Students encouraged to take control of their careers

 

“You are accountable, 100 per cent for your own career.”
 
Katrina Sam, Human Resource Specialist of the Caribbean Development Bank stressed this, as she addressed a group of young and aspiring accountants at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados’ Student Conference, held at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre on Wednesday morning. 
 
Sam quoted Earl Nightingale, noting “the driving force for a career must come from the individual. Jobs are owned by the company, but you own your career.” She said that in today’s changing world, the responsibility of where your career path takes you is entirely up to you, as 
organisations have undergone a transformational shift in the ownership of careers. As such, students were told that their mantra going forward should be, “my future, my choice”.
 
The Human Resource Specialist said that based on a survey among top employers, there are a few simple skills that they believe are required to have a successful career, which are, have a strong work ethic, be dependable, have a positive attitude, be self-motivated, team-oriented, work well under pressure, be an effective communicator, be flexible and confident. 
 
She went on to say that in order to manage your career, you must know yourself, that is, what are your interests? What are your values? What are your ambitions? You should explore your options and collect research. You should be focused and finally, take action after you have your plan sorted out.
 
“Dream it, plan it, work your plan, and make it happen,” she stressed.
 
Finally, Sam went on to say that managing your career is not an easy or a simple task. She explained that effective management of a career is very hard work. She also highlighted the fact that your career path is not going to be a straight line, rather, it will be a path that you stray from sometimes.  
 
“The key to achieving is not that you won’t veer from the path, you will veer from it, you must, but the key is to set clear goals,” she advised.

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