Formal Career Research Articles

Developing high performance sales managers: key practices for accelerating growth

Purpose – Further explore the issue of sales management development and identify the practices most critical to sales managers' learning and development. Design/methodology/approach – To explore the development needs of sales leaders, we surveyed 206 newer sales managers from ten US-based manufacturing and service organizations. The sample was 79 percent male and 21 percent female, averaged 2.2 years of sales management experience, 10.3 years of sales experience and 37.1 years of age. Findings – Practices that sales managers considered to be important for their development are: clarifying roles, goals and performance expectations (81 percent); receiving effective performance appraisals and reviews (74 percent); exposure to challenging/difficult job assignments (71 percent); conducting formal career planning discussions (68 percent); receiving ongoing performance measurement, feedback and coaching (66 percent); being mentored by senior managers/sales people (60 percent); involvement with professional assoc...

Factors Affecting Choice of Future Specialty among Medical Students.

Dear Editor, We read with interest the article by Kumar et al., where the authors have evaluated the future career interests and factors that influence undergraduate medical students’ choice of specialty.[1] A medical specialization encompasses transition from an undifferentiated medical graduate to the fully differentiated professional who is usually restricted to one specialized field of medical work. The medical specialty chosen by the medical student has important implications for both the practitioner as well as the national community. It is critical in determining the future supply of doctors in different specialties and the planning of the workforce for the healthcare services. In the present study, some interesting trends can be seen. Although the male students were interested in only internal medicine or surgery, the females preferred obstetrics and gynecology the most. The most alarming finding being that none of the students in China, Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal preferred pediatrics. Also while the questionnaire used in the study had an option for public health and social medicine, apparently none of the students opted for them. This problem has been highlighted time and again and underlines the issues in achieving health equity and limits the access of people living in rural and underserved areas to trained health manpower. Although nearly one half of world population resides in rural areas, they are served by less than a quarter of available physician workforce. The World Health Organization (WHO) has suggested principles and evidence-based recommendations to improve rural retention of doctors.[2] The educational recommendations include the use of favorable admission policies for students with rural background, location of medical schools and campuses outside of major cities, exposing undergraduates to rural community postings, inclusion of rural health topics in undergraduate and postgraduate curricula, and planning of continuing medical education and professional development programs that address the needs of rural health workers. The current bias of study sample in favor of urban students is one of the possible reasons for none of the students opting for public health as specialty of choice. The study also involves only specific medical schools in these five countries and may not be generalized to South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations as a whole. However, the study highlights the need for these developing countries to reassess their existing policies and introduce and/or reinforce the suggested reforms to ensure a stronger workforce in the rural areas. Also the basic medical sciences were neglected as a choice of specialization by all students across the five study settings. We also feel that students in first year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) program have limited exposure to the clinics and thus their career choices are likely to be influenced at later stages of their education by various factors like perceived academic and career opportunities, societal/family expectations, effects of role models among supervisors, faculty and residents, work-related hazards, opportunities to perform procedures and urgent interventions, prospects of working in an urban setting, difficulty level of training, number of practice work hours per week, opportunities to work independently in the specialty, type of problems and patients encountered, and likely patient outcomes.-[3,4,5] In addition, a previous study has shown that students in their clinical phase of study are more likely to decide a future medical specialization than students in their basic sciences phase of medical education.[3] The range of career options available to a medical graduate has become even broader as a result of the emergence of several new subspecialties within the traditional specialties. The fact that none of the students opted for prestige, respect, and status is discordant with previously reported studies.[3,5,6] There are individual differences in the medical curriculum among these countries that might have affected the study results, e.g. the first year MBBS students in India have little exposure to paraclinical subjects like pathology, microbiology, and pharmacology. This might be one of the reasons for their lack of awareness and inclination toward these basic medical sciences. Possible ways of enabling undergraduate medical students to make informed choices regarding postgraduate specialities need to be explored. Efforts should also be made to enhance the attractiveness of medical specialities facing considerable manpower shortages to address the current and future healthcare needs of the nation. The medical schools in developing countries can introduce medical laboratory internships and modules based on research and laboratory medicine that can help to inculcate student's interest in research and basic medical sciences. Another intervention includes introduction of mentoring programs and formal career counseling. Such mentoring programs during undergraduate training can positively influence student's interest in careers in public health and basic medical specialities.

