Career development consultant WENDY TAN on how to plan and navigate 40 years of your work life.
Many of us enter the working
world with jobs related to what we studied,
and hope for interesting work and career
progression. Yet, recent research by
Accenture shows that 76% of Singapore-based
employees are dissatisfied with
their jobs. The lack of career development
is a top reason, trumping pay.
Nationally, as the SkillsFuture initiatives
show, career development is promoted
through ensuring that we have the right
skills and experience. From an organisational
perspective, career development is
a key strategy to engage and retain staff.
What about you? How important is your
career development? What are you doing
to develop your career?
In my career development workshops,
most participants, including public officers,
confess that they spend more time
planning their vacations than their careers!
Many are so busy that little time or
energy is left to think about their careers.
This is an insidious trap because 40 years
of our lives can drift by quickly. No one
cares more about your career than you.
Consider these examples: A young officer,
who joined the Public Service with
a diploma, recently obtained a degree.
She aspires for more senior roles, but is
not sure how to get there. A long-serving
officer in the Service with 10 years to retirement
wonders if he should just “settle
down”, or find something new and exciting
since the retirement age keeps inching
up. Another manager struggles with work
commitments after the birth of her second
child. She contemplates quitting, but feels
it is a pity to give up her career.
These are all important questions.
Rather than just having circular conversations
in your head, take ownership of your
career and take action.
Dr Beverly Kaye, co-author of Help
Them Grow or Watch Them Go, suggests
five steps to guide our career planning:
1. Know who you are: What are your
strengths, interests and values? What
energises you at work (other than break
time)? What do you naturally do well
in? What is important to you at work?
2. Know what others think of you: What
is your reputation or brand? Reputation
precedes opportunities. Manage
your reputation or you will be managed
by it.
3. Know the future: What are the key
trends in your organisation or country?
How will these trends impact what
public officers need to do? What skills
will become more valuable in time?
Plan with the future in mind.
4. Know your options: What are your
Plans A, B or even C? Rather than
think of your career as a ladder, think
of it as a rock wall. To get ahead, sometimes
you need to move right, left, diagonally,
or just grow in place. There
are more options than you may realise.
5. Know your plan: What do you need
to learn now, and how? Take action.
Opportunities go to those who are prepared.
Know what types of skills, experiences
and exposure you need.
Thinking through these five steps is
an iterative and continuous process to
help us navigate our 40 years of work.
Talk to your peers, ex-classmates or people
who have walked the journey.
Talk to your manager too. This is
one of the most important steps. Do not
wait for the six-monthly appraisal. Do it
informally over coffee. Share your aspirations,
seek their advice and ask what skills
and experience you will need to move
your career forward. Agree on specific
small steps, what you will do, and how he
or she can support you in achieving your
career aspirations.
An officer who attended our CareerPower workshop discovered that he wanted
to improve his negotiation skills. He
took the initiative to ask if he could shadow
a few experienced frontline colleagues.
“My manager then helped me set up this
development opportunity,” he shared.
Remember, a career is not built overnight.
Enjoy your learning process and
know that opportunities go to those who
are prepared.
Wendy Tan is a consultant, writer and founding partner of Flame Centre. She works with organisations in Asia to engage, develop and retain their employees. She will be conducting public sector career development workshops in August and October 2015. For more details: www.flamecentre.com