Philosophy of Career Planning -Type ACTIVE vs. Type PASSIVE-

The other day, I had 3-time casual inteviews for an alumni visit by a new graduate to consult with career planning.
She resolved bothers and overcame uneasiness to job hunting activities, which made her proactive in the end.
Not just she but I learn about what career planning is by diving into the theories and practices.
I would like to share what I discovered through the activity.

Transcript

1. Philosophy of Career Planning 1 -Type ACTIVE vs. Type PASSIVE- Composed By: Hayato Ishida Updated On: 23 July 2024 For Japanese version, click here
2. About Me • Accounts • Linkedin: @hayat01sh1da • GitHub: @hayat01sh1da • Speaker Deck: @hayat01sh1da • Docswell: @hayat01sh1da • HackMD: @hayat01sh1da • Occupation: Software Engineer • Things I Am Into • Singing at Karaoke • Listening to Music • Watching Movies • Playing Table Tennis • Learning Languages 2
3. Licences / Certifications • English • TOEIC® Listening & Reading 915: Certified on December 2019 • Engineering • Information Security Management: Certified on November 2017 • Applied Information Technology Engineer: Certified on June 2017 • Fundamental Information Technology Engineer: Certified on November 2016 • IT Passport: Certified on April 2016 • Others • Abacus 2nd Class: Certified on June 2002 • Mental Arithmetic 3rd Class: Certified on February 2001 3
4. Skills • Languages • Japanese: Native Proficiency • English: Full professional Proficiency • Development • Ruby: Upper-Intermediate(FW: Ruby on Rails) • Python: Intermediate • TypeScript: Intermediate(Library: React.js) • HTML: Intermediate(Library: Bootstrap) • CSS: Intermediate(Library: Bootstrap) • SQL: Intermediate • Others • Documentation: Advanced 4
5. Work Experiences 5 1. System Engineer @System Engineering Service Firm • Maintenance of Legacy Windows Servers • Management of Corporate Employees’ Accounts • Promotion of Cooperate Security • English Translator for Video Conferences, Vendor Control and Host of International Staff Member 2. Software Engineer @System Development Firm on Contract Basis • Server-Side Development(Ruby on Rails, RSpec) • Front-End Development(HTML / CSS, JavaScript) • Quality Assurance(Native iOS / Android Apps) • Composer of In-House Technical Blog 3. Software Engineer @Chatbot Platform Development Firm • Development and Maintenance of Existing Chatbot Platform(Ruby on Rails, RSpec) • Inspection of an Alternative Chatbot Engine(Ruby, Ruby on Rails, RSpec, Python) 4. Software Engineer @Educational Service Development Division of a Mega Venture Firm • Server-Side Development for Academic Career Supporting Features(Ruby on Rails, RSpec, Minitest, TypeScript + React.js) • Annual Maintenance of Master School Data Migration(Ruby on Rails, RSpec) • Documentation Activities and Promotions
6. International-Exchange Activities 6 • Activities in University • English Linguistics Seminar(Focusing on Mass Media English) • International-Exchange Clubs(The 2nd Year) • International-Exchange Programmes conducted by Japan Cabinet Office(2013 - 2016) • Japanese Linguistics Course(The Final Year) • Overseas Life Experience • Working Holiday in Australia(April 2014 - March 2015) • Language School for 1 month in Sydney • Work for 6 Months in Hamilton Island Resort • Volunteering for 1 Month as Assistant Teacher of Japanese Language at St Ives High School in NSW • Other Activities • Keep Everyday Journal in English (April 2014 - Present) • Sunrise Toastmasters Club(February 2017 - March 2018) • Vital Japan(January 2018 - July 2019, October 2022 - February 2023) • Self Learning and Training of English Language • Video Chats with an Australian Friend
7. Agenda 1. Prologue 2. Type ACTIVE vs. Type PASSIVE 3. Career Planning of Type OPEN-PASSIVE 4. "What do you want?" 5. Summary 6. References 7
8. 1. Prologue 8
9. 1. Prologue 9 On the middle of July 2024, I received an alumni visit request from a new graduate via the career centre of my university and had casual interviews 3 times. I communicated with her via Email and had her share questions, bothers and uneasiness about job hunting in advance. It turned out that her PASSVIE career plan was still so ambiguous that she could not help feeling worried about how job hunting activity would be going. After as many as 3-time meeting, she succeeded in refining her career plan and lowering her uneasiness level from 10 to 2 or 3 by visualising the next actions.
