Making Career Decisions - Article Example

Making Career Decisions Making Career Decisions Introduction Young people face a great deal of choice when they are first deciding what career to study towards, and this can often be overwhelming for the student who excels in several subjects or simply has multiple serious interests within and without the curriculum. In working towards a career in human resource management, it becomes necessary to ascertain those goals that are short-term, long-term and in between so that one might be able to focus on the most important aspects of the career at any given point. Understanding exactly what or who it was that influenced a person to take up a career in human resources will also help when it comes to dedication in prior studies and long term career commitment; without clearly defined goals and principles university studies can be a waste of time and money in the end. It is because of this that students are well advised to take a good look at their career plans and make sure they have chosen wisely and that they understand how their futures might pan out in a certain job field (Locke, 1992). This essay covers the individual and environmental career drivers behind the decision to take up human resource management (HRM), explains theories behind HRM in both American and British contexts, outlines career goals from the short to the long-term and attempts to ascertain which career strategy should be adopted for the greatest future success in the business. Human Resource Management Every big business or organisation these days relies on a large number of staff members; secretaries, administrators, janitors, salespeople, personal assistants, cooks, managers, owners and all the other people involved in the running of any such group are required not only to fully understand their jobs but to understand their role within the organisation and get along with all the other staff on a daily basis (Baruch, 2004). Traditionally speaking, it is the role of management to ensure that each staff member has the training they need for the job and that he or she is relatively content within the structure of the business. With the explosion of the commercial sector in the last century, however, businesses have grown to such immense sizes that to manage every staff member while fulfilling the duties of a managerial post has become impossible. On this note, human resources staff have appeared on the scene. It is the role of a HRM employee in any company to see to the wellbeing of company staff on any level, and to help organise the business structure in such a way as that fewer internal problems occur between people. Unfortunately in any large group of people, there will be certain types who don't get along because of personality differences and employment jealousies; it is the job of HRM to understand what is causing these issues and decide on a viable course of action to alleviate the problem. With companies continuing to grow in size throughout the world, a career in HRM seems a good option for study and steady employment in the near and farther future. Influences towards HRM Human resources is clearly a burgeoning and vital career option, and although students might be ensured a lifelong occupation due to HRM courses this is not yet the popular choice amidst more traditional jobs in medicine or law. Students tend to look towards the more glamorous careers available to them; popular subjects like marine biology or anthropology while ignoring those crucial career openings that are plentiful and inextricable in modern businesses. The major influences towards a role in human resources come not from university programs in most post-secondary school but instead from more occupationally-focused colleges that promote functional, vocational courses. The existence of such a different kind of college curriculum helps prospective students understand the difference between the two basic post-secondary systems: studies are designed either to expand philosophical horizons or to set a student directly on the course to his or her career. Given the assumption that one would prefer to study in post-secondary school purely for the future of one specific career choice, it becomes obvious that human resource management is one of the most important aspects of modern business. To this measure, career-focused learning resources often point out the fact that this is one of the best areas to receive training in. In terms of future career options, learning the important elements of human resources will open up job opportunities in virtually all sectors of the economy and with many different types of businesses and organisations. After the last few decades of highly increased registration with universities and colleges, there is a new, subtle shift towards the latter school type and its utilitarian learning features. Young generations of graduates have realised that their student loans and years of extra diploma studies have not necessarily been helpful in finding employment, and because of this realisation more students are aiming to learn trades and functional skills like plumbing, welding and dental nursing so that they will be able to find work right after graduation. Skills like these are useful immediately in the working world where degrees like anthropology or philosophy are not so blatantly applicable in any field. Human resources management is a skill that mimics trades like plumbing in a modern business way; students who graduate with diplomas in HRM will be able to use their skills in the job market much more quickly than their counterparts with less specialised degrees. Specific HR lessons will be able to show students what kinds of relationship issues they might encounter and how to deal with them effectively, something that is invaluable to any organisation. HRM also offers the opportunity to be an integral member of important organisations that can make a lot of difference on the local and world stages. People employed as HR managers will be able to enjoy comfortable office settings, long-term commitment to their work and the ability to make a real difference to the company's internal structure. Above all, the real influence towards a career in HRM comes from