I have been talking to many working professionals over past few weeks about their need to work and what they seek from work. This post (and the next one) summarizes my observations and theory around what I hear. From a career and motivation perspective, there are 4 levels of employees in an organization: Entry Level … Continue reading Why do we work – Career vs. Needs Hierarchy
Tag: Management discussions
Appreciation at workplace
I was talking to someone from my last company and this came up: why is it that I don't get appreciated when I do a good job, but no one forgets to blame me when something goes wrong? It definitely sounded familiar to me: in every company I have worked so far, I have heard … Continue reading Appreciation at workplace
Comparing management experiences in US, China, and India
I have been working in China for last 18 months or so, with one of the largest software MNC here. During this period, I have (very briefly, 3 months) been an individual contributor and rest of time I have been a people manager. Having been a people manager in India and US in the … Continue reading Comparing management experiences in US, China, and India
Thoughts from my India Visit – Careers
As I mentioned in my previous post, I spent a month in India recently (August, 2008) before coming to Shanghai to join Microsoft here. I commented on the education system and related aspects that I observed. In this post, I will talk about my observations on working professionals and how careers are moving (or not). … Continue reading Thoughts from my India Visit – Careers
Measuring Career Growth – Final (career phases framework)
This is the last article in the series on Measuring Career Growth, which started off by talking about measures of success and implication of having multiple measures vis-à-vis time, and was followed by posts on financial and learning goals, followed by a post on job complexity and satisfaction. As I promised in the last post, … Continue reading Measuring Career Growth – Final (career phases framework)
Measuring Career Growth – Part III (Job Complexity and Satisfaction)
This is the 3rd post in the series on measuring career growth, and a follow-up to the post on financial and learning goals. In this post, I will talk about 3rd goal (job complexity) and also touch upon the job satisfaction aspect of all these goals, which came up in one of the comments. Job … Continue reading Measuring Career Growth – Part III (Job Complexity and Satisfaction)
Measuring Career Growth (Financial and Learning goals) – Part II
This is the follow-up to my last post in which I talked about various measures of career success and the need to prioritize various goals so that trade-offs can be made when time is factored in. In this post, I will focus on two goals and their measures: financial and learning. Financial Goals: Even though … Continue reading Measuring Career Growth (Financial and Learning goals) – Part II
Measuring Career Growth – Part I
In one of my previous articles, I talked about various measures of success that one can use for their career planning and management. Specifically, I talked about 4 ways: Financial goals Learning/competencies goals Job complexity goals Career Plan goals Note that setting any kind of measurable goal is an exercise in itself (see a series … Continue reading Measuring Career Growth – Part I
Career Management when you can’t change your company
I was talking to some of my friends and this question came about: what do I do if I can't change my company even though my career is stuck here. I have observed this many times; discussions about career management (and growth) seem to imply a change in the current company, even though it need … Continue reading Career Management when you can’t change your company
Industry newbie as a manager – Disaster in making?
One of the comments on the post 'How fast can a career move in India?' went like this: You have not expanded on why getting into a management role early in one’s career will be a disaster. One of the reasons I can think of is that a newbie (comparatively) has not seen and experienced the varied kinds … Continue reading Industry newbie as a manager – Disaster in making?
Career Bloom 