10. 1. Prologue 10 To maximise the outcome, resolution of her questions, bothers and uneasiness and determination of the next actions, I myself prepared for the casual interviews by having small talks with members from the same team and self-study to input the following expertise. 1. What is the definition of Type ACTIVE vs. Type PASSIVE and contrast between them? 2. Which type is majority among members around me? 3. What career plan do those who are Type PASSIVE have? I would like to share what I learned from the preparation above and the gatherings with the new graduate. As a little note, this slide focuses mainly on Type PASSIVE and Type ACTIVE appears an object to compare with.
11. 2. Type ACTIVE vs. Type PASSIVE 11
12. 2. Type ACTIVE vs. Type PASSIVE 12 First of all, what are Type ACTIVE and Type PASSIVE? To interpret the content of What Career Planning the top player of a division in Recruit Co.,Ltd. thinks of as? What he realise in the timing when he wondered whether or not he should leave the current job(written in Japanese language), each type can be defined as follows. • Type ACTIVE: Those who have a definite goal and reach for their ideals with loads of efforts • = Actively proceed to their ideals they originally have • Type PASSIVE: Those who focus on work under their noses, deliver the outcomes and their ideals comes close to them • = (Comparatively) Passively look for their ideals in the process of growth
13. 2. Type ACTIVE vs. Type PASSIVE 13 I input each definition shown on the last page and understand the general descriptions. However, some contradictions remained in me and they were the following riddles. • Even Type ACTIVE are not allowed to come closer to their ideals without focusing on work under their noses, delivering the outcomes and winning trusts and credits, are they? • Even Type PASSIVE design their plans in the short-to-mid term at least because they must be aware of and acquire required skills to handle work under their noses, don’t they? The questions above turn into a hypothesis.
14. 2. Type ACTIVE vs. Type PASSIVE 14 "Type ACTIVE and Type PASSIVE are NOT the structure of comparison BUT there exist gradation between them, does't it?"
15. 2. Type ACTIVE vs. Type PASSIVE 15 That is to say… NOT BUT Type ACTIVE Type PASSIVE Type ACTIVE Type ACTIVE
16. 2. Type ACTIVE vs. Type PASSIVE 16 In other words, Type ACTIVE contains some factors of Type PASSIVE and vice-versa. To refine this hypothesis, I had a small talk with a member from the same team to ask his career plan. He described himself as Type PASSIVE who proactively choose which way to proceed. His feedback helped me to arrive at the conclusion that Type ACTIVE vs. Type PASSIVE are as shown on the next page.
17. • Type ACTIVE: Those who have a definite goal and reach for their ideals with loads of efforts • Type PASSIVE: Those who focus on work under their noses, deliver the outcomes and their ideals comes close to them • Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE: Those who repeat feedback cycle between their ideals and the processes of their growths • Type OPEN-PASSIVE: Those who focus only on work under their noses without having their ideals 2. Type ACTIVE vs. Type PASSIVE 17 Type ACTIVE Type PASSIVE Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE Type OPEN-PASSIVE
18. 3. Career Planning of Type OPEN-PASSIVE 18
19. 3. Career Planning of Type OPEN-PASSIVE 19 In this chapter, I dive deeper into Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE of Type PASSIVE. The reasons I focus on neither Type ACTIVE nor Type OPEN-PASSIVE are as follows. 1. There already are a lot of role models of both types and you can imagine what they are, so I do not have to bother to explain it in details. 2. Since I, the new graduate and the member from the same team all are Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE, I am extremely interested in it as the composer. 3. Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE is majority as far as I recognise, but it is highly likely that few of us know about what the type is.
