Career Competencies - Assignment Example

Evaluation of Career Competencies  Introduction: A candidate is required to have certain level of competency if he has to perform a job successfully. If one can identify the required level of expertise to execute any job, then by cultivating over all those aspects it becomes easy for the person to alter his level of competency with the purpose of performing that job. (Noyes and Bransby, 2001, p.135). Consequently, competency evaluation has become a very important factor for any profession. This would also mean while a person is pursuing any educational course, simultaneously he or she is expected to develop certain competencies which will suit his desired career path. Apart from the self development and self-assessment done at individual level, the moment an individual joins any organization it tries to point out the required set of competencies. Depending over those set of skills they implement training programs. (Noyes and Bransby, 2001, p.135). These acquired competencies help an individual to form a concrete idea about the career field. This prior knowledge also helps to do their job with more perfection while performing a particular task. Career can be defined as a process by means of which the information and set of knowledge acquired gets translated into skills and expertise level of the individual. (Peiperl, Arthur, Goffee and Morris, 2000, p.153). The knowledge obtained through competency development programs have to be translated effectively during the course of executing a work. Failing to do so will mean that the individual was not suited for that particular job and it will be a waste of time as well as effort both for the organization and the individual candidate. Thus, the prior assessment part becomes a matter of great importance. It is also not necessary that all candidates chosen for a particular organization should undergo same level of competency development training. Rather it is a diverse competency collection, which gives the company its competitive advantages as far as Human Resources are concerned. (Peiperl, Arthur, Goffee, Morris, 2000, p.153). Even it has been observed that desired competency levels differ from industries and communities. (Arthur, Rousseau, 2001, p.123). In this context the main focus will be provided over the career of an nutritionist and if an individual is seeking to develop his professional career in this field, how he is required to orient his expertise. So far reflection has been provided over the importance and variety of organizational level competencies, but this report will give more focus on the competency levels desired from a professional who is providing service individually and also at an organizational level.   A. Certain level of skill set and competencies are required for those careers which have already been identified. This section will provide an insight over the strength and weaknesses so that an individual may explore and incorporate in him certain positive aspects in order to enhance his level of competence to secure his position in a specific type of organization. This section will also try to provide the specific skill sets that are required to attain the desired level of competencies. It has already been mentioned that this particular field of study opens up two different courses of careers. An individual can pursue a career in an organization or he or she can concentrate over more specific subject, leading to the initiation of their respective consultancy business. The career path, which was suggested in the task 1, was a career of a consultant who after completing his or her master degree and gathering relevant experience from the industry can provide obesity and nutritional related solution for the children. Though it is very specialized stream and also narrows down the wide scopes but this option obviously leads him to a career having high level of prospects. However, in this context it requires mentioning that to successfully run the business it is important to maintain a proper balance between different factors that are related to the prosperity of the business. The set of skills required in different fields have already being discussed in the previous report, but the actual skills that would enable a person to achieve these competencies, have been discussed in this section.   Leading people and teams: Whether working in an organization or running self-owned consultancy, the factor of leading a team or properly guiding people to achieve their desired goal, must be fulfilled. The main skill set, required for achieving this level of competency is adequate and in-depth knowledge about the subject matter on which the task has to be performed. An efficient leader is expected to know all the relevant practices and information required to perform the job perfectly. After completing his master degree when a person goes into the managerial level, leadership competencies are expected out of them. This leadership quality only becomes effective when subordinates rely upon that particular leader or manager. This reliance can only be achieved by means of gathering enough information and skill sets which are required for the completion of the work successfully. This is due to the fact that, at time of any difficulty and any problem faced during the course of operation, the subordinates will look for prompt and effective solutions from the manager. Inability to provide certain solutions will prove the in-efficiency on the part of the manager. Thus correct knowledge about the subject and also the business operation are needed to be in the organization and as well as to run own consultancy services. The capacity of personnel management skills is also required in order to execute the leadership functions perfectly. While working for an organization or while providing individual one-to-one solutions in the consultancy, the candidate is expected to manage his or her staffs and the direct subordinates, so that they feel motivated to attain the desired objectives. Some portion of the total responsibility should always be assigned to the subordinates for two reasons. First, when an individual is assigned work and given full responsibility of it, the pressure of the management decreases to a certain extent, though the overall management skills are always expected. Second, when responsibilities are transferred to subordinates they feel more attached as well as motivated to see themselves as part of the success of the organization. This helps the management in long run. To achieve this skill level good personal relationship skill is desired from the management.  