Sailing the Good Ship Career

Farren, Caela, Training & Development

Who's at the helm of your career? In a changing workplace, you may think that others are. Here's a plan that puts control where it belongs.

As training and development professionals, our daily bread comes from major restructurings, upheavals in customer environments, dislocations, new technology, and shifts in the workplace. In such massive change, it's imperative to understand the value you bring to your organization. However, you may be experiencing nagging doubts about your career. Is it really you at the helm of the Good Ship Career?

You can see, hear, and feel the world around you and use your senses to avoid danger. Yet, jobs and careers are not physical things. They are processes, actions, relationships, and ideas. How can you navigate clear pathways and avoid obstacles that you can't see, hear, or feel?

Working in organization development and career development over the past 25 years, I have seen countless individuals who truly think all aspects of their work life are beyond their control. The villain is categorical, mystical, and overarching change.

Yet, contrary to reports, not everything is changing. Work has stable underpinnings and aspects you can control. Beneath the apparent and seemingly pervasive chaos, there are patterns in work and human life that are stable and enduring. But you must find them beyond the scope of your organization and job, which are only small parts of the whole, believe it or not.

By forming a mental picture - a conceptual map - you can move more easily from one work situation to another, carrying skills with you and applying them where they will do the most good for yourself and others. That examination process serves as an early-warning system. It lends perspective on how you can adapt - to see which industries are most in need of …

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Publication information: Article title: Sailing the Good Ship Career. Contributors: Farren, Caela - Author. Magazine title: Training & Development. Volume: 52. Issue: 2 Publication date: February 1998. Page number: 42+. © 1991 American Society for Training & Development, Inc. COPYRIGHT 1998 Gale Group.

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