Like it or not, our work profession, that is "what we do" has significant impact on our lives and our sense of who we are in the world. No matter if you are a professional who knew your calling from an early age or an office administrator who works to pay the bills, each of us at some level depend on our work for the most basic sense of normalcy and alignment between who we are to what we do.
When we look at how we arrived at our work / career situation, for most of us "it" kind of just happened. We learned about a line of work or profession. Or maybe in school we fell into a subject that interests us. Or often pragmatically we just needed to have a job. This is not exactly predictable, organized, nor inspiring. What if there was a comprehensive way for us to create and manage our career that allowed us to understand our options, the requirements, and the roadmap to achieving that destination?
Take your own career IQ test. How intelligent are you when it comes to creating and managing your career? How did you wind up in your current job / profession? Did you intend to be where you are? Was there a clear path that you followed early on to get you to where you are? Do you have the acumen and confidence to pursue a new career if your job or profession no longer interested you or worse, went away? Explore these same questions with people you know.
If career development was taken seriously in this country, there would a curriculum and process that is standard for K-12 across the nation. Such a program would go beyond just introducing the various options for jobs, but would also teach the skills that are universal to navigating both professional and personal life successfully; and we don't mean just math and reading. We means skills like communication, skills that foster learning and curiosity, and skills that help navigate change. Furthermore, such a program would present the options for both professions that exist as well as universal skills that everyone should have as part of choosing and navigating a lifetime of work. What would the world be like if more people had the skills to navigate the ambiguity and challenges of today's job market?
Imagine finishing high school with a clear picture of the work that you want to pursue, a plan on the formal education or training necessary, maybe even contacts or a mentor in your field, and most importantly, the skills to navigate your career if you decide to pursue something new or if a change is made to you.
For far too long career development has lived in the realm of the likes of Home Economics, HR and other mushy realms. It is time for career development to be taken seriously and at the level of national strategic policy. Doesn't our future and the future of generations to come deserve this?