Career trajectories of older women: implications for career guidance

As work and employment transitions become more frequent and difficult, the demand for formal career guidance increases. Women are likely to experience structural labour market disadvantage and may benefit from formal support that is sympathetic to their particular needs. Yet the traditional psychological paradigms that dominate career guidance practice have assumed homogeneity. To contribute both to broader debates about careers services for adults and the development of more relevant theoretical frameworks for career practice for women, results are presented from an international, comparative qualitative investigation of the career trajectories of older women (aged 45 to 65) in Australia, England and South Africa. These results confirm a need for career guidance that is nuanced and differentiated for women.

“Taking This from This and That from That”: Examining RZA and Quentin Tarantino’s Use of Pastiche

“Taking This from This and That from That”: Examining RZA and Quentin Tarantino’s Use of Pastiche

The Career Counseling Program in Medical Schools outside Korea

Medical students can choose to pursue any of a large number of specialties. This diversity reflects exciting opportunities, yet it also present significant challenges, such as providing medical students with adequate resources and guidance to help them to make informed career decisions. Additionally, because the medical internship will be abolished in the near future, many Korean medical schools have recently focused on implementing a career planning and advising program. This paper describes the Careers in Medicine (CiM) program offered by the Association of American Medical Colleges as a framework for other schools to adopt or adapt as they consider the best ways to address the career counseling needs of their own students. CiM is a comprehensive career planning program that provides students with the skills, information, and resources to choose a specialty and residency program that meets their career goals. CiM follows a four-year, four-step career planning process including self-understanding, exploring a variety of medical careers, and finally choosing a specialty. The CiM program has been evaluated as successful because of widespread participation and positive feedback from medical students. The information in this study can be used to develop a formal career advising program throughout the four years of medical school.

So Are You Retired or What?

The artist is not a special kind of person, every person is a special kind of artist. --A. Coomaraswamy The artist quote is part of my email signature. It grounds me in recognizing that each person has gifts to share with others, as long as we are open to receiving them. This article shares a reframing of lifelong learning beyond a formal career. Like many of my peers, after 40 years in postsecondary education, I have moved beyond my most recent full-time work teaching in an adult education graduate program to emeritus faculty status. I was invited to write this Future's column to share my experience moving into the next phase of my career and examine my own future. The traditional term for this phase is retirement. I transitioned in July 2010, so I have almost 2 years of experience in this post full-time work phase. However, I spent several years preparing for my version of the next phase of my lifework with the key question, What do I want to do next? Before we get too far into this story, let me be open about my personal background. I am in the vanguard of Baby Boomers, born in 1946, and raised in a White, middle-class family from Connecticut. Indiana has been home for 42 years. My life has been privileged and influenced by the academic world. I have been accused of going away to college and liking it so much that I've spent my whole career on college campuses! Perspectives on Aging and Retirement There is no consensus on the question of how to define the age when one becomes an older adult. The protected status for age discrimination starts at 40 years of age. The age to start drawing Social Security benefits is 62 (earlier if disabilities are involved), but to draw full benefits, the age for Boomers is 66 years. Others say 70 is the age when people are viewed as old. There are also cultural factors and indicators related to health, vitality, family responsibilities, and continued engagement in work (whether full-time or part-time) that influence whether an individual is viewed as old. Adults in the United States above age 65, women and men, as a proportion of the population is increasing rapidly--from 27% in 2000 and predicted to be more than 35% in 2020. In a 2011 American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Survey of Boomer Expectations, 43% of those who were still working could not wait to retire; however, 41% indicated they did not want to stop working. This survey also showed that in retirement, 71% planned to focus more on time with family, and 66% planned to spend time on hobbies and interests. Expectations of retirement as leisure (57%), personal indulgence (45%), or time for travel (48%) have fallen more than 10 points since 1998. This may be connected with the instability of the economy and traditional economic planning tools. Although a traditional definition of retirement is withdrawal or rest from work, this is not related to what I planned to pursue. Some Boomers may be reevaluating what to do in the next phase of life, yet it does not sound like as many are moving toward a purposeful new retirement focusing on helping to meet the needs of people and communities through committed engagement. With these negative stereotypes, I use the term retirement only when I have to describe an official status. Are You Retired or What? Family and friends ask, So are you retired or what? when I mention I have a couple of conference calls to conduct or am facilitating an online class. I respond with an emphatic, Or what! I explain that while my status from the university is emeritus, so I am not working full-time, that does not mean I've stopped being an adult educator. Terms like reinvention, third age, encore, renewal, evolution, and r-evolution are attempts to replace the old retirement status stereotypes. Yet, the phrase I decided to use several years ago to describe the next phase of my lifework is reframing my career. …

