Life After...Business and Administrative Studies: A practical guide to life after your degree

193 Pages·2006·1.42 MB·English

by  Sally Longson

Life After …
Business and
Administrative Studies
Thousands of students graduate from university each year. The
lucky few have the rest of their lives mapped out in perfect detail
– but for most, things are not nearly so simple. Armed with your
hard-earned degree, the possibilities and career paths lying before
you are limitless, and the number of choices you suddenly have to
make can seem bewildering.
Life After … Business and Administrative Studies has been written
specifi cally to help students currently studying, or who have recent-
ly graduated, make informed choices about their future lives. It will
be a source of invaluable advice and wisdom to business graduates,
covering such topics as:
(cid:138) Identifying a career path that interests you
(cid:138) Seeking out an opportunity that matches your skills and
aspirations
(cid:138) Staying motivated and pursuing your goals
(cid:138) Networking and self-promotion
(cid:138) Making the transition from scholar to worker
(cid:138) Putting the skills you developed at university to good use in
life
The Life After … series of books are more than simple ‘career
guides’. They are unique in taking a holistic approach to career
advice – recognising the increasing view that, although a successful
working life is vitally important, other factors can be just as essential
to happiness and fulfi lment. They are the indispensible handbooks
for students considering their future direction in life.
Sally Longson is a life coach and well-known writer and media
commentator in the fi eld of careers.
Also available from Sally Longson
Life After … Art and Design
0-415-37590–8
Life After … Engineering and Built Environment
0-415-37592-4
Life After … Language and Literature
0-415-37593-2
Life After …
Business and
Administrative Studies
A practical guide to life
after your degree
Sally Longson
First published 2006
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2006 Sally Longson
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or repro-
duced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or
other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopy-
ing and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Longson, Sally.
Life after – business and administrative studies: a practical guide to
life after your degree / Sally Longson.
p. cm.
“Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Business – Vocational guidance. 2. Management – Vocational
guidance. 3. Business students – Employment 4. College graduates
Vocational guidance I. Title
HF5381.L657 2006
650.14–dc22 2005035073
ISBN10: 0–415–37591–6(PrintEdition)
ISBN10: 0–203–08841–7
ISBN13: 978–0–415–37591–7
Contents
Preface vii
1 Decisions, decisions … 1
2 Creating your career 15
3 Next steps to achieving your goals 35
4 Connecting with your network: the world’s a network 49
5 Hunting out the right opportunity 64
6 Proving yourself: from scholar to worker 80
7 Applying some self-promotion 95
8 What’s stopping you? 113
9 Moving on … Your future 126
10 Here’s to life! 138
Further reading 149
Useful addresses and further information 153

Preface
You’ve done it – or you’re on the way to it. Graduation Day. What
a proud day for you and your loved ones! And everyone’s asking
you, ‘What are you going to do now?’ or ‘What are you going to do
next?’
Your degree over – or nearly over – you contemplate your next
move, rather like a game of chess. You plot your next move, you fall
into it, or someone makes you fall into it. Life is continually like a
game of chess. You can plan your next few moves through a series
of moves, or take them one move at a time, usually as opportunities
occur – or you can become a pawn in body, mind and spirit, moved
around a board at someone else’s bidding. So take the initiative – as
a graduate, you’ll be well practised in doing just that – and plot your
life and career with strategy to enhance control.
Life overall is much more competitive for all of us wherever
we are, as we try to grab the attention of customers, clients, the
boss, our team mates, our kids and friends. And yet the amazing
and boundless opportunities which we could create through using
our knowledge and imagination means that today, we can think the
unthinkable, if we focus on fi nding the best way forward and on un-
blocking those obstacles in our path. Unlock your creativity and put
it to work, and you could come up with the next big earning website
– you may have done so already. The range of businesses, charities
and posts today mean there’s a huge range of opportunities open to
you which match your interests and passions. We can choose to be
self-employed, employees, project managers, work on a temporary
or contract basis, to travel when they please (some people fi nd this
part particularly hard to give up and are still fi nding themselves at it
when they hit 50). We simply need to be innovative, creative, adapt-
able, fl exible, courageous and ready to seize the moment with both
hands. We need to open our eyes and zap the gaps in the market we
viii Preface
see before someone else gets there fi rst. In short, we can create our
own opportunities.
Nonetheless, there are mixed messages with regards to the de-
mand for graduates. Many countries in the Organisation for Eco-
nomic Co-operation and Development (OECD) already have a
participation rate in higher education of 60 per cent plus, includ-
ing Australia, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Poland, Norway and New
Zealand. On the one hand, countries are pushing the numbers of
graduates they produce up, up and up. On the other hand, too many
graduates are taking on jobs for which a degree is not even required.
They are, in effect, under-employed. There are those captains of
industry who are phenomenally successful without having been to
university, but also those graduates who emphasise the time they
spent there were the best years of their life, and they wouldn’t have
missed it for the world. Each to their own.
You know that the global economy has led employers to out-
source work to other parts of the world and form partnerships,
alliances and mergers with others to give them a global stage. A
company in China can buy one in the UK. Workers in India are
the back-offi ce for many UK companies. Many companies have
branches throughout the world with one cross-organisational op-
erating practice which nonetheless also takes local differences into
account. Some form strategic alliances with other organisations of
similar values and services in parts of the world they want to reach.
The small company in Basingstoke, southern England, can capture
a share of the market in Russia. The company in Nepal may pick up
the services of a one-man band in Dijon. The practice of outsourc-
ing work to freelances has opened up a whole new avenue of oppor-
tunities to those seeking self-employment. Don’t limit your horizons
to your home shores. Look out across the sea of opportunity before
you and cast your mind and eyes beyond.
Having a degree does not guarantee having a good job. Nothing
in life guarantees you a job. But there are key strategies you can
enlist to enhance your chances of enjoying the career and life you
want. And you may land yourself a job – but if you want a great job,
then a major responsibility lies with you to make it so. Careers, like
marriage and parenthood, need work and nurturing, and the hard
work really only begins when you’ve started them. It is persistent
hard work, but worth it.
On the plus side, the number of positions demanding higher
skills is on the increase. The following fi gures show that the demand
Preface ix
for skilled, educated people is on the up. In the UK for example,
the numbers of mangers, senior offi cials, professional and associate
professional technical workers is expected to rise. Employers need
highly skilled people if they are to succeed and outperform their
competitors. There is a huge difference in the quality of life and
opportunity between those areas with highly skilled workers and
the new industries; and those areas where there are low skill levels
and outdated and rapidly disappearing sectors. The problem is that
neither graduate nor small company knows where to start in getting
together and how to make the most of each other. Neither knows
enough about each other. Look out for graduates working for small
or micro-businesses. Ask them questions. How did it happen? What
do they do? Who did they know to get the role? Which organisa-
tions helped, if any? What initiatives are about to bring graduates
and small or micro-businesses together? Many government agencies
are spearheading huge regeneration projects in their poorer regions
and working with universities and employers (small, medium and
large) to ensure that graduates are retained in the area and that their
skills and knowledge are well used.
Whether you’re a student who’s never had a year out of education
in your life, or someone who went back to university for whatever
reason after working for some years, now is a great time to assess
your life ahead and what you want out of it. Let’s get started!