Developing sustainable solutions: A nutritionist should keep this in mind that the consultancy would run efficiently if and only if he or she can provide reasonable and effective solutions to the clients. To be successful according to this particular criteria, a service provider (here nutritionist) should, at the first place, asses correctly the main diet related problem of the particular child. Without proper assessment no suggestions could be delivered. Also suggestions should not be stereotyped or mechanical. Each and every client has to be handled individually and every problem should be dealt with separate care. In this type of service, it is not a one time contact with the client. Repeated customer visit is also welcomed by the client and it makes him feel that the service providing organization is really concerned about ailments that he is suffering. To make sure that this happens, a proper customer relationship management is also desired from the professional. The professional must be patient enough to address to every minute problem that the child has, and even more so as the problems are acute and negligence may even bring life risk to the child. It needs to be remembered at the first place by the professional that the entire program is designed around for benefit of children. To ensure this, while developing solutions it has to be made sure that the program is enough interacting and interesting for an individual child. If such ambiance is created then it will act as a value addition to the solutions provided by the nutritionist.  Serving customers: As mentioned earlier that in this particular career option the main customers are children, the main expectations of the clients (or in this case customer’s parents) are to obtain solutions that will solve their health problems. The issues are very critical and the most precisely correct assessment and correct decision is what is expected out of the nutritionist. This is the main component of the client handling issue.   Based on this component other related issues are there. The first component can be called the subject component or the main component, which will fulfill the minimum level of client expectation, while the secondary components will add values to the servicing. The secondary service can be providing additional attention and special treatment to the repeat or regular customer. A consultancy can show interest in taking regular information regarding a child’s health, with its own initiative. Special ambiance also can be created, as mentioned above, which will give value addition to the service that is being provided. In short the main skill of the nutritionist will be to provide accurate treatment to the client. At the same time he must ensure that during continuation of a diet program the experience gained by a child and his or her parents about the organization is also nice. If both these aspects can be assimilated together, those will ensure maximum growth in the career of a nutritionist.   Managing products and services: As discussed in the previous report, assignment of a nutritionist ranges from helping his clients to develop their children’s dietary charts to fixing a strict regimen of nutrition coupled with physical activity to deal with the problem of obesity. Consequently, while assessing needs of a child, the kind of service and product that child requires has to be evaluated carefully. The skill of providing proper mix of products and services will increase with experience in that particular field. Proper knowledge along with experience will give a competitive edge to the service provider. The more cases the nutritionist will handle more variety of problems along with solutions will come under his view.   Managing technology and innovation: In last two decades there has been a phenomenal growth in the use of information and technology and other related developments in various fields of research. With the help of these several new agricultural and food products have been developed which are now profoundly affecting the eating habits of the people and which are such designed for that purpose. (“How to Start a Nutrition Consulting Business”, N.d.). An advanced Nutrition specialist must also get himself updated on all the new developments and also should be able to advise his clients on how better utilize these systems for their own benefit. To implement this successfully a nutritionist should be skilled enough to match the subject knowledge that he has with the technological advancements. These aspects have been made and side by side he also has to interpret its proper use, assessing health issues of the child properly.   Assessing the competitive environment: As it is a highly specialized and technical field of service, though the competition is there but it can be avoided as nutrition specialists covers a wide area of study. Catering to one particular segment helps in reducing the competition. Here, for example, the career path that was suggested, only addresses children’s obesity problems and health related issues. Likewise for several demographics nutrition specialists are present. It has to be remembered that all the other service providers are not the competition. Only the nutritionists who are dealing with children will constitute the main competition for the business. In the initial stage another factor may be considered. That is the local competition. The segment has to be catered in such a locality where there is lack of any strong competition. This will make sure that most of the children of that locality are being serviced. These are the techniques by which the nutritionist can avoid competition in the initial stages of operation. Later on by means of above mentioned parameters like quality customer service, right mix of product and service, a service provider can acquire a certain level of brand value which will help him or her to eliminate competition in the long run.   Planning for the future in the global marketplace:   A nutritionist is required to understand the direction of his profession. At the same time he must also understand the future pulse of the market. New technological trends as well as new types of problems, which are now more prominent among children, have to be understood quickly for the sake of the business. Capturing this changing pulse will also eliminate the threat of new entrants in the market. The nutritionists who will come into this business at a later stage are expected to be well equipped with the modern technologies. But to beat them in this competitive market a nutritionist must catch the moves real fast and also should be able to adapt himself to the changing scenario. To satisfy this requirement, he needs to keep himself abreast on the past trends in his profession based on which he can take decisions in the future. Also if a nutritionist wants to expand his network in the global market, tactically he or she must target those markets which have lesser competition. This is because in the markets, where competition is high, a nutritionist is most likely to get lesser importance, considering the sensitiveness of services being provided; whereas in a comparatively newer market where the idea is new, effective promotional campaigns may help the cause.   B. So far we have carried on the discussion based on the competencies required by a nutritionist for establishing his or her business. While talking about business, the competencies of business managements also come to the picture automatically. In this particular section those competencies related to an effective MBA course is discussed in details.   Ability to think strategically: It is one of the primary levels of competency that is expected out of an MBA degree holder when he or she is starting on a new business. Strategic thinking ability can be considered as the first step. This strategic thinking will help the nutritionist to point out the segment in which he or she can start the practice and also while making future course of action. Strategic thinking often helps to identify market trends quickly and so a service provider would receive enough time to adjust or develop the business accordingly.   