Formal public health education and career outcomes of medical school graduates.

BackgroundFew data are available evaluating the associations of formal public health education with long-term career choice and professional outcomes among medical school graduates. The objective of this study was to determine if formal public health education via completion of a masters of public health (MPH) degree among US medical school graduates was associated with early and long-term career choice, professional satisfaction, or research productivity.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study in 1108 physicians (17.1% completed a MPH degree) who had 10–20 years of follow-up post medical school graduation. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted.ResultsCompared to their counterparts with no MPH, medical school graduates with a MPH were more likely to have completed a generalist primary care residency only [relative risk (RR) 1.79, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.35–2.29], obtain employment in an academic institution (RR 1.81; 95% CI 1.33–2.37) or government agency (RR 3.26; 95% CI 1.89–5.38), and practice public health (RR 39.84; 95% CI 12.13–107.38) or primary care (RR 1.59; 95% CI 1.18–2.05). Furthermore, medical school graduates with a MPH were more likely to conduct public health research (RR 8.79; 95% CI: 5.20–13.82), receive NIH or other federal funding (RR 3.11, 95% CI 1.74–5.33), have four or more peer-reviewed publications (RR 2.07; 95% CI 1.56–2.60), and have five or more scientific presentations (RR 2.31, 95% CI 1.70–2.98).ConclusionFormal public health education via a MPH was associated with career choice and professional outcomes among physicians.

Public Health Education in the United States: Then and Now.

It was against a background of no formal career path for public health officers that, in 1915, the seminal Welch-Rose Report1 outlined a system of public health education for the United States. The first schools of public health soon followed, but growth was slow, with only 12 schools by 1960. With organization and growing numbers, accreditation became an expectation. As the mission of public health has grown and achieved new urgency, schools have grown in number, depth and breadth. By mid-2011, there were 46 accredited schools of public health, with more in the pipeline. While each has a unique character, they also must possess certain core characteristics to be accredited. Over time, as schools developed, and concepts of public health expanded, so too did curricula and missions as well as types of people who were trained. In this review, we provide a brief summary of US public health education, with primary emphasis on professional public health schools. We also examine public health workforce needs and evaluate how education is evolving in the context of a growing maturity of the public health profession. We have not focused on programs (not schools) that offer public health degrees or on preventive medicine programs in schools of medicine, since schools of public health confer the majority of master’s and doctoral degrees. In the future, there likely will be even more inter-professional education, new disciplinary perspectives and changes in teaching and learning to meet the needs of millennial students.

Employment experiences among adolescents and young adults with cystic fibrosis

Purpose. We sought to examine the employment experiences in a population of adolescents and young adults with cystic fibrosis (CF).Methods. We administered a cross-sectional survey to 68 individuals with CF, ages 16–25 years, assessing current employment experiences and perceptions of the impact of CF on these experiences.Results. Forty-six percent of respondents reported working < 20 h per week. Sixty-seven percent reported disclosing their diagnosis to their employer. Only one respondent reported receiving formal job guidance in CF clinic, and only 16%% reported that a clinician had discussed job-related issues with them. Only 21%% reported that they completed CF therapies at work. Older respondents (ages 22–25 years) and those with a lower lung function were more likely to agree that ‘balancing employment and CF care is stressful.’Conclusions. The majority of adolescents and young adults with CF report disclosing their diagnosis at work. Most do not feel that working interferes with routine CF therapies. Very few have received any formal career guidance. Age and lung disease severity are associated with increased concerns about balancing CF care and employment.

