Obaid Al Slamis Career - Assignment Example

Introduction For the purpose of this interview analysis report, an interview has been conducted of Mr. Obaid Al Slami who currently holds a position of General Manager at Dubai Investments Real Estate. Mr. Slami has obtained a B.A. in Accounting and Businesses Administration from United Arab Emirates University and also Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Oklahoma City University. The person in spotlight is considered to be a successful individual who has pursued his professional career with great achievements and has held highly responsible positions while working with different organizations including UAE Central Bank and presently at Dubai Investment Real Estate Co. that is a subsidiary of Dubai Investments PJSC. Mr. Slami has a complete career in the banking sector and he started off as an assistant general manager. In the initial years of his career he was a bit confused and side tracked about the type of job to do in order to focus on one career. This can be inferred from the fact that first he started off as a part time as an assistant manager and then he changed his line to teaching accounting for about a good three years. This can also be stated as a positive aspect that the individual had a deep insight about the technical knowhow through his experience as a part time. The second added benefit is that he also had a good amount of knowledge about the facts and figures pertaining to the area of accounting through his teaching career. Mr. Slami is also somebody who has a pretty good knowledge about how different types of banks function because throughout his career he switched between many various types of banks. He has the experience of about three different banks. He has even worked as an auditor and finally ended up being the General Manager in an investment bank. Career development Career development is a complete procedure of how an individual takes up different variety of tasks, and roles to develop a setline of skills and experience. Career in terms of jobs is committing, yourself to a role physically and emotionally for a certain period of time (Super, 1980). This time period is helpful in gaining an insight of the tasks carried out at a particular job and human developmental training. For this purpose it is highly essential that the individual be focused, carrier oriented and be moving towards a level of self-actualization (Super, 1980). The person mentioned in the resume takes career as a structured pattern of activities that tend to create a path in one direction focused on one field of interest. This path has a succession of banking jobs for Obaid Al Slami (Gysbers, Heppner, & JohnhnsTon, 2009). The nature of the jobs has been somewhat different and starting off as an auditor he has ended up with a current job in investments. Since the nature and field of work is pretty much the same so the best explanation of career for this person is “a succession of related jobs arranged in a hierarchy of prestige, through which persons move in an ordered (more or less predictable) sequence" (Wilensky, 1961, p.523). Objective versus subjective As far as the objective aspect of Obaid Al Slami’s career is concerned he has a pretty good amount of progression and positivity in his career. In terms of status, role and hierarchal positions, he has maintained a good post in every organization that he has worked (Tang, Fouad, & Smith, 1999). He started off his banking career through auditing and in an ears space of time he moved up in the hierarchal structure thus also strengthening the subjectivity of his career. As he moved up to higher posts his job security, salary increments and workloads increased. The responsibility and levels of self-actualization along with progression have also been in the context that he wished them to be (Tang, Fouad, & Smith, 1999). Forms of career The form of career highlighted in Obaid Al Slami’s resume indicates that he has followed an entrepreneurial line of career. He has progressed his way through his career, developing his expertise in the area of banking (El-Sawad, Career devlopment, 2012). He has gained sufficient amount of experience to manage the operations now as a head or supreme authority. In order to justly head a department it is very important to have leadership qualities of being versatile, dynamic and accommodating (El-Sawad, Career devlopment, 2012). Factors benefiting in career progression Progression in the career can be determined through various ways and avenues assisting in development of career. Source of vacancy information is the strongest avenue through which opportunities can be exploited. Job rotation also tends to serve as a great factor for success as it can help individuals land up in positions that can take them to higher post (El-Sawad, Career devlopment, 2012). Career counseling helps in suggesting the right path and also highlights the focus of interest of individuals. In the first stage Obaid Al Slami used some piece of career counseling and workshop training and improvised his career by transferring to the banking sector as an auditor. From then onwards with the assistance of rotation and mentoring Obaid Al Slami moved high up in the hierarchal structure of financial institutes (Tang, Fouad, & Smith, 1999). Influence on career choice Career choices are usually influenced by family backgrounds, cultural stances and personal