Ability to make decisions with imperfect information: It has to be remembered that no matter how strategically sound the nutritionist is, it is impossible for him to obtain all sorts of relevant market information. The information that he or she might get is imperfect and incomplete. Even during the time of diagnosis, the service provider would have to make decisions on the basis of little or almost no informations. Thus, for any person in the business he or she should grow an ability to make prompt decisions on the basis of very little information.   Implementation and project management skills: An individual who is developing his own business, for him, developing this particular type of management skill is very essential. Here the entire project setup and implementation of this professional business have to be done by the nutritionist only. The entire project related costs and the expected return have to be calculated in advance before setting up the business. This calculation will serve as a guideline for the rest of the days to come, to judge whether the business is running according to the estimation or not.   Ability to integrate information from wide variety of sources: To make proper assessment of the market and also to know about the newest version of technological developments a professional has to gather information from every possible source. Catering to a wide variety of sources will ensure the availability of data and also will help the person to remain up to date.   Quantitative skill: For calculating and forecasting the futures a professional has to have certain level of quantitative skills even so as to calculate the results accordingly.   Leadership skills: This management skill is required to create the vision and the mission statements of the business and it is this statements and line of action underlying all these which would show the subordinates and the juniors the path to work on and follow. This skill is the qualitative part of the skill sets where the service provider has to make others believe what his estimation about the business is. A proper leadership skill often motivates the workers and staffs who is working and supporting the system. In this case as the business is often centered on one particular individual, a proper leadership skill also influences the customers.  Risk Taking ability:  To compete in the long run the business manager (here nutritionist professional) has to have a risk taking appetite. More an individual will take risks, more opportunities the person can explore. With the competition in the market, if the person does not take any risk his or her business will shrink within a very short period of time. The profession should constantly try to explore new opportunities and even if possible venture into new domain.   Communication skill: Communication with subordinates, with clients and also with other associated service providers have to be maintained so that no bottlenecks arise out of misunderstanding. The flow of communication should be clear and should be visible at all levels, and the management should look after the fact that the flow remains both ways, meaning that informations should pass from the higher authority to the lower as well as subordinates should be encouraged to share their point of view.   Creative problem solving skills: Every situation is unique in its own way. A successful business professional especially in this kind of a business should be able to deal with problems separately and individually. The business operational problems and service providing level problems should be analyzed separately and with experience the individual will be able to adapt to newer challenging situations and eventually will become creative while solving the unique problems.   Cross-cultural sensitivity awareness: To ensure successful business operation both in the local as well as the global markets, the cultural diversities have to be considered, as the eating habits of individual changes with place and demographics. All clients cannot be dealt in a particular manner, but case by case details of the food habits and their practices and norms have to be studied. This concrete information would establish the experience of a service provider on a stronger foundation as when other clients will come from the same background, assessing them would be little bit easier.   The discussion made so far relates to the two different set of abilities that one individual should posses while pursuing a career of a nutritionist, who will be running a consultancy. The following table matches the two sets of abilities with given seven levels of competencies required for the job.       Subject Matter Competencies required Prior experience MBA competencies Gap analysis Leading People and Teams Leadership qualities, and subject knowledge Essential in the case of subject knowledge Man management skills Difference in education and training Managing Products and Services Ability to understand specific needs Very important Works to provide maximum satisfaction Technical capabilities Managing Technology and Innovation Keeping oneself updated Important Better informed technologically Difference because of better exposure Assessing the Competitive Environment Quick analysis of business atmosphere Prior experience or professional help is required Technical knowledge and analytical power Better training, availability of management tools Planning for the Future Trend Analysis Essential Taught and also learns through experience Core area of activity Serving Customers To understand the customer’s needs Not essential Learns through case studies and also through work experience Core area of activity Developing Sustainable Solutions To develop long lasting solutions Very essential Problem analysing skills Looks at it as prime objective       Conclusion: This table gives a complete idea about the different levels of skills that are required to address all the levels of the business. It has to be remembered that, though both sets of skills are required for running the business successfully but in the discussions all the sets of skills are individually identified, as all of the skill sets are complimentary to each other in most cases. It means none of the skills can be evaluated individually; rather all the skill sets have to be balanced equally or in some desirable proportion to extract the best out of the business. It should also be remembered that any person pursuing the career is not expected to carry out skills equally with same magnitude. A different mix of skill sets is expected out of different individuals, but focus will be always on the success of the business so that their career graph shows a constant growth trend.     Reference: 1. Noyes JM, Bransby M. (2001). People in control: human factors in control room design: IET, England 2. Peiperl M, Arthur MB, Goffee R, Morris T. (2000). Career Frontiers: new conception of working lives: Oxford University Press, England 3. Arthur MB, Rousseau DM. (2001). The Boundaryless Career: A New Employment Principle for a New Organizational Era: Oxford University press, United States. 4. Cox V. (2006). Marketing education: constructing the future: Emerald Group publishing, UK 5. “How to Start a Nutrition Consulting Business”, (n.d.) eHow Business Editor, available at: (accessed on June 15, 2009) Read More