Scotch College

Mentoring challenges loom ahead

The OSCA Mentoring Program welcomes queries from Old Boys seeking advice – and from prospective mentors.

Words: ROSS JOHNSTON • SENIOR OSCA PROFESSIONAL MENTOR

The OSCA Mentoring Program, now into its sixth year, has worked with over 230 Old Boys seeking advice and guidance on career issues or employment problems.

The program still welcomes queries from Old Boys seeking advice. We are also keen to hear from experienced Old Boys, especially in the fields of medicine, dentistry, human resources, engineering, consulting and local government, who would be interested in becoming voluntary mentors to supplement our existing ranks, for a maximum of 15 hours a year.

The best way to contact us is through our website, www.oscanet.com.au, or through the OSCA office on 9810 4302.

Here is a useful cross-check to help you assess your own career status. It’s an extract from a recent speech I made on the issue of career management in the twenty-first century:

Let’s start by looking at some fascinating statistics from the recent census and ABS statistics:

• Between 1990 and 2003 the number of Australians with a degree has increased by 101%, and the number with no post-school qualifications has increased by only 4%. Certainly, 40% of that increase represents the successful push by women for greater qualifications, but over the same period trade qualifications have only grown by 8.1%. So most people seeking further qualifications beyond Year 12 want a degree. What do they do with it?
• Statistics on employed persons show huge reductions in employment in the manufacturing, agriculture and farming, and finance and insurance industries. Significant increases have occurred in health and community services, property and business services, and retail.

The conclusions from this are:

• Big companies are recruiting far fewer staff, globalisation is having a heavy impact on ‘traditional’ industries, and outsourcing is a key word in the education, leisure, tourism and health sectors. The traditional professions remain static in terms of job numbers, but ‘reinvention’ of oneself is required about every five years. Self-employment is a growth industry, and taking part-time or multiple jobs is a clear option. The good news is that there is always a role for people with bright ideas, who are innovative, or can fill niches.
• Now throw in demographic factors – average life expectancy for a male has risen from 55 in 1901 to 78 currently, and will be over 90 in 20 years’ time.
• Median marriage ages are moving outwards and divorce rates are moving inwards. Workforce participation by 60- to 69-year-olds is now 33%, and volunteering rates are growing rapidly.

So we have large demographic, lifestyle and economic shifts which require individuals to be more flexible, work differently and possibly longer, and there are strong career management requirements from age 21 to 65.

What is a career path? The most realistic current definition of a career path is that it is the direction a person seeks to go over the length of his or her active working career. It should balance existing and inherent skills, interests and financial needs, all of which change over time.

Therefore career management is about people regularly reviewing what they want to do over the next five years against that balance of skills, interests and financial needs.

Why five years? It’s simple: you always need to look two steps ahead so that you are in control of the direction of your career, not at the whim of an employer who might be taken over, outsourced, or could bring in a new CEO with his or her own management team. (CEOs last on average from three to five years, so they don’t have time to assess, develop and promote internal talent across the board.)

So Axiom 1 is that at age 21 a very high percentage of those seeking work have a degree or a TAFE qualification. For other than several professions it is simply a green fee – now your first five years of relevant work experience determines your accessibility to more senior jobs. Longer-term post-graduate studies, specific accreditation courses and technical update courses will become a fact of life for those aspiring to longer-term careers or to change careers.

The last five years have also confirmed that work at age 55 has a huge impact on your life expectancy. In the mid-1990s, roughly one-third of managers from one major bank who retired at age 55 were dead within three years. Recent US actuarial studies following the US share market slump after 11 September 2001 confirmed increased mortality rates for workers extending through to age 65 for superannuation or savings plan needs.

So Axiom 2 is that in the new world of the 21st century, older workers had better like what they do, and have a balanced lifestyle.

‘Balanced lifestyle’ means a balance between three major factors: your job, your personal and family life, and your interests – the hobbies and activities you feel passionate about.

The most difficult people to mentor are men aged in their late 40s or early 50s who lose their jobs, have worked 60 hours a week for donkeys’ years, have stuffed up their marriages and relationships with their families, and have no interests outside work. They become the proverbial old dogs to whom it is impossible to teach new tricks, and in many cases their health is on the way out, too. These pressures will apply earlier in the future.

What will management look like in the longer term?

In 1995, Professor David Karpin led a team which wrote a report on leadership and management skills. The team formulated the basis of much of the current senior management development training in major Australian companies.

Karpin demonstrated the evolution from the autocratic management style of the 1970s through to the leadership/enablement style expected by 2010. So in 2007 we are getting close, and the predictions look fine to me:

• Male or female – glass ceilings are cracking if not yet shattered
• Broader ethnic mix – multilingual in Europe, but not here or in the US
• Highly qualified – more people with MBAs, wide-ranging career exposure and experience
• Strong global focus – more people who have lived overseas
• More people with experience of managing workforces in different countries
• Rapidly changing business environment – limited-term appointments; results driven workforce.

In the Australian context, we can also throw in our close proximity to Asia, particularly China, the loss of manufacturing and textiles industries and the probable loss of people-intensive activities to offshore providers; for example, call centres and payrolls. Nobody now has cradle to grave employment, and ‘big companies’ aren’t necessarily beautiful.

So Axiom 3 is that young people need to be as focused on work experience as they are on qualifications, given that mature student status will apply to all. They need to be globally aware, well travelled, gifted communicators and persuaders, highly flexible and quick learners who deliver results.

So there are some basic rules for everybody in managing their careers for the future:

1. Always look five years ahead – i.e., two steps forward
2. Always have a career direction with multiple options
3. Nothing will fall in your lap, so be proactive: don’t rely on companies planning your career.
4. Unless you are gathering priceless short-term experience, if you don’t like your job, why are you doing it?
5. Portfolio approaches or combinations of activities do work
6. Finally, it’s far better to try something new than to spend the rest of your life wondering.

GS