Younger Workers Need a Career Narrative
"In recent years, much has been written about the importance of career narratives for mid-career and senior professionals, particularly those making a career transition. But, we'd argue, they're even more important for younger professionals who don't yet have a multipage CV or a high-powered headhunter in their corner. What, then, makes for an effective narrative?
First, it should be easy to remember and retell. The whole point is to give your colleagues a narrative that quickly comes to mind whenever they're asked about you, preventing them from making assumptions and drawing conclusions on their own. Two or four sentences, maximum.
Second, it should meaningfully link your past successes to your near and long-term development needs and suggest the kinds of assignments that would help to achieve those objectives. Those goals might certainly be developmental (to test a particular skill; gain experience with a certain tool or methodology; explore a specific industry). But they can also be more personal (limit travel to spend time with family, for instance).Think of it as a 'sound-bite resume' - on hearing it, senior professionals should have two reactions. First, they should be interested in working with you. Second, they should know if it makes sense for you to work with them.
Third, your narrative needs to hang together with the right combination of honesty, humility, and personal flavor. Doing so creates an authentic and compelling career narrative. Narratives that just articulate a string of successes are not credible and are not likely to be repeated. Similarly, boilerplate chronicles without any personal flair rarely get traction."
(Heidi K. Gardner and Adam Zalisk, 15 February 2013, Harvard Business Review)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Start JudgeGill: UK Start Academy Grad Programme
"Are you ready to be part of our golden generation? We've built a new agency that blurs the line between the physical and the interactive. Now we're looking for exceptional people to work in multi-disciplinary teams, creating experiences that make them, and us, famous. We need supremely skilled Designers, Developers, Strategists, Copywriters, Account Handlers and Producers. If that's you, then there's a place in our graduate academy to define your career and craft in this connected world. Closing date for the July intake is Friday 13th July."
(Start JudgeGill, UK)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Creative Contexts: work placements
"This site is part of the Higher Education Academy supported Creative Contexts: Work placements, peer learning and professional practice in the creative industries Teaching Development project.
The Creative Contexts website hosts short videos exploring work placements in the media creative industries, and foregrounds student stories and questions. Contributions from students of 3 minutes videos sit alongside employer perspectives and advice from educators.
Themes covered include: Identifying and securing work placements; insights into working with others; activities undertaken; how work placement experiences connect together; challenges encountered and response; and feelings and experiences of 'fitting in'."
(Daniel Ashton)
Fig.1 "Creative Contexts poster".
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
UK Imagineering Foundation: stimulating the imagination of young designers
"In 1999 a group of engineers in the Midlands [UK region] who were concerned at the rapidly increasing skills shortage in engineering, developed the concept of Imagineering. 'A new initiative, designed to introduce 8-16 year olds to the fascinating world of engineering and manufacturing through fun, hands-on personal experience, targets the engineers of the future at a young age, develops and holds their interest and hopefully, encourages them to consider engineering as a future career.'"
(Imagineering Foundation, UK)
Fig.1 "One young 'imagineer' constructs a working model that he can then programme using simple control technology at the Imagineering Jaguar Land Rover Education Business Partnership Centre, at Gaydon Warwickshire." [http://www.spaghettigazetti.com/2011/11/imagineering-welcomes-new-queen.html#!/2011/11/imagineering-welcomes-new-queen.html]
2). The Imagineering Timeline
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Business incubator: newSplash Communication Design Studio
"The newSplash studio bridges the gap between design education and the workforce by employing students and graduate designers from the Otago Polytechnic in our real-life studio. Then we connect them with you!"
(Otago Polytechnic, Aotearoa New Zealand)
Fig.1 Video showing samples of the film work created by newSplash Communication Design Studio, which is located at Otago Polytechnic.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
