Choosing Career in World Class Companies - Case Study Example

Choosing Your Career Student’s Name: Course Code: Lecture’s Name: Date of Submission: Part A IBM International Business Machine (IBM) is one of the oldest computer manufactures. They trace their origin back in 1880s (Tung, 2001, p.41) .IBM as a company has gone under different metamorphosis. Despite of these, the company is truly global brand (Sahaf, 2008, p.52-62). Currently, IBM is one of the largest technology and consulting company with the ultimate aim of making the universe a better place. In order to achieve this mission, the company aims at utilising their scope and experience for the sake of global good. The company recognises the fact that the human environment has grown dynamic and thus, information technology holds the key to the future solutions. In this regard, the company recognises the fact that they have integral role to play in transport, security and better infrastructure. Currently, the company has a workforce totalling to 434, 000 who are working towards achieving a smarter planet by offering solution to humanity. To attain this vision, the company employs mix of professionals including and not limited to IT specialist, business graduates and Arts scholar among others (IBM Australia, 2013a). After interacting with the company, I came away wanting to work for them. One greatest lesson learnt as a result of interacting with the company is the belief in all professions in making the planet a better place and the brand name that they have been able to build over the years. Despite of the company being an information communication technology company, they absorb all sorts of talent and professions such as IT specialist, business graduates and Arts scholar among others (IBM Australia, 2013a). This implies that they can accommodate someone like me who has background in graphic design and information technology in internetworking & application. Moreover, their entry requirement is not tied much on experience, but on skills, talent and ability to learn. As a graduate this forms an interesting scenario as they guarantee job security, participation for all in training and development with recognised certification. Apart from these, they offer competitive pay package, expose employees to wide networks of intelligent people. To cap it all, they have a diversity programme that makes all feel part of the larger community of IBM (IBM Australia, 2013b). Lastly, while the company is in business to make profits, they place service to humanity at fore front making it an interesting employer. These opportunities offered by IBM will enable me be a great innovator who offers solutions to other businesses and humanity. Telstra According to Telstra (2013a) information technology forms the core of their operation since it’s strategic in meeting their customers’ demand. The company’s core business is to develop information technology services that aids in various projects like electrical and mechanical engineering through data centre facilities, software engineering and network design. In this regard, the company specialises in exciting technological developments like cloud computing, data centre construction and project & programme management. During interaction period, I realised that the company has IT graduate programme. In this programme, they offer opportunities for new graduates to learn leading edge technologies and up-to-date methodologies with options of venturing into diverse career options such as manning of Telstra’s data centre or online storage. These opportunities are spread across Australia making it easy for one to physically access the work stations (Telstra, 2013a). While speaking with them I learnt eye opening opportunities that made me desire to work with them especially in relation to network and IT operations. The opportunities are based on the fact that the firm is engaged in numerous interesting technological developments on a huge scale and involves skilled individuals to work with them (Telstra, 2013b). This is an interesting invite since this will offer me opportunity to engage in the same since I desire a challenging work environment that focuses on IT technological developments. The second realisation is based on the fact that their information technology technologists are discharged with the duty of developing solutions to multinational corporations developing networks and facilities (Telstra, 2013b). This is an opportunity for a budding IT technologist like me to build networks while scaling heights of my profession. The rationale for choosing Telstra is based on numerous factors that are employee friendly and encourages professional development. First and foremost, the company falls within the top ten graduate employers in Australia. Moreover, they offer opportunity for collaboration with great minds and allowing employees to achieve their dreams with them (Telstra, 2013c). The other reason behind this is the flexible work and careers at Telstra. The company recognises everyone has different needs and thus, they have developed flexible working so suit the needs of their employees so long as they meet their expectations (Telstra, 2013b). Lastly, they have come up in the graduate program which allows individuals to transit from campus life to professional life (Telstra, 2013d). In a nutshell, the organisation meets my career objective of expanding my network skills. AIESEC AIESEC is a global organisation with over 86, 000 members and a reach of over 113 countries across various continents with the sole aim of churning out globally minded responsible leaders. In the course of interaction, there are revelations that came into forefront. The first unique observation is that this non-profit and non-political organisation that is manned by students who are still pursuing their courses or those who are fresh graduates. This makes it a unique organisation that relies on skills rather than experience. The other key outstanding observation is that the organisation is centred towards addressing global issues such as leadership, management and the engagement between