20. 3. Career Planning of Type OPEN-PASSIVE 20 That is why I would like to detail the following elements. 1. Is Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE Career Planning good or bad? 2. Working belief of Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE 3. Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE and Strengths and Preferences Discovery 4. Job Hunting for New Graduates and Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE Career Planning
21. 3. Career Planning of Type OPEN-PASSIVE 21 1. Is Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE Career Planning good or bad? Personally, I am for this career planning style for the following reasons. 1. First of all, it is important to win trusts and credits from those around us by focusing on constantly delivering as satisfactory outcomes as expected, which is quite realistic. • Just like weather forecast, the farther the future is, the less likely it is that things go as originally planned. 2. This style helps us to avoid getting lost because we are required to design our career plans for the next 1, 3 and possibly 5 years. • It is necessary to constantly make sure what way we are going and fix the direction if the path begins to be different from what is originally planned, which means this style requires maintenance.
22. 3. Career Planning of Type OPEN-PASSIVE 22 2. Working belief of Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE As to delivery of expected outcomes, it can be detailed as the following 3 phases. • Phase 1: Know the expectation and deliver the outcome as expected. • This is the first hurdle to get over! • Experience as many expected deliveries as possible and find your own CANs at the same time • Carefully agree with what is expected • At first, you cannot make sure how to do, so clear all questions by asking your coworkers • Phase 2: Know the expectation and deliver the outcome more than expected. • Be aware that the + α would never be evaluated without delivering the outcome as expected • Phase 3: Know the expectation and deliver the outcome before expected. • Be aware that the pre-delivery never be evaluated without delivering the outcome as expected and meeting the very demand
23. 3. Career Planning of Type OPEN-PASSIVE 23 2. Working belief of Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE Next, I would like to provide the detailed explanation about work under their noses regardless of the type. Work can be break down to the following 2 categories. We are required to actively work on any of them. • Given Tasks: Meet the requirements, look for room to improve and share how with your team, department and division if you find any to meet someone's demand - Basic • Tasks you yield: In my case, I am good at documentation while other engineers are not, so I delivered the outcome more than expected and share it worldwide by a blog article as a means by which anyone can reproduce it to deliver additional values - Advanced
24. 3. Career Planning of Type OPEN-PASSIVE 24 3. Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE and Strengths and Preferences Discovery Type ACTIVE are understand what strengths and desires they have while Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE is a Type PASSIVE, which buries their initial ideals under the ground of memory by hectic working days. That is why they should pay attention to what are their CANs and WILLs and take action to discover them. The criteria of assignment of a task is either CANs which make a difference in deliverables or WILLs which are driving force for someone to contribute to it(WILL can be more eloquent than CAN).
25. 3. Career Planning of Type OPEN-PASSIVE 25 4. Job Hunting for New Graduates and Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE Career Planning As explained in 1. Prologue, the new graduate was uneasy about Type PASSIVE Career Planning. I ask her a simple question, "What brought you to Type PASSIVE Career Planning which most of new graduates are likely to design their career plans as Type ACTIVE?" She provided the answer, "Without working experience, I have reached the limit in clearly visualising my career plan, so I hope to enhance the definition after I start working." The answer is very realistic, but the new graduate were badly worried about how her job hunting activity would be going.
26. 3. Career Planning of Type OPEN-PASSIVE 26 4. Job Hunting for New Graduates and Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE Career Planning On one hand, the question provided by the interviewer tends to be CANs-based on the past working experiences and how the interviewee contribute to the organisation with their soft and hard skills in changing jobs. The interviewee is allowed to build a story based on their actual working experiences, which is not so difficult for both Type ACTIVE and Type PASSIVE. ※ If no soft and hard skills are acquired via working experiences, the interviewee will is highly like to take a lot of pains in the job interview or the game will be over.
