MASTERY IN CAREER DEVELOPMENT FOR YOUNG PROFESSIONALS

 By Babatunde Fajimi

  

Are you a young professional?
Do you know that your self-concept evolves over the life cycle of your career development?

Your answers to these two questions will determine how well adjusted you are, and fulfilled you will become in your career. We live in a capitalist economy where everyone fends for oneself. The world of work attracts the best and cares about you only when you are productive and profitable to the organization. The best is considered the most confident, effective and result-oriented professional.

Over the decades, the culture of employee engagement has changed. There is no guaranteed employment. Most of the jobs are being outsourced now. There is no job security. You do not have any job to keep for life again. You can be terminated at any time. There is no retirement plan. You are not hired to work until you grow grey hairs. There must be something you are bringing to the table before the employer hires, promotes, increases your salary or rewards you for long service.

The demand for performance excellence and productivity has become increasingly heightened by the recent shrinking fortunes of nations’ economies with consequences for organizations, and the competition for talents has shifted the paradigm to the young professionals. 

The young professionals are young adults who have functionally transitioned from late adolescence through early youth to young adulthood to define their lives, develop their core competencies. They decide their careers through the pursuit of their dreams, with a dint of hardwork, and making smart decisions all the way. Not only these, they have disciplined themselves and are very passionate of what they know how best to do. They engage their future through self efficacy and mindset that align their career progressions with their organizational growth expectations thereby contributing positively to themselves, their employers, and the society at large.

These young professionals are young adults in their 20s through 40s. They are either engaged in a profession or white collar occupation. Donald Super’s Career Model situates them in Establishment and early Maintenance Phase in his Life Rainbow. They are your typical sharp young men and smart young ladies you encounter rushing out of their houses early in the morning in bespoke suits, clutching briefcases or handbags and state-of-the-art smart phones to catch a ride to work. They are everywhere. In Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Accra, Johannesburg, London, New York e.t.c. They are energetic. They are hardworking. They are result-oriented. They do not waste time. They make every day counts.      

Francis Bacon, the renowned English Essayist aptly described the characteristics and culture of these young professionals when he said “young men are fitter to invent, than to judge; fitter to execution than for counsel; and fitter for new projects than for settled business; … Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than they can hold; stir more than they can quiet; fly to the end, without consideration of the means and degrees; pursue some few principles which they have chanced upon absurdly; care not to innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first; and that, which doublet all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them, like an unruly horse, that will neither stop nor turn. Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.”

In life and career development, the period of young adulthood is the most definitive and vibrant phase of energy, creativity, innovation, effectiveness and productivity in their work experience. Conversely, it is also the phase that you are faced with the dilemma of youth. Experts in a recent survey advised that there is a generation of young people now who are rejecting high-flying careers in favour of a life of ease and luxury. They have been classified as the ‘Easy Life Generation’.

This Easy Life Generation have seen their parents struggled with demanding jobs whilst trying to raise families. This particular generation is not ready to follow such parental footsteps. They want luxury: earn big money, live in the best part of the city, drive posh cars, sleep in five stars hotel, eat in the best restaurant in town but are not ready to pay the price of building their lives and developing their careers.

It is not a sustainable lifestyle. You do not want to live a wasted life. You do not want to live from hand-to-mouth. You do not want to retire broke. You have to avoid this lure of ease and luxury. You have to make the most of your young adulthood and pursue a career that can give you a solid platform to launch your middle adulthood to retirement.

Life and career evolve in phases. We do not rush through life. We progress through stages from infancy to the gray hairs years. Generally speaking, there are eight phases of life and career development from infancy to maturity. You begin to develop character, skills and abilities right from birth throughout the different phases of your life, and that contribute to the development of your career. If you neglect any phase of your life, your career is likely to malfunction. The problem you are encountering on the job now is not attributable to your supervisor’s management style but your attitudes, and the weak default foundation you have laid for your career.