students and public life. Apart from these experiences, the other unique features that I feel is of interest to me is the exchange programme that they offer which is critical of enriching ones network and perspective of thinking. The next is the ability to place graduates by connecting them with prospective employees (AIESEC, 2013). However, while the organisation has an interesting capacity development programme, I would not wish to work for them, I would wish only to be directly associated with their programmes. The reason behind this resolution is based on the fact that the organisation does not directly employee people and does not have the graduate position I desire (IT network expert), it is only for capacity development and creation of external linkages for placement. Based on my reflection and career development goal of networking and applying my knowledge, the organisation will not fully address them (they are only able to address networking objective and not skills are majored in). Indeed, this is affirmed by the organisation when they state that they seek to develop global leaders who can contribute to change while exploring their own vision for positive impact on society (AIESEC, 2013). My desire is to work in an environment/ organisation that develop programmes for application by other organisations and end users which is not available in AIESEC. Qantas Airline The airline was founded in 1920 in the Queensland and registered as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited (QANTAS). Qantas has grown from an airline that operated fragile big planes that carried between one and two passengers to the airbus A380s capable of carrying 450 people around the world. The airline boasts of core values such as operational reliability, customer service, excellence in safety and engineering and maintenance (qantas.com.au,). The airline engages in other service such as operating subsidiary airlines, Qantas holiday as well as Q catering. Today, Qantas is the strongest brand in the Australian airlines industry and is regarded as the worlds’ number one long distance airline. The airline continues to offer excellent services to its customers and contribute effectively to the global airlines industry. The company has adopted the use of information technology so as to service their customers and enhance their relationship with their business partners (Qantas, 2013). Working with Qantas airline would form an interesting experience for individual like me. During the course of my engagement with them I realised a myriad of factors in relation to employment opportunities, how they value their employees and potential areas of improvement that are likely to be opportunities. They have opportunities in various areas that information technology can be applied. These include networking and e-business among others. Apart from the information technology, the company has a talent management programme that absorbs fresh graduates at different levels. Moreover, the company has a diversity management programme that taps skills and talents from people of different background. Working at the company would expose me to application of information technology in the aviation industry which is critical to the world’s economy. Nevertheless, during our course of interaction I came out not desiring to work with Qantas airline. The rationale behind this is not about remuneration or the company not being competitive enough, but on purely on professional belief and what I desire to attain in future. One realisation that did not as an impetus for me is because Qantas airline is a consumer of IT services and not developers. This implies they source these critical services/ applications to be developed by other companies since that isn’t core of their business. However, my greatest desire is to work in an IT company that develops applications/ programmes instead of those who consume them so as to expand my technological prowess. Part B Each organisation has different organisational structure and cadres of employees depending on their mission and needs. The same case is applicable to IBM and Telstra. Thus the position I would like to see myself when I star will not be uniform, but dependent of the organisational structure of each company. However, the cross cutting objective is that I would like to be a internet networking expert. This greatly predetermined with my training bias which is Bachelor of IT in Internetworking and Application. Telstra At Telstra Company, their graduate programme opportunity for network operations includes technical operative, technical specialist, technical expert and technical analyst (Telstra, 2013e). In regard to these position and my aspirations, I would like to be a technical specialist. In relation to this position, they note that it involves “monitoring networks, and any alarms or complex incidents that arise by working with a team of stakeholders so as to find solutions, manage faults and restore services” (Telstra, 2013e). The rationale behind choosing this position is based on the fact that it offers me opportunity to work in team learn from them, develop networks and contribute to synergy of the team. Apart from this, the position is about being proactive rather than being reactive. Thus it will give me stronger bases for analytical thinking and bounded rationality decision making. In five years, I would like to climb the professional ladder in this organisation and be the IT network consultant/ Network engineer who is able to head a team that handles myriad of complex issues for the company as per the customer’s specifications. In regard, I envisage being able to head project management team that conducts system integration, IT optimisation and end to end application development. The last is the value/ contribution that I am likely to bring to the organisation once employed. If employed, the values that I am likely to add are from two perspectives. These are what are known as technical skills and the soft skills. The soft skills that I bring and are critical in managing people and relationships in organisation include motivation, team