Do your career gap analysis now before it becomes too late.

 

The title of this blog post suggests that you do your career gap analysis now before it becomes too late. The reason for this title is that people generally do career gap analysis when they lose their jobs and are looking for another job. This is not a good time to do the analysis. But before proceeding, I would like to define what a career gap analysis is. Career gap analysis means identifying new areas of knowledge or skills necessary to have excellence in your career, and analyzing how to acquire those skills. It is very common for us to relax when we have job. When we are not threatened about our jobs. I have come to the conclusion that workers should pretend that they are looking for job to see the new requirements or skills that are being demanded by the market or by their segment every 5 years. This period of time is necessary because of the speed with which technology disrupts everything. For example, a leader or an executive whose role has always been to make strategic decisions should now incorporate data analysis skills so he or she can make data-driven decisions. He or she has to discover this and acquire new skill before loosing his or her job. There is no need procrastinating this gap because no one will give him or her a new job without having the skill. Another example is the requirement for speaking English before getting job in many non-English speaking countries. Since English Language is always a gap, you should consider English language as one of your investments. This is because the good job you will get as a result of English language, will increase your income. Consequently, you will have money to invest and eventually, retire as a millionaire. From my experience as a business English teacher, I have seen many people trying to improve their English language after losing their jobs. They become desperate and want to be fluent in English language within 6 months. I generally tell them that it is impossible to be fluent in English language in 6 months. Although I understand their desperation, I have to be realistic with them. I do not understand how someone can ignore something that will make a dramatic change in his or her life. In conclusion, don't wait until you find yourself in desperation in order to do a career gap analysis. Do it now while you still have your job.     

How did you make your career decision and job research?

 

How can one make a career choice? This is difficult, especially, for someone who had never worked before. It is easier for someone who wants to make a career change. However, one needs to make decision in both cases, either to start a new career or to change to another direction. The first thing is to decide the career you want and the second thing is to do a research about it. Although it is difficult to make a decision about career, one has to do it. What are the red flags that will help you know it is time to make a career decision? 

(a) when you hate going to work;

(b) when you are afaraid of Monday approaching;

(c) when you don't sleep well;

(d) when you are involved in work, but you are not part of it;

(e) when the enthusiasm and passion are lacking;

(f) when everything is easy and you feel that you are not challenged;

(g) when one finished college and starts work, but finds out that someone has to die for him or her to be promoted.

Once you identify these symptoms, it is time to do a self-analysis to see who are and what motivates you as an individual. Then, you can go and check where you fit well. 

Once a decision has been made, the next thing is to go for a research. The next challenge is to find out where to get information about careers, professions, and occupations. You can get free resources from colleges and universities career centres. On the other hand, you can get updated information from the US Depatment of Labor, section on industry outline. You can also find useful information specialized websites, such as, Vault.com, Indeed.com, and Glassdoor.com. You can get specific information by interviewing someone who is already in the career you want and working in the segment you wish you work for. You can ask him or her out for lunch where you can ask specific questions about his or her career. Examples of questions you can ask the person (mentor) (https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/what-is-a-mentor) are:

(1) How did you get into your career?;

(2) Which obstacles have you had in your career and how did you handle them?;

(3) What career accomplisments are you proud of?;

(4) Have you read any books that helped you develop your career?;

(5) What do you see as my strengths?;

(6) What areas can I improve?;

(7) How am I viewed by others?;

(8) How can I prepare for my performance review?;

 (9) What is your leadership style?

These questions will help you see how prepared you are for the new challenges. I would like you to write a comment regarding your career decision, what provoked it and how you made it. 

   

What are you gong to do with the money from extra benefits?

 

The COVID-19 pandemic created many obstacles, but at the same time, created many opportunities. One of these opportunities is lack of labor force, especially, in the USA. In order to retain old workers or find new ones, many companies are giving some extra benefits. One of the benefits is eliminating the pension plan matching contributon done by workers. Under the new arrangement, the company will pay all. That means that what you used to pay for your private pension plan will remain with you. On the other front, other companies are giving paid vacation to their employees while others add bereavement allowance to that. This means that you are making extra money than before. Now, the question is: what are you going to do with this extra cash? Will you go on a spending spree, change your car, live in a bigger house, or increase your emergency fund and invest the rest? You might justify yourself arguing that the amount involved is just too small. Let's see how much it is. Imagine a 5% extra cash on a salary of $5,000 a month. That gives you an extra cash of $250. Now, here is the magic. If you invest R$250 every month for the period of 40 years in a mutual fund or ETF with annual return of 10%, you will retire with about $1.8 m. If you increase the amount to $500 every month, you will retire with about $3.5 m. If you are lucky to have a 12% annual return, your money will grow to $6.5 m. You can do these calculations by youself and see if they are true or false. So, this is an opportunity you have been waiting for to start investing. In order to have a successful career, you need to know how to invest. Stop complaining about your company or the management. You can provide yourself with the financial freedom you deserve.     