Your Birth Phase takes you through infancy, early childhood and school age to age 9. You develop your attitudes towards work as a result of observing and listening to the models in your household and social circle of your family. If they loathed hardwork in your family and your parents were in the habit of staying late in bed, you will grow up to become a tardy worker unless you change your mindset and train yourself on time management. The attitude that you develop towards work at this phase of your life are the habits you will manifest in the workplace. If it is negative or positive, then the result will be counterproductive or effective respectively.

Adolescence Phase spans pre-adolescence and adolescence years to age 19. Your primary activity is to obtain formal education. You begin to explore various occupational fields in school through Career Counselors or independent investigations. You should reason with and convince your parents or guardians to allow you pursue careers that fit your personality, interests and capabilities, and not those that catch their fancies. You also begin to take on casual jobs and chores around the household or neighbourhood or engage in early part-time jobs. 

Early Young Adulthood Phase is from ages 20 to 29 when you complete formal education, serve your fatherland and are ready to launch your career. This is probably your first experience with full-time employment, and it will be usually a relatively low-paying and low-skilled job. You should lower your expectations of high paying jobs to avoid frustrations in the labour market. 

The ‘fat salary’ will come later in life after you have garnered experience in your career. Most young people are mobile at this phase. They change jobs frequently, and easily too. You are learning the ropes and gaining experience on the job. You are also following trends in technology and business models to grow your expertise. Some other people will determine if they want to pursue post-graduate degrees, raise families or chase other legitimate interests. 

Young Adulthood Phase will take you from ages 30 to 39, and your occupational and career field would have been decided now. This is the stage when you make serious choices about your employers. You are more settled because there are other things happening in your life. You have to make job changes based on opportunities for advancement, career development and higher remunerations. Where you live is determined by your social ties and family considerations such as where your spouse works and the schools you want your children to attend. You are more conscious of your social status, and the drive for advancement increases.

Middle Adulthood Phase spans from ages 40 to 49. You are matured in your career. You gain personal efficiency and attain job expertise with experience. Your job productivity will increase until peak is reached. Your income earning capability too will grow with seriousness and seniority on the job or through occupational maturity. It is a smart move to have acquired post-graduate degrees and attended professional courses locally or overseas in the previous phases, and be technologically friendly in order to position yourself for senior leadership or management roles. 

Matured Adulthood Phase will take you from ages 50 through 59 when you reach the peak of your income earning capabilities depending on your input to life from the previous phases. You are at the zenith of your career now. You should have reached all of your career goals as you approach age 60. You have to make readjustments to those goals that are unattained. Frequently (but not always), your drive to advance your career frontiers are counterbalanced with a concern to preserve what you have already acquired. There are also concerns about your health and wellness. You begin to turn your focus to and get more involved in social services, charity works and philanthropy.

Early Retirement Phase is from ages 60 through to 70. You are preoccupied with retirement. Your drive for security gains prominence over other considerations. Likewise, is your health and wellness. You slow down active participation and begin to play the role of advisers and counselors to younger professionals. 

You reach your Full Retirement Phase when you clock 70. Your income regresses, but you may still act the role of adviser as active participation in career diminishes. You now have to adjust your lifestyle to less participative role in order to enjoy your retirement.

You should seize the moment as a young professional. Henry Longfellow said that “youth comes but once in a lifetime”. Your young adulthood phase is too important to be left to chance. You have a responsibility to yourself to take charge of your career. You should recognize that you have a choice to decide how your career pans out in life. Set the sail now, and ride your career. The employers acknowledge and celebrate young professionals who are focused, disciplined, diligent, futuristic but self assured and assertive about their career development.

It is your life! Plan it. It is your career! Seize the moment. 

Babatunde Fajimi 

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Kairos Business Services Limited. 
He is a management consultant and business coach who features as a columnist in leading Nigerian newspapers on entrepreneurship, leadership, organizational learning, change management and career development. 

+234-7080511600.
kairosbsng@gmail.com