Examining Scope & Opportunity
To help you find the right career, you need to look at the scope and focus of different employment opportunities. Consider the sector, size, and structure of different workplaces - these may be deciding factors in your choice of employment.
Considering structure
Study an organisation's management structure to help you identify new opportunities and avoid jobs with little potential for growth. Most organisations have broadly similar management structures, whatever their size or sector. Senior management has a strategic overview of the essential business, and reporting to them are the departmental or divisional managers who set the day-to-day priorities. Middle managers or supervisors report to these managers and have an overview of the teams carrying out the work.
Monitoring sectors
Monitor the fortunes of sectors and the companies within them. Your options will be more limited in a declining sector and vice versa. The real growth area of recent years has been in the service sector. Read the home news and business pages in the broadsheet press to assess current economic successes and failures.
Consider the size of an organisation
Small
Advantages
- Freedom to make decision.
- Involvement in all aspects of work.
- Liaison with external providers and consultants.
- Direct relationship with clients or customers.
Disadvantages
- Your actions and decisions are vital, so your responsibility is greater.
- Family atmosphere but family-type pressures, too.
- Limited scope for progressing up the career ladder.
Medium
Advantages
- Teamwork is important; close relationship with colleagues.
- Opportunities to see and learn from other disciplines and functions.
- Chance to input your ideas.
- Financial stability.
Disadvantages
- Too large to star, too small to allow much opportunity.
- People outside the company are unlikely to have heard of it.
- Less secure employment than with a large organisation.
Large
Advantages
- Many career routes may be available.
- More chance of organisation's investment in your development.
- Higher salary levels and benefits.
- Has currency in wider employment market when you want to move on.
Disadvantages
- Organisation may be so large that you feel compartmentalised.
- Less chance of any one individual having an effect on the company.
- Can be difficult to gain recognition or a sense of achievement.
Choosing public or private sectors
The old boundaries between public and private sectors are becoming increasingly blurred. Private companies support schools and hospitals; trades unions and businesses work in partnership; government and corporations cooperate on national initiatives, and the non-profit sector is keen to learn best business practice. Public sector experience is now highly valued by companies that sell goods and services to schools and hospitals. It is important to understand the differences and similarities between the sectors to enable you to talk confidently at job interviews about the environment of your choice.
Questions to ask yourself
- Can I imagine myself doing something completely different?
- Do I have a business idea that could work?
- Do I want to move into a new sector or to a different size of organisation?
- Do I want to move higher up the management ladder?
- Would I take a pay cut to work in a non-profit organisation where I would be making a contribution to society?
Key Points
- Remember that all career explorations is an evolving process.
- Think which type of organisation you would like to be in within ten years.
