Monday, October 29, 2007

Careful Career Management Is A Great Way To Succeed In Your Career

In today’s world of increasing world-wide competition, technological change, and market forces, good career management is mandatory. You must take charge of your career as if you are the quarterback of the game setting up the play for the final touchdown. In order to be on top in your field, you can’t afford to relax after you find employment and take it for granted that you will always have it or that it will never change. Most employees would not want that anyways. It would be boring and eventually lose its charm.

So, how do you work in a shaky work area while staying positive and in control? You don’t want to get so paranoid that every little rumor from the corporate mill has you wondering if you are next in line for a layoff. You want to be prepared in case of a layoff, but you also want to be positive that you are a needed asset to your company. Don’t assume you will not be replaced, but don’t assume the company is going under either.

In the workplace, employees have become commodities. Think of yourself as a product that you are promoting to your company, day in and day out. If the product you are selling is a benefit to your company, it will continue to buy your brand. If, however, your product isn’t maintained, is easily replaced for less money, or becomes difficult, then the company will not buy the product.

One of the most necessary factors of a company is to generate profit. If the commodity they hold, you, is not valuable to them when it comes to profit, then they may decide in tough times to lay you off and look for some other way to meet your function. That’s the reality of business.

The previous view was what initiated much of the stampede towards outsourcing in previous years. Many positions were not only easily replaced for less in other countries, but the business owners making the change saw no benefit to keeping an American employed versus hiring someone in a foreign. One of the main areas that this trend left an impression on was the outsourcing of technical support and customer service call centers.

Now, we are beginning to see the problem with the view of a human being as just a piece in a giant machine. The outcome is that workers leave those positions and look for jobs elsewhere in another sector of industry. Meanwhile, people from foreign countries may not understand the cultural environment of the buyers they are doing business with in the United States. The result is that customers get frustrated with their purchasing experience and sometimes choose to do business elsewhere.

Now, we have a trend on the rise called insourcing, where Americans are being hired by companies in India to answer calls in call centers so that the buyers are met with someone who comes from the same cultural enviroment and can speak their language. This is how many workers have made themselves valuable to their company as human beings again. This is why you should never take for granted the power of how your cultural upbringing and soft skills can lead your further in career management.


http://www.articlecube.com/Article/Careful-Career-Management-Is-A-Great-Way-To-Succeed-In-Your-Career/175371