Three Innovative Curricula for Addressing Medical Studentsʼ Career Development

Medical students make specialty decisions that are critically important to their long-term career satisfaction and overall well-being. The dynamic of larger class sizes set against stagnant numbers of residency positions creates an imperative for students to make and test specialty decisions earlier in medical school. Ideally, formal career advising begins in medical school. Medical schools typically offer career development programs as extracurricular offerings. The authors describe three curricular approaches and the innovative courses developed to address medical students' career development needs. The models differ in complexity and cost, but they share the goals of assisting students to form career identities and to use resources effectively in their specialty decision processes. The first model is a student-organized specialties elective. To earn course credit, students must complete questionnaires for the sessions, submit results from two self-assessments, and report on two physician informational interviews. The second model comprises two second-year career development courses that have evolved into a longitudinal career development program. The third model integrates career topics through a doctoring course and advising teams. The authors discuss challenges and lessons learned from implementing each of the programs, including marshaling resources, achieving student buy-in, and obtaining time in the curriculum. Invoking a curricular approach seems to normalize the tasks associated with career development and puts them on par in importance with other medical school endeavors.

Myopia: its prevalence, origins and control

Myopia: its prevalence, origins and control

Professional development and teacher aides in inclusive education contexts: where to from here?

During the past 10 years in Australia teacher aides have been employed in mainstream schools as support personnel in special education intervention programmes, and their numbers are increasing. At the same time workplace reform in relation to inclusive education is impacting on their employment and deployment in schools to support students with disabilities and learning difficulties. In Queensland, teacher aides have been offered formal career paths, with increased pay scales, based on the recognition and continuing attainment of qualifications or credentials. However, there is increasing recognition in the educational research community that professional development for any change, and especially the complex changes in culture needed for inclusive education, is about developing and managing a collaborative process of change through reflection on, learning about, and sharing meanings and understandings about effective support of all students, in ways that value the diversities and celebrate the differences of the perspectives of the whole school community. How can we move the process of professional development for teacher aides forward? The experiences and knowledge that teacher aides already can have further inform this process of change through professional development.

Agricultural In-Service Needs of Introductory Level Career and Technical Education Teachers

This study identified and prioritized the agricultural in-service needs of introductory level career and technical education teachers in Utah. The Utah State Board of Education requires that all seventh grade students complete an introductory career and technical education course as their first formal career exploration experience. One component of the course is exploration of the agriculture industry. In order to effectively help students explore agricultural opportunities, teachers, most of whom have little or no formal training in agriculture, must be prepared in their knowledge of the agriculture industry and careers. To meet the needs of teachers, the state office of education has requested relevant, meaningful in-service. A survey based on the Borich needs assessment model was used to determine areas in which teachers need additional support. The "new and emerging technologies in agriculture" standard emerged as an area of weakness. Teachers generally held positive attitudes toward the importance of teaching agriculture, which should be used to promote future in-service programs.

The Brief CV Review Session: One Component of a Mosaic of Mentorship for Women in Academic Medicine

In the current climate of increasing demands on a disproportionately small number of senior female faculty, we implemented a brief curriculum vitae (CV) review session as an opportunity to expand the professional network of junior women faculty and provide them with additional formal career advice. For 3 years, junior (mentees) and senior (mentors) faculty from different departments were paired in half-hour CV review sessions, as part of an annual conference focused on professional development for faculty women. Participating faculty received questionnaires to assess their experience with the sessions, and their feedback was combined over all 3 years and compared using chi2 and Fisher's tests. During the 3 years, there were 93 CV review sessions. Although 84% of the mentees reported having a mentor, only 62% of mentees reported that any previous mentoring experience was helpful. Most (90%) participated in the CV review to determine if their career was "on track." The mentees reported that the CV review session was helpful (93%), provided new information (87%), and identified that they were "on track" for promotion (75%). The mentors felt that their mentees were progressing appropriately in their career (78%) and provided specific recommendations for the mentees (100%). The majority (78%) of mentors felt comfortable mentoring junior faculty outside their department. Brief interventions, such as a CV review session, can provide additional counsel to junior faculty, helping them assess their career progress as part of a mosaic of mentorship.