Why do many workers live paycheck-to-paycheck?

It might be disheartening to know that many workers live from paycheck to paycheck. But, why is it so? Living in this way is another way of saying that the person is broke! The working class, which should be considered the priviledged, has many of them broke. The working class is considered priviledged because they have income. However, this income becomes a source of addiction instead. If you doubt it, how can you explain that many people who are rich today, started with nothing? The question now becomes, how can someone who started with nothing become rich and someone who had a good income is struggling with money? The answer is simple. The one who had nothing understood that he is living in a capitalist economy and therefore, money is vital to everything while the one who has income thinks he or she is better than many and there is no reason to be desperate. What many do not know is that desperation is the fuel that takes you to another level because it shows that you are not satisfied with what you have. If one knows how to manage his or her income, the person will be rich in distant time. There is no business that others do that a salaried worker cannot do. It is a question of choice whether to do or not. There are different types of investments or businesses which you can take advantage of because you have income. Stop thinking about vacations you can take and the places you can visit when you are broke. What type of life is it that you should spend 2 years paying for 1 trip you will make in the future? That means that you spend more time thinking about things that don't give you money than thinking on how to incease your income. Becoming wealthy does not occur by accident. Think about it!         

How is your career going in 2021 1?

The question people often ask is: how is your career going? If someone asks you this question today, how will respond the person? Is it like photo 1 or photo 2? Please, write your comments on the comment section.

 

What are your strenghts and weaknesses?

 In this episode, we are going to look at your strenghts and weakesses. So we will start by asking you about your strenghts and weaknesses. What are things that make standout from the others? Is it your intelligence, your problem solving skills, your empathy, your leadership quality, your teamwork ability, your time management skill, or your result-oriented skill? The first thing you do is to discover where you excel. Although it took me time to find that, I recently discovered that I can express myself more by wting than speaking. How do I know that? I discovered that when I began writing books and blogs. Once I sit down to write, the information will keep on coming to the point that I don't think a lot about what I am writing on. You need to discover this about yourself. Why is this important? It is important because once you know it, you can use it to your advantage. The second reason is that you can leverage in such a way that you are the best in that. 

    The other side of the equation is knowing your weak points. This is easier to identify because your Human Resources Area generally gives you your performance feedback. Your weak points are the ones they tell you and reinforce them by offering you training for improvement.  

    However, there are two schools of thought in this area. Some professionals say that one should leverage his or her strenghts instead of trying to improve his or her weak points. The other side says that it is better to improve the weak points in order to be balanced. Some companies are using both methods now and that is why some companies have positions they call "specialists" today. These are individuals that are highly specialized in their area, but cannot do well in teamwork or in leading people. Since they are also assets to the company, they are recognized as such and work solely. 

   So, it is very important you know your strenghts and weaknesses, and depending on the type of company you work, you can go for improvement of the weak points or choose to work as a specialist. Do not let ignorance block your way of progress!       

Your Career and the COVID-19 pandemic

 How are you dealing with your career challenges in the midst of covid-19 pandemic? This happened unexpectedly. No one had ever prepared for a world-wide lockdown neither had a world-wide lockdown  happened before. Even large corporations didn't know what to do. One of the solutions adopted was to work from home or what is known as telecommuting. However, many employees found it difficult to adopt to that, resulting in many cases of depression. On the other end of the extreme were many people losing their jobs because there was a complete lockdown. The takehome from the whole episode was that employees need to be flexible and adaptable to changes. Although we know that the older one gets, the more difficult it is to be flexible and adaptable. The recommendation here is that companies should incorporate flexibility and adaptability training in their programs in order to prepare their workforce for situations like the covid-19 pandemic case.    

 I am Walter Okpala, the author of this blog. I am sorry for being too long without publishing anything. This is due to personal problems that I had all this time. I am now back to start publishing articles and I hope to see you back, read and enjoy them. Thank you once again and see you in my next post. 😂

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