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WEEK 8 – At
a Glance |
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Announcements: Oncourse and Career Services (USCO) |
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Reading
Assignments: Chapters 2 and 16 |
Review Projects |
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Lecture
15: |
Projects: |
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Lecture
16: |
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LECTURES: Schedule |
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The lecture topics
described below will be covered this week. It is possible that, due to
unanticipated circumstances, the speakers and topics may occasionally be
changed or rotated to accommodate guest lecturers. All changes will be
announced in the Oncourse calendar, this syllabus, and the link to UCSO
Announcements. Although the faculty tries
to schedule lecture topics concurrent with projects and reading assignments,
these topics may be rescheduled from time to time. Scheduling depends on the
availability of the speakers. |
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Lecture 15: Evaluating
Salary and Benefits |
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After all of your personal
examination, networking, Internet researching, interviewing and testing, your
resume and cover letter reach the right employers and offers start coming in.
What a wonderful feeling! But which offer is right for you? Every employer’s
offer promises the same: advancement, great training, a competitive salary,
fantastic benefits, and so on. When you dig beneath the hype, you discover
that all of your offers are not the same. How do you get the truth?
What kind of objective analysis can you do to realistically compare different
opportunities? First, decide which factors are most important to you. Chapter
20 in Career Planning Strategies can help you identify factors most
often chosen, but only you can place a relative value on which factors are
most important to you. Some of the questions that
this lecture tries to answer are listed below: How can I compare my
salary?—Is it competitive?—What does all the retirement jargon mean?—Is it
possible to compare healthcare benefits?—How valuable are cost of living
differences?—Do retirement benefit plans really differ?—Retirement is years
away so why consider it?—What factors are relevant to consider in
location?—Is it advisable to try to negotiate on certain factors?—Where can I
learn more about negotiating? The questions go on and
on. This may be one of the most important decisions that you will ever make.
Advice from parents, friends, former teachers, etc. all adds some information
but, in the end, you must decide for yourself. |
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Lecture
15 Topics: |
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Ø
Advancement
Opportunities Ø
Challenge in
the Job Ø
Responsibility
Levels Ø
Type of Work Ø
Continuing
Training Ø
Working
Conditions Ø
Reputation of
Employer Ø
Job Security Ø
Autonomy on
the Job Ø
People
Relationships: Mentors |
Ø
Salary Ø
Benefits Ø
Bonuses and
Incentive Compensation Ø
Healthcare
Plans Ø
401K Plans Ø
Location Ø
Education
Reimbursement Ø
Automobile Ø
Expense
Accounts |
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Lecture 16 – Strategies
for Managing Your Career |
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You have finally made the difficult
decision of where to go to work. Your career strategy must move from job
search to career management. Rarely do individuals stay with one employer
their entire career but, as they work, everyone wants to advance, learn new
things, and experience variety in the job. It is common of all of us to be
planning for the next phase of our life and career. What you want from the job
should have been analyzed when you made the decision to accept the offer.
What can you do to make your analysis become reality? Career advancement is
your goal but just about everyone experiences ups and downs, plateaus,
threats, and economic roller coasters in their career. What can you do to
manage the detours and bumps and heighten your upward mobility? Adjusting to a new work
environment is not easy. Different environments reward performance in
different ways. Rewards can be financial, promotions, positive morale,
learning opportunities, etc. Supervisors influence your progress by coaching,
training, rewarding, praising, promoting, and counseling. You need to learn
how to respond. What is a performance
appraisal? What is the purpose? How often are you formally evaluated? Who is
involved? What happens to your report card? Every employer has a
unique culture. Can you learn to read the culture and manage it to your
benefit? Mentoring and internal politics can exist together and destroy or
propel your career. This lecture reviews
topics covered in Chapter 22 of Career Planning Strategies. The
presentation will focus on topics that can drive your career forward. |
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Lecture
16 Topics: |
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Strategic
Career Analysis Ø
The Career
Planning Model Ø
Factors
Influencing Change Ø
Career
Opportunities and Threats Ø
Career
Visibility Enhancements Ø
Advancement
and Relocation Ø
Corporate
Culture Ø
Compensation
Policies Ø
Turnover –
Outplacement Ø
Career
Development |
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Expectations Ø
Management by
Objectives Ø
Performance
Reviews Ø
People
Problems Ø
Job Hopping –
Mobility Ø
Mentors Ø
Coaching Ø
Internal
Politics Ø
Promotions Ø
Attitude:
Motivation |
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Lab Counseling Session
– Lab 8 |
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General
Project Directions: Ø
Send projects
as an attachment via Oncourse Messenger Email to your Career Counselor. Ø
Send to your
Career Counselor before your lab appointment. Ø
Bring a copy with
you to the appointment so your Career Counselor can mark on it with you
present. Ø
Counselor will
