Career planningMaster class by Amir Aisautov

10 November 2010

Introduction

Amir Aisautov• Education:

• KazNTU (undergrad);• Georgetown University (MBA);

• Current employment• SCM, Director of metals&mining business;

• Previous professional experience: • P&G (marketing);• McKinsey & Co. (management consulting); • Clever management (investment company).

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Short pre-assignment

• Get piece of paper;

• Take 2 minutes to think about how you picture yourself in 10 years both professionally and personally;

• Write it down.

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Today’s agenda

• Career vs. careerism;

• Types of careers;

• Career and business;

• Career and success;

• Personality types and career choices;

• People on top;

• Planning your career and personal strategies.

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Career vs. careerism (1/2)

• “Career” coming from • Italian “Carriera” – run, way of life;• Latin “Carrus” – cart, wagon or “Carrera” – race;

• Career is defined* as …• … an individual's “course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of life)”; • Mostly referring to renumerative work and formal education;

• So is it good or bad?

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Career vs. careerism (2/2)

• “Careerism” coming from the same roots as “career” but probably with focus on Latin “Carrera” – race (“Rat Race”?);

• Extreme careerism is defined* as …• … the propensity to pursue career advancement, power, and prestige through any non-performance based activity that is deemed necessary;

• Themes of extreme careerism• Competence is not enough;• Impression Management;• Personal vs. organizational goals and short term focus;

•So is it good or bad?

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Types of career (1/2)

• Professional career – growing skills and capabilities / competencies• Specialization;• Widening;

• Inter-organizational career• Vertical;• Horizontal;• Moving towards decision making center;

• Often difficult to combine different types.

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Types of career (2/2)

• Examples• Your parents?• People you know?• …

• Is any type good or bad?

• Pros and cons of different types?

• Interesting view: Incompetence principle (Peter’s Principle).

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Career and business

• Levels of management • Junior positions – managing tools;• Mid management positions – managing operations and teams;• Top management positions – managing strategies and people;• Shareholders – managing own capital, to lesser extent strategies and people;

• So in your view can you do “career” as a shareholder?

• Is any path good or bad?

• What are pros and cons?

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Career and success

• Remember that career refers mostly to remunerative work and formal education;

• Is it all you think you need in life?

• Now take a look at your piece of paper with pre-assignment;

• Let brainstorm together - Success in life is …• …• … • …

• Personal opinion.

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Personality types and career choices (1/3)

• MBTI - Myers-Briggs Type Indicator• is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions;

• based on typological theory of Carl Gustav Jung;• widely used by companies all over the world;

• Classifying dimensions (16 types)• Extraversion (E) - (I) Introversion; • Sensing (S) - (N) Intuition; • Thinking (T) - (F) Feeling; • Judgment (J) - (P) Perception;

• Some limitations exist;

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Personality types and career choices (2/3)

• Take into account: • Type not trait;• Own best judge; • No right or wrong;• Not for selection;

• Isabel Briggs Myers quote:•“Whatever the circumstances of your life the understanding of type can make your perceptions clearer, your judgements sounder, and your life closer to your heart’s desire”.

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Personality types and career choices (3/3)

• Other classification (720 types!) – J. Holland often considered more appropriate in context of career selection: • Realistic – oriented towards manipulation by tools and mechanisms; • Investigative – oriented towards search;• Artistic – oriented towards emotional, self-presentation;• Social – oriented towards interaction with people;• Entrepreneurial – oriented towards influencing people; • Conventional – oriented towards manipulation with data / information;

• Limitations exist as well;

• Read more on MBTI and Holland (other tests if like), your type and think how it can be applied to your career choices and life in general.

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People on top – Lakshmi Mittal

• Lakshmi Mittal

• CEO and major shareholder of the largest steel maker in the world making 100+ mln. tones of steel / year;

•Born in small business (steel making) family in India in 1950, educated in St. Xavier's College in Kalkuta.

• Has 30+ years of experience in steel making;

• Known for forcing consolidation in industry (grew his company from 1989 to number #1 in the world mostly through acquisitions on emerging markets – Trinidad and Tobago, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Romania, Algeria, Bosnia, South Africa, …and then developed world) and technological innovation (mini-mills, DRI instead of scrap).

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People on top – Alexey Mordashev

• Alexey Mordashev

• CEO and major shareholder of one of the largest steel companies in the world (~20 mln. tones of steel / year);

• Born in Cherepovets, Vologodskaya oblast of Russia in 1965;

• Graduated from Leningrad engineering – economical institute in 1988;

• After graduation started as an economist, in 1989 was intern at VoestAlpine (austrian steelmaking company), in 1992 at the age of 27 became CFO, created Severstal-invest where he owned 76% and via it consolidated shares of the plant.

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People on top – Oleg Deripaska

• Oleg Deripaska

• CEO and major shareholder of Rusal – the largest producer of aluminium in the world;

• Was born in 1968, grew up in rural areas of Krasnodar region;

• In 1993 graduated from Moscow State University (physics) and Pleshka (1996);

• While in MSU (early 90-s) his company started buy out of shares of aluminium producers in Russia (Sayanskiy aluminium plant);

• In 1994 (at the age of 26 he became majority shareholder and CEO of the plant).

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Planning your career and personal strategies (1/4)

• Why do you need to plan it at all? Remember “Alice in Wonderland”? •“Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?•The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to•Alice: I don't much care where.•The Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go•Alice: …so long as I get somewhere.•The Cat: Oh, you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough”

• It’s always just a personal choice:• Random;• Tradition;• Requirement;• Though-through choice.

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Planning your career and personal strategies (2/4)

• Think about you life priorities, who you want to be (pre-assignment?), where you want to live, what lifestyle you are interested in several time horizons;

• Think about your preferences (MBTI and Holland?);

• Think what can lead to archiving priorities while suiting your preferences (in several time horizons if necessary!);

• Industry;• Company;• Function;• Position;• …

• Always plan some degree of flexibility.

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Planning your career and personal strategies (3/4)

• Most important industries in Ukraine• Metals;• Mining;• Agro;•…;

• Most important companies / groups in Ukraine• State:

• Ukrzalyznytsa;;• .;

• Private:• SCM;• …

• Functions • Finance;• Operations; • …;

• Always plan some degree of flexibility.

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Planning your career and personal strategies (4/4)

• 2 volunteers needed for example;

• Volunteers will state:• Priorities;• Preferences;• How she/he would archive priorities while suiting preferences;

• What do you think, what would you advise volunteers?

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Conclusion

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Thank you for attention!

Any questions?