work, emotional intelligence and trust among others. On the other I bring the value of technical skills in terms of analysis, design and development of IT networks. IBM For IBM, I would like enter as Graduate IT Specialist. How I settled on this position is based on the search results I conducted in relation to my undergraduate training. Actually, the result displayed 9 positions which I am qualified for (IBM Australia, 2013c). I have chosen this graduate intern programme because the position exposes one on how to provide business solutions, conduct cost analysis, design & configuration, installation of network solutions, network management & administration and IT support among others. Moreover by engaging in this position I able to come out as well refined individual experienced in factors like service automation, security specialist, server support, network analyst and system administrator among others. With the impetus within me and right conditions at the work place as experienced during earlier interaction, in five years I would like to be a project administrator relating to network development and maintenance. In this regard I am looking forward to head teams that are offering solutions to businesses that are the main customers of IBM. For the above position I will be able to offer my technical skills on areas such as Tivoli automation, UNIX system administration, site support and network analysis. The values that I bring to the organisation are in terms of concept of task and contextual performance. According to Jawahar & Carr (2007, p.330), task performance the real duties one is employed to undertake and it’s the one that differentiates one’s role in the organisation from the other. On the other hand, he notes that contextual performance is discretionary patterns that are formally required by any given job descript. Nevertheless, these behaviours are significant in forming the social context of all jobs. The task performance I poses include, technical skills acquired during training and experiences gained at work. On the other contextual performance I posses are the people’s skills like persisting, volunteering, helping, following and endorsing. Part C: Synopsis of Interview Before commencement of the interview, the interviewer (Mohammed Hamad) gives a brief analogy of how technology has changed the world, defines what programming is and introduces the interviewee. The interviewee Mr. Max Prakos is a programmer who currently works at Nastic OMX. He graduated with first class honours from University of Sydney in computer engineering. Currently he works in US as principal developer with the sole aim of developing software that can detect people who want to make money, but not in legal way. For example his programme can be applied in pension or investments where people would like to play with stock market so that the funds might look good. In addition, he notes that he is in a team of four, a manager, principal developer and two senior developers. He notes that to be a senior developer, one have the ability to design and create new algorithms so as to improve the software. On the other hand, for other position they look for people who can code in languages like CC++, java & other mainstream languages like python with the focus being on those who can solve problem and not on experience. The other issue he addresses that is closely connected to the later is what constitutes a good programmer. He observes that it depends on what kind of programming one is engaged in. for instance analyst team must have strong knowledge in algorithms, hardware like CC++ & L2 & L2 cache. In terms of job placement/ opportunity, he notes that graduates are likely to find job in this profession however, the challenge is that there is shortage of resources and that they can’t find suitable people if they attempt to hire. To show how lucrative the job is, he notes that the work is associated with positive benefits like payment & flexibility. In addition, he is not able to clearly pinpoint a negative challenge. Closely connected to the positive benefits is the pay for graduate programmers which can range from 60k/70k – 180 k. The last two issues he addresses is the ethical considerations which he notes are minimal since they deal with synthetic data and focus on building data bases. Lastly, he observes that their work environment is enjoyable since they provided with world class facilities like good machines that has 224 inch monitor and 3-4 split servers. Part D As a programming expert/ computer programmer, one is entitled to wide ranging benefits and perks. The interviewee clearly outlined such in his responses. Moreover, basing on the work environment he outlined they clearly enjoy world class facilities and are in prime position to offer technological solutions to humanitarian problems. However, after thorough consideration and reflection I would not like to follow this career path despite of its potential. This is because of myriad of reasons. According to my personal reflection based on my SWOT analysis and career objective, the above position does not meet my expectations. As an undergraduate intern who seeks to climb professional ladder I desire to be IT network expert or a website designer. At a senior position I desire that I would be a network consulting engineer or a director of photography. The reason against being a programmer is based on the fact that one has to master programming language, have a compiler and a programming tutorial which is a complicated process. Programming is about. The specific concern in this regard is the syntax error that is associated with programming. For instance a single error causes compiler to get so confused that it generates dozens of massages (Allain, 2013). From a pragmatic perspective, I am not able to handle such because the major focus of my training is on internet networking rather than programming. In a nutshell, my aspirations are pegged on being an IT network expert instead of being a programmer. Part E MOHAMMAD HAMAD P. O BOX ….. City, SAUDI ARABIA THE HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER, IBM