Plodders, pragmatists, visionaries and opportunists: career patterns and employability

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore individual approaches to career and employability through the career stories of a group of mid‐level to senior managers in career transition. Career patterns are identified and then compared with traditional, boundaryless and protean models of career. The study aims to consider the extent to which individuals in this group had adopted behaviours supportive of future employability as opposed to behaviours more in line with traditional careers.Design/methodology/approachThe research adopted an interpretive and qualitative approach. In‐depth interviews were conducted with people currently going through a career transition program. The interviews were recorded and then transcribed, coded and analysed using NVivo, a qualitative research software tool.FindingsCareer patterns appeared to be shifting away from traditional careers and more towards protean and boundaryless models. There was evidence of increased responsibility for career self‐management and of behaviours supportive of ongoing employability. Self‐perceived employability could be linked to degree of job mobility and having a future career orientation.Research limitations/implicationsDespite the small sample size and the subjective nature of self‐reported career histories the study provides insights into the relationship between career patterns and employability. Both organisations and individuals need to work towards developing attitudes and behaviours supportive of employability such as flexibility, adaptability and a future career orientation.Practical implicationsIndividual level career management will need to focus more on the development of attitudes and behaviours appropriate to contemporary employment relationships than on the development of formal career plans. At an organizational level support can be provided by encouraging flexibility through activities such as job rotation, short‐term projects and opportunities for both internal and external networking.Originality/valueThe study provides empirical evidence of how careers are being managed within contemporary employment relationships.

Social Functioning of Patients With Personality Disorder in Secondary Care

Social Functioning of Patients With Personality Disorder in Secondary Care

Peter George Fookes: father of modern British engineering geology?

Peter Fookes' career began in the 1950s, not in geology but chemistry. This soon changed and the world of applied geology has much to be thankful for. When he began there was a loosely coined ‘geology for engineers’ but no formal career structure in engineering geology. The difference was the move towards practitioners specifically trained in understanding ground problems that arise in civil engineering and in the techniques of ground description, classification and investigation for civil engineering development. He played a leading role in the development of the first engineering geology Masters degree course at Imperial College, helping to establish the subject as an essential component of civil engineering. Less well known to geologists, he was also heavily involved in the development of aspects of concrete technology and engineering geomorphology. In addition, he has made major contributions to the science, especially focusing on the development of geological models. He has published over 180 technical papers (46 since what many would consider to be a normal retirement age!), many books and has participated in numerous national and international committees. A full chronological list of his publications is given in the Bibliography. He is a past-Chairman of the Engineering Group and has initiated and chaired many working party reports in UK and overseas, often milestones in the advancement of the subject. He has been the recipient of major awards in recognition of his contribution to engineering geology, applied geomorphology, civil engineering, concrete technology and geotechnical engineering. Throughout, he has preferred the role of practitioner rather than becoming involved in geopolitics. This paper summarizes his considerable contribution to the science and profession. I have known Peter first as his student, then as a colleague and friend and feel honoured to have been invited to write this account of his contribution to the profession. …

Review of specialist dietitian services in patients with inherited metabolic disease in the United Kingdom

Dietary management forms the mainstay of treatment for many inherited metabolic diseases (IMDs) and specialist dietitians play a crucial role in the multi-disciplinary core team for these patients. Professional concerns have been expressed that the current clinical workforce is inadequate for meeting current and future service demands. The aim of this work was to describe the provision of specialist dietetics to patients with IMD as part of a national needs assessment and review. The 24 main specialist providers and 27 specialist dietitians were surveyed by a questionnaire. A focus group of three specialist dietitians was also held to explore the roles of specialist dietitians in greater depth. Responses were received from all 24 specialist service providers and 63% of 27 specialist dietitians. The majority of service providers (92%) have specialist dietitians, but only eight services had more than one whole time equivalent (33%). Key roles were management of complex dietary regimens, prevention and management of metabolic crises, education, co-ordination of care, clinical audit and research. Although highly qualified, there is currently no clear formal career structure or training pathway for dietitians in IMDs. Specialist dietitians have important clinical and leadership roles in managing IMD but specialist services are thinly spread. There is a need for access to formal education, training and support programmes. The clinical workforce needs expansion to provide more comprehensive and equitable services.

