Careering Off the Well-Worn Path

BY LINDA MARION

Changing jobs?
The Intermountain Academy for Leadership in Higher Education offers career strategies for the 21st century.


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Consider this: current statistics show that American workers change careers—not just jobs—approximately six to eight times during their lifetime. No longer does the average employee remain with a company or institution for most or all of his or her professional life out of loyalty or for job security. On the contrary, many Americans pick up and change jobs, and often locations, at the click of a mouse and printout of a résumé.

The reasons for this turn about in American employment tradition are many: the ease of mobility, changing lifestyles, relatively low unemployment rates, economic booms alternating with busts—as evidenced by the recent rapid rise and fast fall of the dot coms—and, one could argue, workers’ lower tolerance for boredom in a world with ever-expanding and enticing work and volunteer opportunities.

Whatever the reasons, Americans are changing careers in large numbers, and not all job-jumpers are recent college graduates. On the contrary, the “graying of America” has led to a pro-portional increase in the number of older adults in the workforce, many of whom are actively seeking new careers (or actively thinking about it). According to the National Career Development Association, 17 percent of employed adults expect to change jobs voluntarily over the next three years. (The complete survey report developed by The Gallup Organization, National Survey of Working America, is available on the Web site of the National Career Development Association at www.ncda.org.) Others might involuntarily change careers due to recession-driven bouts of corporate restructuring or downsizing.

To address the demand for mid-career counseling services, the Intermountain Academy for Leadership in Higher Education, part of Academic Outreach and Continuing Education (AOCE), is offering a new program called “Career Strategies.” “We designed this mentoring program to help people reach their potential, realizing that people’s personal and professional goals are evolving,” says the academy’s program manager, Anne Peterson MPA’00.

The program assists clients in identifying their interests, skills, and values. It provides goal-setting guidance along with information about job, education, and training opportunities to help individuals meet their goals. The program provides clients with career-related services that include:

• Confidential one-on-one career sessions with a professional career strategist offer clients the possibility to explore their interests and get some answers about achieving career goals, along with an assessment of the length of time a career change might take. Changing jobs? The Intermountain Academy for Leadership in Higher Education offers career strategies for the 21st century.

•Career assessment and interpretation is designed for those not sure where to begin. Questions are posed about personality, work interest, aptitude, and work values. The results are interpreted using standardized assessment instruments.

• Résumé and cover letter preparation offers evaluation and advice on how clients can communicate their qualifications effectively to potential employers.

• Videotaped job interviews are set up as mock interview sessions to help clients evaluate what behavior is effective and what improvements in interview performance are needed.


Philip Kramer

The head of Career Strategies is Philip Kramer, a doctoral candidate in the College of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, who was previously the director of the Career Employment Services Office at Utah Valley State College. “The program’s goal is to help people realize their professional potential,” says Kramer. “First, each person’s special talents—occupational skills, interests, and abilities—are evaluated; then I work with clients to strategize all the steps necessary to succeed in their career search. Most important, each client receives one-on-one, individualized attention, something not often found in group career counseling sessions.”

 

The origins of Career Strategies trace back to the early ’80s, when Continuing Education responded to a rising demand for such services in the wake of substantial restructuring and employee layoffs, beginning with AT&T and the breakup of “Ma Bell.” Aimed at the nontraditional student, “Adult Learning and Career Change” was the brainchild of James P. Pappas. The program was instituted as an innovative way to provide career services to non-matriculated adult learners. Many were U of U alumni who were already high-functioning, successful professionals.

AOCE Assistant Dean Marcia McClurg BA’71 MFA’72 PhD’80, who was instrumental in developing Adult Learning and Career Change, also provided counseling services there for many years. She notes that, based on her experience, the three main reasons people seek career advice in mid-life are:

• To find a more interesting, challenging job (“I’ve been doing this job so long, it no longer excites me…work has become a bore”).

• To fulfill a secret employment fantasy (“I’ve always wanted to be a brain surgeon/movie director/sky diver, but how do I go about it?”).

• A values conflict has arisen between the employer and employee (“This place won’t allow flex time/doesn’t provide day care/won’t let me advance so I need another job”).
 

The program is geared toward advising individuals at all income and education levels. Many are U of U alumni.

Connie Crandall MA’76 enrolled in Career Strategies specifically to take the interests and personality tests. “I’m thinking about going into social work and wanted to get an idea of how well I might perform in that field based on standardized tests,” she says. “I also wanted to see if something else might show up as a potential direction. I’ve been doing what I’m doing for over 15 years and am looking for something else that will interest and challenge me.” As a result, Crandall has decided to pursue a master’s in social work.

Edye Hoffmann BA’00, a program coordinator at AOCE, had a slightly different reason for enrolling in Career Strategies. “After 12 years of putting myself through school,” she says, “I wanted to take a pulse on my career, to confirm that where it is heading is in line with the results of personality, interest, and skill tests.” She used the results to determine what education to plan for in the future—whether to continue onto graduate school or pursue professional development in the area she’s in. “I think the experience was successful because I did my homework,” Hoffmann comments. “Being proactive paid off.”

Kramer has dealt with a number of professionals, including a medical doctor who was applying for a competitive fellowship. “The doctorneeded help fine-tuning her curriculum vitae and cover letter, and sharpening her interview skills,” says Kramer, adding, “She got the fellowship.” Another client who recently graduated from the U with an MBA and a J.D. found work in a field different from that expected. After one-on-one sessions with Kramer, the alumnus is now pursuing a career in the high-tech consulting field.

Whatever the motivation for seeking career counseling—whether to change careers or to get a professional assessment—now may be the time to seize the moment. “After all,” says Kramer, “we manage our money, we manage our time—all of us need to manage our careers.”


—Linda Marion BFA’67 MFA’71 is managing editor of Continuum. Illustration by J. R. Royvis.