the simple fact that everywhere you look, there are businesses employing high numbers of staff in need of inter-relational management. Schools, offices, chain stores, museums, and virtually every such group deals with the interactions of many staff each day and often there are issues that no staff member can resolve without the help of a specialised employee. Where a school might hire an HR manager to deal with an imbalance of policy between teaching staff and administrative staff, a large department store might do the same so that its staff members at the checkout counter feel their concerns are taken into consideration. HR managers also help with poor communication between members of staff or different departments within one organisation; when tensions arise it takes the skill of an impartial member of staff to ensure that the needs of all parties are being met and to possibly come to an arrangement where certain people will not come into contact with one another more than absolutely necessary. People are in every organisation you can find, and because of this universal element of business structures, HRM can be seen everywhere as well. It is the environment of the world itself today that calls for human resource training and implementation; as the world grows it becomes more and more lucrative to learn how to help a business run more smoothly and efficiently. Short Term HRM Goals In the short term, my career goal is to simply become educated in the HR field and to secure a job that has directly to do with HRM. To achieve this I have needed to look closely into the field and decide what aspects of it appeal to me the most. Essentially, HRM has attracted me because it offers a way into a very diverse career field. Since virtually every business needs staff management employees, this is a way for me to be very flexible within my career and use HR skills wherever I am most interested at the time. To be able to work in any economic sector and any kind of business while using the same set of skills is a great advantage to any job and it is this that has attracted me to the field coupled with the fact that I will not encounter a shortage of available work. For now I am focusing on coming to grips with the different aspects of a general HR job so that I will be able to successfully handle any situation I find myself or my staff facing. Learning the different ideologies behind HRM will be the basis for my short term employment goals because without this basic knowledge I will not actually be of any use to my employers and their other staff members; comprehending the different strategies used by current HR employees in several different business sectors will be one of the greatest things I can do for my future right now. Also, I aim to decide which of these strategies will be the best for me wherever I take up a job after graduation, and choosing between accepted American and British HR strategies will help me to not only make that decision but to understand some of the general differences between the two and why they exist. Learning is the only certainty in the short term as far as my career goals go, so for now I am going to have to focus on studying and eventually getting the kind of job that reflects my course. Long Term HRM Goals One of my main reasons for getting into this kind of career is the fact that HRM is a highly flexible skill that can be implemented into any kind of organisation. Because of this, I will be able to get a placement that helps out the kind of business or group that I really want to be a part of; be it an environmental group, a media corporation, a zoo or an architectural firm I will able to offer successful strategies for handling staff members and for improving internal efficiency. Although this flexibility opens up more opportunity for me within the field, it also means that I might be overwhelmed by too much choice right out of school. I will need to figure out which sectors I want to explore long-term so that I can focus on the kinds of HR work I will face in those situations and tailor my studies to suit it. Realising what kind of a difference I want to make in the world will help me to search for the kinds of institutions or businesses I might like to be a part of, and this will ensure that I seek employment based on factors I have already assessed and thought through. Every kind of business or group has its own particular issues to deal with, and if I have some idea what those are while I am studying HR I should be better equipped to deal with them when I've actually got a job. Ultimately, the long-term career goals that I have are to have a job in the field for which I am studying, to help an organisation manage its staff so that they are cared for, happy and productive and to work within a certain sector or two of business that makes me feel like I am making a positive impact on the world. With these goals in mind it is easier to plan out my education, study topics and any internships that might be available. Planning out the final goals for my career makes it a lot simpler to see where I'm going in the short term and why every small step in education and study is important in the long run for a successful HR career. British and American HRM Like most things, HR strategies are differently focused depending on what country you are working in. While the American HRM field focuses heavily on the actual well-being of each staff member in terms of health care, happiness at work and opportunities within the organisation, British HRM instead centres on the idea that staff must be well equipped to perform their specific roles within a company and in good standing with one another. The American method is almost union-based in its main objective that each employee of a company must be treated fairly and given the same opportunities for advancement that any other employee has. Although not directly related to union groups, the HR staff member or group will be responsible for ensuring that every aspect of the daily work routine is up to a safety standard and that staff members feel valued and properly compensated for their work within the group. The American model is clearly based on human rights issues and as such this is where U.S. HR