I’ve recently assumed responsibility for an additional business line and today I had the opportunity to meet a few of the team that supports it. Among them were two new graduates in the early years of their careers who between them managed to both inspire me and deeply concern me when they talked of their careers, their progress to date and their aspirations for the future. I suspect that their talking points will resonate with a large number of new graduates and so below is a synopsis of both meetings. They went something like…
New Graduate 1: Aged Mid 20’s, born in Asia but relocated to London for University and now is building her career in the Financial Industry. She is in her third year with the same employer since graduating. When asked about her career to date and aspirations for the future, she responded that she was keen to work in roles where she could develop her technical skills while working with a group of people who could assist her develop as a fully rounded professional. Whilst she had never expected to work for a big corporation, she found many aspects of the work interesting although at times the work was repetitive. She enjoyed the camaraderie of her working environment but also was positive about opportunities for her to make an individual difference. In the longer term, she aspires to achieve mobility both in function and location and feels that promotions and rewards will follow as a natural consequence of her commitment and effort.
New Graduate 2: Aged Mid 20’s, born in the UK but spent much of his childhood living in Asia. Attended University in the UK and since graduating 3 years ago has been working in London. When asked about career to date and aspirations for the future, he responded that he lacks any interest in the job or even the industry in which he is working. He does like his teammates but he doesn’t share their enthusiasm and therefore finds it difficult to really immerse himself in shared tasks. His motivation is simply to travel and his ticket is a transfer through the company. What he really wishes to do is teach. He has strong people skills and believes he could achieve much more in the long term if he were to utilize these skills in a different industry. But as travel is his current goal, he is putting that off until a later date.
I expect many people can relate to one of these stories, especially in the early years of their career. What perhaps not everybody realizes is that only one of these individuals is likely to achieve their goal. New Graduate 1 understands that she needs to develop both technical and people based skills and contribute to the team and as an individual. She enjoys the challenging parts of her work but accepts that not every day will be filled with exciting new experiences. She understands that benefits and opportunities find their way to the most deserving but it takes time to build the reputation to be recognized as such. New Graduate 2 however fails to recognize that employers make commercially driven decisions and so if an employee cannot engage in the mission of the company, that employee cannot expect to be rewarded by it. His inability to apply his people skills to his organization and his failure to look beyond a narrow view of where teaching skills can be applied means he neglects his opportunity to learn a business to which he can then apply his teaching skills to become a valuable asset for his company. If he did so, he would most probably achieve his global mobility goals. Instead, his failure to fully engage will probably result in him performing at a sub-optimal standard, a level at which it is highly unlikely that management will reward him with an international employee transfer.
Being able to demonstrate an understanding of ‘how things work’ when in your early career is likely to see your employer recognize you as a high potential employee. Understanding the mix of exciting and less exciting tasks coupled with responsibilities to your team and to yourself will result in you participating fully in tasks, pursuing personal and business goals and developing both business specific and broader professional competency. This approach to your career will ensure you are selected to benefit from the highest rewards offered by your organization. Anything less however and you will find yourself incapable of showing your best and unable to compete in a meritocracy where rewards only find their way to the highest performers.
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