factors. This is the reason why most people opt for atypical careers. Most people usually opt for careers that are aligned with the cultural beliefs and setup of the society. This factor can also be seen highlighted in Obaid Al Slami’s resume (Tang, Fouad, & Smith, 1999). He opted for a teaching career and then slowly and gradually he moved to the supervisory department, which took him furtherer to a high managerial post of a general manager (Tang, Fouad, & Smith, 1999). Metaphorical statement regarding Obaid Al Slami’s career The type of career that Obaid Al Slami is pursuing is a mixture of two types of career metaphors, one is spatial and the other is journey (El-Sawad, Career Metaphors, 2005). The reason being that Obaid Al Slami is moving vertically in his career, climbing up hierarchies in various organizations but at the same time it has also been a journey as Obaid Al Slami has made an effort to develop his care. He has switched between various fields to discover his hidden interest and talent in one and then finally made his way to a successful career (El-Sawad, Career Metaphors, 2005). Career metaphor in use The career metaphor in use that would best describe Obaid Al Slami’s career is military career whereby people take their career as a battle in which they have to move ahead, being drilled and fight off through the various challenges that arise in the way of the career (El-Sawad, Career Metaphors, 2005). Initially Obaid Al Slami tried to venture into the academia career and quickly moved out of it as an auditor. For three to four years Obaid Al Slami strived to be a professional auditor in his field of banking. From auditing he swiftly moved to supervisory in another banking department. All of these struggles tended to prove as a success factor for Obaid Al Slami in his career and he finally reached the highest position after a lot of struggle and wounds (El-Sawad, Career Metaphors, 2005). Conclusion From what I have learned after providing a complete structured and in dept analysis of Obaid Al Slami’s career there are many factors that I can learn from to bring amends to my own career (El-Sawad, Career devlopment , 2012). First of all he experimented in his initial stages by starting off as a part timer. It is always best to start off with developing a career while you are taking in professional education. Apart from that obtaining stated and factual knowledge about any field before venturing into it is very important. An added advantage to Obaid Al Slami’s career was that he was a tutor at the UAE University (El-Sawad, Career devlopment , 2012). Developing skills and expertise in one position is very important when working under one organization for a very long time (Gysbers, Heppner, & JohnhnsTon, 2009). Obaid Al Slami was an auditor at the UAE central bank. After auditing he was appointed as a section head at another firm and after a roundabout of good two years he returned to UAE central bank as an auditor. This is where he made the mistake (Gysbers, Heppner, & JohnhnsTon, 2009). If he would have stuck by his position and not quit the job for another firm he may have headed the auditing department or been promoted to higher post within the organization instead of starting off from the scratch despite having spend a previous number of few months in the organization. One should always remain focused and not switch so rapidly between two companies and posts. This adds to be a negative aspect for Obaid Al Slami’s career because this shows that he was very unpredictable at that point in time (Gysbers, Heppner, & JohnhnsTon, 2009). Then a good factor that needs to be appreciated in Obaid Al Slami’s career is that he shifted himself between various departments of the bank such as research, supervising, auditory etc. this indicates that he was very dynamic and versatile by nature. He could adjust in many departments and also perform well at the same time. The current post that he is heading also demands an in-depth experience of the supervision of the departments that come under the supervision of a general manager. So it is always best to be accommodating to the situation and accepting the various challenges that come in why of one’s career. Being focused and ambitious is one thing that I learned greatly from Obaid Al Slami’s mistakes and lapses in his career. Overall it is very essential that one be determined in mind that where one is heading. A clear pathway always helps draw out boundaries and also assists in decision-making in the mind. Influencing factors should be avoided and good sources of career counseling and job opportunities should be utilized in order to excel in a particular filed. This things help in the long run in one’s career development. References El-Sawad, A. (2005). Career Metaphors. Infusion . El-Sawad, A. (2012). Career devlopment . Loughborough University. Gysbers, C. N., Heppner, M. J., & JohnhnsTon, A. J. (2009). Career Councelling; A life Career Development Perspective . In N. C. Gysbers, M. J. Heppner, & J. A. JohnhnsTon, Career Councelling . USA: American Councelling Association . Super, E. D. (1980). A life-span, life-space approach to careerdevelopment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 282–298. Tang, M., Fouad, N. A., & Smith, L. P. (1999). Asian Americans' Career Choices: A Path Model to Examine Factors Influencing Their Career Choices . Journal of vocational behavior , 142–157. Read More