Since finishing the cpd23 programme I’ve been on the lookout
for other training opportunities, so I was pleased when the chance came up to
attend this workshop. The purpose of the workshop was to provide frameworks and
models to enable participants to take control of their future career choices. Our trainer, Sue O’Boyle began by talking to us about
changing organisations and the impact this can have on career paths. We
discussed how there are external triggers such as technology, customers, the economy and competition which
can affect us, as well as organisational ones such as leadership changes and reorganisation.
Next we explored psychological contracts; individual
expectations of work and careers. The exercise asked us to consider what our
expectations were about our job, role and employer when we first began working
for the university, and how true those expectations were today. I’ve worked in
the Robinson Library for over 10 years, so I found it difficult to recall what
my original expectations were. However, I think at the time I was hoping I’d
have the opportunity to gain new skills and knowledge that I wasn’t able to
in my previous job. This is still one of the things I value today and I’ve had
the opportunity to do this a lot more since I began my secondment. This exercise
helped us to reflect on want we originally wanted from our job and perhaps how
the things we value about out work might have changed.
The workshop continued with a self-assessment questionnaire (Schein, 2006) which was designed to help us
consider our career choices. We were given a list of 40 statements and asked to
rate them according to how true we felt them to be. We then had to add up the
scores to find our ‘Career Anchor’, a combination of perceived areas of
competence, motives and values that we would not give up if faced with a career
decision that might not allow us to fulfil it.
My career anchor was Technical/Functional Competence; apparently I
derive my sense of identity from the exercise of my skills and am most happy
when work permits me to be challenged in those areas. Anyone in this category is not interested in management.
I have to say I think this summed me up pretty well!
We then had the option to do a couple of different exercises: one was to imagine our 6 dream jobs and what attracted us to them. Alternatively we were asked to imagine our retirement party. As that is a long way off for me, I chose the former exercise. Interestingly none of my dream jobs had anything to do with library work; I’m not sure what that means!
We were then asked to consider our career as a journey; we
had to imagine our current position as a roundabout with different options or
routes available. This helped us reflect on possible opportunities and how we
would rate them in terms of attraction or difficulty. It was interesting to
discuss this with other staff and see how similar or different our situations were.
It also helped some people to look at options they perhaps hadn’t considered
before or realise that there were options open to them that they hadn’t thought
about. For me the exercise reinforced my feeling that my current position is something
I enjoy and would like to continue, although I realise this might not be
possible.
Finally we were asked to look at our future: where we were
going and what we wanted to achieve in our career. I think the most important
thing I learned from the workshop was the need to reflect on our options and to
be responsible for our own career choices. I think I have already started going
in the right direction and the workshop reinforced this and helped me to focus
more.
As this was only a half day course we weren’t able to cover
everything, but it was a good starting point and Sue left us with other
exercises to explore and a lot to think about
References