AUSTRALIA P.O BOX … CITY, AUSTRALIA Dear Sir/Madam, RE: 2014 GTS GRADUATE IT SPECIALIST - MELBOURNE I am writing to express my interest in the open position in your team. I am certain that my skills and work experience which include Network consultation, planning, designing, implementation, and configuration, clear -understanding of a variety of network protocol, high-level of graphical design skills and photography. I have enclosed my résumé and credentials to provide an overview of my achievements and qualifications for your review. In my endeavour to scale academic height, I have attended trainings like diversity skills training from University of Sydney in 2011 and Adobe Photoshop at Makkah University. Currently, I am awaiting graduation in Bachelor of IT (internetworking and application) from UTS with a grade above credit average. I work equally well in team-oriented and self-directed environments. In addition to my experience and energy, I bring to the position excellent communication and organizational skills. At the university, coupled with field experiences, I leveraged my skills to meet and exceed expectations. I would like to do the same as a member of your team. I welcome an opportunity to meet you and learn more about the position and discuss my qualifications and candidacy in further detail. Yours Sincerely, Mohammad Hamad Part F Preparation for the interview Interview offers an individual a platform of convincing the interviewer why the applicant is worth being considered for the position. Thus, preparation for interview is a critical component in ensuring effective presentation. Bhagyashree (nd, p.2) offers an insight on how one should prepare for an interview. On the periphery, one of the preparations is having enough rest that will guarantee the interviewee freshness during the process. Thus, one preparation is to ensure I have enough rest the night preceding the interview day. The second issue that he identifies is presentation. The appearance matters and it can break or build an individual. One preparation would be to appear formal and dress as per the organisations dress code. The other critical preparation would be to place in order the necessary materials like certificates and testimonials that are required during the interview process. Apart from preparations that relate to bodily appearance, there is the mental preparation that relates to rehearsing issues of familiarity. One way to interview success is through effective communication skills and confidence. To gain this and be in a position to answer questions effectively, the second layer of preparation would involve visiting the scene a day earlier or coming earlier before the scheduled time to familiarise myself with the environment, mission and vision among others. The third element is mental preparation in regards to questions that might be asked. This will involve reviewing what I am in terms of skills (interpersonal and technical), competencies and from SWOT perspective. Under the same, I will strive to understand the occupation by reviewing what requirements are needed, scope of the work and salary among others. The third perspective would be to understand in an in-depth manner the organisation in-terms of their culture, mission, vision, organisational strategy and other structures. Disclosures During the interview process, there are things that are mandatory and should be disclosed. The first disclosure that I would have to make is my names. The second disclosure would be my academic qualifications. The third is the skills and experiences that I posses that I feel are critical for this position and if given chance would go along the way in helping me achieve the organisational goal and objectives. The other disclosures that I would make include hobbies, weaknesses and remuneration expectations. However, the core of the disclosure would be on the technical and soft skills that are chief to my success. References AIESEC (2013). About AIESEC. Retrieved on 26 April 2013 from: http://www.aiesecaustralia.org/about-aiesec/. Allain, A. (2013). The 5 most common problems new programmers face and how you can solve them. Retrieved on 26 April 2013 from: http://www.cprogramming.com/beginner_programming_mistakes.html. IBM Australia (2013a). What we do. Retrieved on 24 April, 2013 from: http://www- 07.ibm.com/employment/au/graduates/whatwedo.html. IBM Australia (2013b). Why IBM? Retrieved on 24 April, 2013 from: http://www- 07.ibm.com/employment/au/graduates/index1.html. IBM Australia (2013c). Jobs at IBM: search results. Retrieved on 26 April 2013 from: https://jobs3.netmedia1.com/cp/portal?mo=zGradsz. Jawahar, I. M. & Carr, D. (2007). Conscientiousness and contextual performance: the compensatory effects of perceived organisational support and leader-member exchange. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22 (4): 330-349. Qantas (2013). Our Company.qantas.com.au. Retrieved on 25 April, 2013 from: http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/company/global/en. Sahaf, M. A. (2008). Strategic marketing: making decisions for strategic advantage. New Delhi: Prentice Hall. Telstra (2013a). IT. Retrieved on 24 April, 2013 from: http://www.optioncity.com.au/telstra- option-city-IT-info.html. Telstra (2013b). A career in network and IT operations at Telstra. Retrieved on 24 April, 2013 from: http://careers.telstra.com/Career-Paths/Network-Operations#page=/Career- Paths/Network-Operations/Network-and-IT-Operations/A-career-in-Network-and-IT- Operations-at-Telstra&filter=*. Telstra (2013c). Why Telstra. Retrieved on 24 April, 2013 from: http://www.optioncity.com.au/why-telstra.html. Telstra (2013d). The programme. Retrieved on 24 April, 2013 from: http://www.optioncity.com.au/the-program.html. Telstra (2013e). Network Operations. Retrieved on 26 April 2013 from: http://careers.telstra.com/Career-Paths/Network-Operations#page=/Career- Paths/Network-Operations/Network-and-IT-Operations/Career-variety-%E2%80%93- the-types-of-jobs-you-could-do&filter=*. Tung, R. L. (2001). Learning from world class companies. London: Cengage Learning. Read More