managers look for their company ethical codes. The code of each different company or business will be slightly different as it will take unique aspects of the business into account, however the general consensus is the same: employees must have safe working conditions, receive a fair wage and be able to enjoy a relatively happy working environment in which they are able to be promoted periodically. These basic principles are at the heart of any HR manager the world over (theoretically speaking), however usually there are other more specific factors at work that must be addressed simultaneously. Individually speaking, this is the case in every business but the fact remains that America's policy on HRM is wholly human-rights based and as such it is factors like wages and security that are targeted by American HR managers. In Britain, these factors come into play but as they are quite obviously important, HRM instead focuses on job training and departmental communications. In-house job training is the primary concern of most British organisations and it is the role of the HR manager to ensure that each new staff member receives the correct training prior to and while on the job, depending on the skills necessary. This training often not only takes place at the commencement of the job but throughout the employment as new methods are introduced, new software or machinery acquired and simply new knowledge amassed on the subject. Keeping up to date with job training means that safety and quality issues won't be called into question so often. Departmental communications are also of great importance to British HR managers who understand that especially with a company of great size, different levels of staff will have issues with one another because of many different factors (Mcgovern, 1998). Problems concerning which department is responsible for which company roles will arise as well as pay inequities and a simple rivalry if let out of hand; well-performed HRM means that even though these issues are bound to crop up they need not crack the foundation of the business. People in different levels of the same business need to feel that they are valued and useful, and often they will start to feel insecure about the different roles they are handling in contrast with another groups roles and attitudes. Basically, British HRM contrasts with American HRM because of the slightly different focus of the two; deciding which approach to use in my own practise in the future will depend very much on where I am working and what the company does. I think that the best method is not simply one or the other, but a combination of both American and British strategies that puts the needs of the employee at the forefront as well as advancement opportunity and ongoing on-site training for staff. These are both methods with excellent features concerning staff in any business and I would like to think that it is not necessary to focus merely on one or two of these factors without bringing the rest into view. Keeping in mind that staff anywhere should be safe, happy and secure in their work, it only seems appropriate that ever factor influencing these marks of wellbeing ought to be addressed. Depending on the field on which I decide to focus, these approaches will each have merit in their own way; certainly where I choose to take a job will also have a big impact on the approaches I make use of. Although it is normal to keep to the dominant HR method in a certain region for use in any business, I don't see the need to eradicate all other systems from view just because I happen to live in the U.K. or the U.S.; if anything it will be beneficial to either country if more options were brought in for HRM workers. More important than the country of residence are the very unique aspects of any organisation that I might be a part of; in addressing which factors to focus on in any individual situation I would have to fully understand what the business needs from its employees and vice versa. Conclusions Planning your career is always important, but often students will get sidetracked during their education and forget that in the long term they are supposed to be figuring out what steps they need to take to get into a rewarding job after graduation. When charting out the short and long-term goals for your future, it is necessary to think about what it is exactly you want to be doing with your life; keeping this in mind will help you decide which classes and courses to take, which opportunities are going to be available to you in terms of work and what you might expect in several years. Human resource management is an omnipresent feature of the modern business world and it is because of this that many students are deciding to take post-secondary courses that will help them get employed in a lasting HR position. The flexibility of this career field means that someone like me can hope to find work virtually anywhere in the business and public sector since every large or medium sized organisation has a need for certain HR skills. The purpose of these skills is primarily to keep employees happy and productive in their work; American and British methods of HRM are mildly contrasted but I'm confident that putting the two together would work very well because of the multi-focused agenda. American focus on happiness and equality together with the British focus on job-training and departmental communication would make for an excellent basis from which to manage a staff (Brewster, 1999). In aiming for a job in the human resources field I feel that I am setting myself up for a long-term, useful job that gives me the freedom to work in whatever kind of company I feel comfortable in. Paying specific attention to my education as well as that first crucial job out of university will set me on the right path to a lifelong rewarding career in HRM. Reference List Baruch, Y .(2004). Managing Careers: theory and practise. London: FT Prentice Hall. Lock, R. (1992). Taking Charge of your Career Direction. Wadsworth Publishing. Brewster, C. and Harris, H. (1999). International HRM: Contemporary Issues in Europe. NY: Routledge. Mcgovern, P. (1998). Hrm, Technical Workers and the Multinational Corporation. London: Routledge. Read More