career vision – Career Ideas

December 10, 2008

Getting Ahead–Are MBA’s Worth It?

As a career coach, I help clients figure out their career vision and dream career(s). I often wind up reminding them that potential income is only part of that vision, and not the first factor to consider unless you don’t care how you actually will spend thousands of hours of your life. That’s not to discount the money, if you will, but to make sure you don’t get misled by that factor alone.

But those of you who have a career all set may be considering how to move ahead or simply how to earn more money. Many in management figure an MBA is the next step. But is it? In terms of raw dollars spent in obtaining it vs. dollars earned because of it, will it help or hinder you? The Wall Street Journal just took a look at this question to see what your ROI (return on investment) would be from ponying up for an MBA at 27 US schools.

They found out first, that it will cost you anywhere from $40,000 to $136,000 to complete your program. No small piece of change no matter which school you chose. The WSJ question is, whether the return after 5 years more than equals the cost. This is not about quality of the degree, but quantity of the return.

It turns out that the best ROI was at Texas A&M (243%) and the worst at NYU (only 56%). You can find the complete table here and the article discussing it here.

December 4, 2008December 5, 2008

Art as a Career–Lessons from the Internet

Art and economic/business success CAN go hand in hand. That career idea is being proven thanks to a new generation of internet and business savvy artists. A NY Times article,Transforming Art Into a More Lucrative Career Choice, presents a number of entrepreneur artists using the internet to extend the reach of their art or artistic business, choosing a career in art without the usual financial struggle.

One way is through multiple income streams–the same idea promoted some might say ad nauseum by informercials and every internet marketing guru I’ve ever read (confession–I’ve read quite a few). The article cites the case of Claudine Helmuth. “She has an online store… does custom illustrations for customers using photographs they provide. She licenses her artwork for greeting cards, calendars and other products. She has written two books about her techniques and has a third one coming out. She tours the country teaching both business and art workshops.” She also manufactures her own line of art products.

I don’t know about you, but Claudine makes me tired just hearing everything she’s doing, but it certainly shows all the directions you can go into if you don’t limit yourself to a simple model of what a career is.

Often, I have career coaching clients who say they want to be a landscape architect or a sculptor or further afield from art–a travel agent creating educational trips to little known areas or a caterer for world foods–and they think it’s just not financially feasible. They may be right–if they limit themselves to doing their work in the way they’ve imagined it or always seen it done. But they may be wrong if they can harness the powers of the internet. As with Claudine, that can mean, selling to a wider market or just getting know to a larger group that might publicize whatever you are doing thorough social networking, or having your art up and available instantly 24/7 in a virtual gallery publicized by all your friends and colleagues.

It’s not just about the internet as invaluable as that can be. It’s about looking at new ways to combine passions into activities you love that someone else will be interested in or need enough to pay you for your services and products. Whatever you want to do, don’t get stopped just because the conventional way of doing it doesn’t seem financially viable. You may need “multiple streams,” and you may need partners, but you can often find a path to your career vision.

November 22, 2008December 7, 2008

Choosing Your Career? Or Is the Wrong Career Choosing You?

How can a career be choosing you?

Most people do it most of the time. “Office manager wanted—3 years exp. min. BA, prefer bilingual in Spanish and English” and you ask yourself if your 2 years experience might be enough or your 7 years might make you overexperienced and if your rusty Spanish is good enough.

That’s trying to fit you into some preset category regardless of your values and passions. All you are looking at are resume categories for experience and education. In that case, the career is choosing you. You are trying to fit yourself into the right checkboxes. Do that throughout your career and all your job changes and you will increase your authority and expertise and income. But will you be happy in your work life? Will you really be choosing your career and setting up a career vision to pursue?

It’s not that you shouldn’t look at job postings or shouldn’t pay attention to your skills or ignore what organizations want and need. Not at all. Those are critical. It’s just a question of when.

If you want a career you’ll love, an authentic or true career, you need to first determine your career vision. Second, map out a basic plan to succeed with your vision. Then you have the background and knowledge to see what jobs to apply for now, whether as stopgap measures as you earn money for education (for instance) or as learning opportunities to enjoy now and move you toward your final career vision.

Steven Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, was once asked by a TV interviewer why we needed his book. After all, the interviewer pointed out, everything Covey was saying in his book could also be found in all the philosophies and religions of the world. Cover didn’t argue. He agreed, and added, “but I’ve put these ideas into the right order.” In the same way, you need to look at job postings, but make sure you do it in the right order—after you know your career vision and direction.