grade, sign, and return at your appointment time for verification. Ø
Save your
projects. They could be useful to you later. Be prepared to make an oral presentation
to your counselor on your project. Follow project directions
carefully. See full descriptions of projects in project section. |
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You
must attend your assigned lab for review of your projects. |
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Use textbook
as a resource for your projects. Ø
Many
career-related websites follow your textbook Table of Contents structure. Ø
The UCSO Career Resources also provides links
to helpful research resources. Ø
Career Links is a more extensive list of research websites. |
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Project 16: CareerLeader |
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Always number this as Project 16, not by the number
of projects you have turned in. |
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Overview:
(See full descriptions of projects in project section) |
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Some of the most important
variables that an interviewer is trying to assess in a selection decision are
your interests. Our interests are
such an important ingrained part of our lives that they change only minimally
as we age after the age of about 20 years. What now interests you is likely
to interest you in several years hence. Yes, you will add new interests but
early interests, based on extensive empirical research, typically stay with
you. Why are interests
important to others? Because interests are what tend to provide fuel for what
motivates you. Interest influences your decisions as to what skills and
abilities you need to nurture and develop. People rarely study subjects and
learn new skills if they are not interested. CareerLeader is discussed
in your textbook as a part of self assessment but it is just as relevant to
have this information as you begin to interview. In the selection process it
is common for employers to test you for your interests and personality to
further confirm what is evaluated and discovered in the interview. They use
instruments similar to CareerLeader and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, but
these tests tend to be more job-specific for legal reasons. It is wise for you to take
these tests on your own before an employer administers them to you. You want
to know what they are likely to discover. What you say in the interview often
can be supported and validated by the results of these tests. CareerLeader will give you
assessment results for motivational factors (values), interests, skills and
abilities. Your objective should be to review the results and see how they
lead to the Career Profiles. Are
the Career Profiles where you are
directed consistent with the positions for which you are interviewing? You will also discover
that the words resulting from this assessment tend to lead you to see how
your past behaviors reinforced your desire to accept employment in your
chosen positions and even specific employers. This, in turn, helps you use
the S.T.A.R. technique more effectively and confidently in your future
interviews. |
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Project Instructions: Actual project
instructions are located in the Projects Section of the syllabus. |
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Project 17: Network
Partner Database Creation |
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Always number this as Project 17, not by the number
of projects you have turned in. |
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Overview:
(See full descriptions of projects in project section) |
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Throughout your working
career you will want to continuously be developing a quality list of
potential network partners. This process never stops. Networking is the most
effective, if not always quick and efficient, job search strategy that you
will probably ever use. If you are in the job
market now, have already accepted employment, are currently working,
anticipate a future entrepreneurial experience, are planning graduate study,
etc., this network creation project will be very valuable to you in both the
short and long term. You will learn how to create, maintain, and use network
partners who really want to help you, not turn you down as in a job
interview. The purpose of this
project is to get you started on learning how to identify potential partners
and then how to create a process that allows you to get better known by this
unique group of partners. They need to be reminded of your goals and plans on
a regular basis and you need to keep them advised regularly of your career
concerns. This is far preferable to contacting them just when you are in job
trouble. The networking search strategies chapter of your textbook serves as
the informational content base of this project. The objective is to get you
to explore several resources, including your own personal list of contacts
such as IU alumni, professional association members and leaders, faculty,
work colleagues, and many other resources on networking that you might
discover through your web research. Identify at least three
important sources of potential network partners that might help you in your
future long-term career information. You can identify any target markets;
Chapter 16 will help in that process. But you must also use the alumni databases
from The availability and
process instructions tend to change over time, so we want you to browse and
learn the current process in this website. Especially review how to network
with club leaders in cities of interest to you. |
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Project Instructions: Actual project
instructions are located in the Projects Section of the syllabus. |
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Please check the
Discussion Schedule on the Oncourse website for dates and room numbers. THIS IS
THE FINAL WEEK OF DISCUSSION SESSIONS. |