Contemporary careers have often been described as ‘boundaryless’, meaning that the context of work as well as our own career motivations are constantly evolving and are marked by considerable uncertainty. In this very individually focused course, we will explore questions around your own career goals and challenges as well as work on concrete career plans and focus on understanding your future career transitions. This course is designed to help you understand your own career journey as well as ways to more effectively manage careers of an increasingly global workforce. Once you obtain better understanding of yourself and your career path, you will be better equipped to use the same tools in managing global careers of your employees.

As business professionals you will manage and develop your own careers in this rapidly changing global environment. You may change your career direction several times and you will likely explore variety of career opportunities locally but may also consider options across national and international boundaries. Organizations are also becoming more globally oriented and are seeking ways to integrate and manage increasingly diverse workforce.  Several major challenges emerge in this context, such as skills needed to lead and manage diverse workforce, cross-cultural communication differences, and broader awareness of these diverse cultural and professional identities. While organizations may still assist their employees in managing their careers, more and more responsibility is put on the individual to independently manage and navigate in this increasingly complex career environment.

In this course, you will be exposed to most important career theories and most up to date research on global careers and you will engage in the use of the case method. Secondly, the course will also focus on coping with major career transitions, gender in the workplace, leadership across cultures, and managing diverse workforce. To further increase your competence in managing careers and to maximize your learning experience you will be asked to complete some self-assessment exercises, engage in peer-coaching and participate in a variety of group discussions. In particular, the course will exploit various career metaphors as a way of understanding complexity of contemporary global careers.

This course is based on the following components: Academic and Practitioner Readings, Case studies, Self-Assessments, Class Discussions, Individual interviews/coaching and Presentations.

Following this course, you will achieve the following:

• In depth understanding of your own career, goals, needs and plans to achieve a successful career at all levels.

• You will learn about various theoretical and practical frameworks and tools that will help you and your co-workers to lead more fulfilling and satisfying work lives.

• You will obtain deeper understanding of cross-cultural communication challenges, as well as leadership and gender issues across cultures.

At least 80% presence is mandatory, full attendance hignly recommended

This course is based on the following components: Academic and Practitioner Readings, Case studies, Self-Assessments, Class Discussions, Individual interviews/coaching and Presentations.. See detailed schedule and readings in "Additional information for course members"

Required Textbook:

Inkson, K., Dries, N., & Arnold, J. (2014), Understanding Careers. Sage Publications

Evaluation:

• Participation 30% (mini-individual article/career story presentations, completion of Self-Assessments; ongoing active class discussions & contribution
• Team Project 40% – Mini Careers lecture (will be explained in detail in class)
• My Career Plan Assignment 30% (due after the course)

Class participation

Class participation is an essential part of your learning in this course and thus you are required to attend and actively participate in all sessions in order to receive qualification for the course. Class participation is not only about attendance, but also about your meaningful contribution to class discussions, successful completion and understanding of self-assessments and experiential exercises as well as career case presentations. This course puts great emphasis on discussion of the course materials, sharing about your own careers and experiences of managing and knowing careers of others. Therefore, your quality input is most needed and will further our class learning.  In order to actively participate in discussions, it is necessary to read all the materials in advance of each class (see below readings for each meeting).  Class participation is evaluated on a regular basis. Good quality participation is one that can stimulate in-depth, meaningful discussion and provoke critical thinking. Additional ways of succeeding in this component of your grade will be discussed in detail during our first meeting.

Team Project 

1. Present/Teach the class audience about research findings on a topic of your choice. The professor can assist you in defining the topic and choosing relevant readings.

My Career Plan

Final Assignment will be discussed in class in more detail– it is a detailed plan for the next 5years of your career and relies on all course learning/material and assessments.

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