Career Choices for Global Citizens
Career Planning: From a domestic to a global perspective & reality
As global citizens now, we expect to be able to move anywhere we choose to, with increased ease and effectiveness and to interact smoothly and productively with any and all. While all this is, up to a point, true, our global encounters increasingly have to target some even more distant, novel and polarised cultural groups and situations just because what we now have 'in our local bag' is no longer enough.
And that's when and where new cultures make their presence felt; in the form of novel actions and reactions, artefacts, behaviours, languages, opportunities and potential threats.
Career planning is not a stand-alone planning activity. It can not be performed successfully if separated from most other aspects of self-development and of growing-up like: personality traits, communication styles, inter-personal strengths and weaknesses, international job destinations, attitudes towards diverse socio-economic demographics, emerging political realities, the environment and so much more.
plan-your-career.com stresses the need to manage the oncoming impact of cultural change
Our global world may leverage foreign travel and trade better than ever before but, at the same time, just the slightest exposure to new cultural situations may be fraught with embarrassment for the relatively lucky ones or with the risk of damage or of outright loss for many others. In either case, researching a large number of factors relating to culture, and its various forms, (see “But What Is Culture in Its various forms” further down this screen), and planning accordingly, will pay-off in the very short run thanks to the transition between the old and the new culture becoming smoother, the various returns getting higher and the culture shock reducing to manageable levels.
Whom is plan-your-career.com good for?
Nobody can stay still for long. At any stage in life, one would be faced with some imposed change or feel like seeking it. A transition from one such state to another can be tricky. Especially where culture is involved. Which Is In most cases involving change.
Plan-your-career.com starts while still at school
Handling transition from school to University, to the job market and then to your first job intelligently and with foresight
Being introduced to expressions and to vocabulary relating to life outside the classroom
Thinking laterally, unearthing connections between subject areas, situations, values and stakeholders
Researching, evaluating and resourcing the start-up of your own business
Reading the job market using input-output analysis
Avoiding risks, damage and reputational or material loss in cross-cultural situations
Bridging cross-cultural gaps
But what is Culture in its various forms?
It is of real importance to understand from the outset that by culture we do not just mean the unique traits and behaviour that may distinguish, for example, a British person from a French one but, also, those traits that distinguish a chemist from an accountant, a clergyman from a soldier and even a young person from an older one.
And What lies ahead after University? In approaching the completion of a solid University education, would it not be the right time to learn and apply the many cross-cultural situations and hacks that plan-your-career.com would teach you and have you practice?
In the area of any generational gap, conflict can escalate from lower priority levels to much more serious ones like in cases of:
Children/Parents coping with each other (classic generational gap)
Parents coping with children (due to different expectations of ROI)
Family business to look after vs lucrative corporate employment
As for the case of job interviews for young graduates, at plan-your-career.com we preach that it is crucial to anticipate important questions rather than having any stock answers waiting for standard questions and, following that, to be ready to debate with conviction, foresight and empathy with employers and co-workers.
Some aspects in cross-cultural, cross-generational and cross-professional situations to have to cope with come to mind here like:
Job interviews and Negotiating Employment Terms
Global and national job markets
Language Barriers
Adoption rates of Technology & Social Media
Levels of Education
Comparing Demographics