Justice Imperiled: The Anti-Nazi Lawyer Max Hirschberg in Weimar Germany (review)

Justice Imperiled: The Anti-Nazi Lawyer Max Hirschberg in Weimar Germany, by Douglas G. Morris. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005. 443. pp. $35.00. Douglas G. Morris, very much like his subject, the Weimar-era German lawyer Max Hirschberg, is a practicing big-city criminal defense lawyer with a significant sideline as a scholar. His somewhar unusual background contributes to the success of this study of a lawyer ar work and helps make this carefully researched and lucidly written book a very valuable addition to our knowledge of law and the administration of justice in the Weimar Republic. This knowledge remains surprisingly patchy. We know a lot about the jurisprudential dispures of the 1920s and early 1930s, as a wide range of legal scholars, philosophers, and historians on both sides of the Atlantic continue to be fascinated with Weimar constitutionalism, and with the profound disputes about the fundamental nature of law for which the Republic's troubled politics created especially fertile ground (See inter alia Michael Stolleis, A History of Public Law in Germany 1914-1945, trans. Thomas Dunlop [2004J; Peter C. Caldwell, Popular Sovereignty and the Crisis of German Constitutional Law: TIk TIKory and Practice of Weimar Constitutionalism [1997]; Arthur J. Jacobson and Bernhard Schlink, eds., Weimar: A Jurisprudence of Crisis [2000]); Manfred Gangl, ed., Linke Juristen in der Weimarer Republik [2003]). We know a little about the practical politics of law and the legal profession in Weimar (Kenneth F. Ledford, From General Estate to Special Interest: German Lawyers 1878-1933 [1996]; Robert Kuhn, Die Vertrauenskrise der Justiz [1926-1928]: Der Kampf um die Republikanisierung der Rechtspflege in der Weimarer Republik [1983]; Tilmann Krach, Judische Rechtsanwalte in Preusen: Uber die Bedeutung der freien Advokatur und ihre Zerstorung durch den Nationalsozialismus [1991]). But of the actual conduct of criminal trials, even the overtly political, let alone the unpolitical, we know very little; and despite the colorful personalities and contemporary fame of many members of the Weimar bar, biographies of lawyers are few, and good ones even fewer. Thus a scholarly biography of an important lawyer which pays careful attention to the hows and whys of his cases fills a major gap. Hirschberg was born in Munich in 1883 and grew up a rather characteristic product of the Imperial German Bildungsburgertum, idealistic, cultivated, and perhaps naive in equal measures. Hirschberg was never especially religious, and Morris suggests that Hirschberg's Jewish background was important only in contributing to a sense of separateness that he carried throughout his life (p. 19) - and, of course, in providing one ground for his flight from Germany after the Nazis came to power. Hirschberg opened a legal practice in Munich in 191 11 but as Morris shows, it was the First World War, in which Hirschberg served as a front line officer, and even more the revolutionary turbulence of post-war Munich, that shaped his political outlook (social democratic) and gave him a sense of political mission. After flirting with a formal political career, Hirschberg decided that he could most effectively contribute to a democratic Germany through his legal practice. …

De professionele loopbaan in goede banen: het samenspel van loopbaanzelfsturing en het loopbaanbeleid binnen de organisatie

Managing careers: the interplay of career self-management and organizational career support Managing careers: the interplay of career self-management and organizational career support A. de Vos, K. Dewettinck &amp; D. Buyens, Gedrag &amp; Organisatie, volume 20, maart 2007, nr. 1, pp. 21-40 This paper explores the relationship between organizational career management and career self-management and addresses the impact on employee outcomes. Within six large organizations, a sample of 491 employees reported on their career self-management initiatives, on their expectations towards organizational career management support and on their commitment and career success. This was complemented by information from their supervisors on informal and formal career management practices offered to employees to support their career development. Results show that individuals who take more initiatives to manage their own career also expect more career support from their employer. Career self-management and organizational career management are positively related to organizational commitment and number of promotions, while career self-management also relates to subjective feelings of career success. The interaction between career self-management and organizational career management in explaining employee outcomes is discussed.