: now it is
time for you to make your decision.
Make a list – write out the factors that are important to you in a job.
During times of job change or personal career transition, you learn the value of setting your offer
criteria.
- Creates an objective target for your efforts ahead;
- Gives you a meaningful set of questions to ask during research and networking;
- Provides an objective way to analyze and react to offers as they occur.
To manage your career wisely has you extending the same concept. Keep your criteria in that dynamic state of change that allows you to adapt to market conditions and Corporate economics. From time to time both individuals and Corporations need a little assistance to make this happen...
On rivers, harbors and coastal waters, even the most seasoned ship captains call on "pilots" to guide them through extreme local conditions. Pilots are uniquely skilled, experienced and knowledgeable of those conditions, enabling them to assist the skippers in getting their ships through the challenging waters!
This analogy, then, is struck using the definition of PILOTAGE taken from the Website of The International Maritime Pilots' Association (IMPA). This metaphor best defines the Internet presence of the (www.)Careerpilot and is offered in order to stimulate dialog aimed at shared vision between employer and employee, while defining a profession (ACPInternational) for those who assist others, usually corporate sponsored, in the broadest reach of career decision-making.
| What is Maritime Pilotage | What are "Career Services"? | |
Pilotage is a unique service based upon local knowledge and special conditions prevailing in the pilotage area. It may be performed in coastal waters, estuarial waters, rivers, ports, harbours, lakes or enclosed dock systems or any combination of these areas which may come within a port's jurisdiction. It's prime goal is the safe and efficient moving of shipping whilst assuring the protection of the marine environment. Safe passage, then is the relationship between ship, pilot and environment A pilot's function is to combine technical knowledge concerning the operation and handling of a vessel with his local knowledge concerning special conditions which exist in the port area and with which the Master of the vessel cannot be expected to be conversant. In this respect, pilots must first of all be technically capable of piloting vessels of all types which call at the port. They must be very familiar with the latest equipment and navigational aids as well as the regulatory and environmental requirements and have an overall appreciation of the special regulations and unique conditions which exist in his waters. |
CAREER SERVICES are based
upon special and unique knowledge of career-oriented issues and process
prevailing within a professional's total career. Career
Services are corporate (or organizationally) or individually sponsored
and delivered in a variety of venues. The prime goal is
efficient and appropriate career decision-making assistance in its
many forms, delivered to the candidate...while assuring a high quality
"FIT" between the professional and his chosen employment goal
(including self-employment and retirement). A professional Consultant's function is to combine unique technical knowledge of various career processes with their total resources to include access to information with which the individual professional cannot be expected to be conversant; Nor could the sponsoring Corporation be expected to be participative. In this respect, effective and ethical Consultants are those with experience in a variety of industries, functions at all levels, and skilled in both individual and group process. Their familiarity with career decision-making process usually comes from the combination of study and "real-life" experience in both business and the hiring/recruitment process. |