27. 3. Career Planning of Type OPEN-PASSIVE 27 4. Job Hunting for New Graduates and Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE Career Planning On the other hand, the question provided by the interviewer tends to be WILLs- based and what the interviewee would like to realise in the organisation in job hunting for new graduates. The bother is the situation where CANs are often expected to provided as supportive ideas of WILLs. New graduates are highly like to wonder how they should answer the question about their CANs without highly technical expertise and skills acquired in a laboratory in university or by themselves, working experiences in university period or a long-term internship.
28. 3. Career Planning of Type OPEN-PASSIVE 28 4. Job Hunting for New Graduates and Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE Career Planning Type ACTIVE can provide their definite goals, WILLs and CANs which are supportive ideas of WILLs, which makes their assertions very convincing. On the contrary, Type PASSIVE cannot do the same as Type ACTIVE without working experiences which are essential for high definition of WILLs and CANs. To cut a long story short, Type ACTIVE tend to take advantage over Type PASSIVE in job hunting for new graduates.
29. 3. Career Planning of Type OPEN-PASSIVE 29 4. Job Hunting for New Graduates and Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE Career Planning Considering hardship explained till the last page, I took the following 4 steps to resolve bothers and uneasiness the new graduate had. 1. Resolution of uneasiness caused by vague blueprint of her career plan • Accept the reality that it is not until they start working that they cannot design a completely definite career plan • Focus on not terminating uneasiness but getting along well with it 2. Resolution of loss of confidence caused by her personality and habits • Relying on those around her was never a bad act as long as she take action herself • Be confident to the act because it proves strength to trust someone else 3. Resolution of delivery process of an outcome in job hunting different from academia • The gap bothered the new graduate • Be confident to academic outcomes which can be an appealing material that was found by untiring 3-time meetings 4. Resolution of loss of confidence caused by Type PASSIVE Career Planning • The 3 steps above have already clarify WILLs and CANs of the new graduate and looked for positions suitable for her • The career plan was clear enough for her to search for industries and corporations she would truly be interested in
30. 4. "What do you want?" 30
31. 4. "What do you want?" 31 This phrase is well known among those concerned in Recruit Co.,Ltd. which stands for an extraordinary sense of ownership. Personally, I am not a big fan of this too direct expression, so I would love it to be updated to such a phrase, "What concrete approach do you think is the best?" Back on the topic, the phrase should imply the import 5Ws1H as a result of my interpretation although it might be distorted understanding.
32. 4. "What do you want?" 32 • What do you like to release at work? • Job: What values would you like to provide with the customers? • What effect would you like to have on your stakeholders? • How do you achieve your goal? • What process would you take making the most of your CANs? • Where would it be most appropriate to achieve your goal? • What environment do you think is the best to realise WHAT and HOW above?
33. 4. "What do you want?" 33 • Why would you like to be involved in the work? • 2Ws1H on the last page lead to the answer to this question • In other words, "What makes you think of the work as the best choice?" • Who are you? • What strengths do you have and would you like to make the most of them? • What makes you think of them as your assets? • What faults do you have and how are you facing it? • What action are you taking to overcome it? • When would you like to achieve the goal? • What expertise and skillset do you have to acquire in 1, 3 and 5 years and what should you do every day to come close to the ideal? • The format of personnel evaluation in Recruit Co.,Ltd. adopts the concept above
34. 5. Summary 34
35. 5. Summary 35 1. The style of career planning can be categorised to the following 2 types. • Type ACTIVE • Type PASSIVE 2. Type PASSIVE can be categorised to the following sub types. • Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE • Type OPEN-PASSIVE 3. Type SELECTIVE-PASSIVE have to be strongly aware of the following 3 points. • Constant assessment and fixation of the gap between the ideal and reality • Proactive attitude and action to work • Awareness and action to find one's own WILLs and CANs 4. Type PASSIVE Career Planning tends to be painstaking in job hunting for new graduates, so it is better to find someone trustworthy, which helps their personality analysis, aptitude assessment and study of the best position, industry and corporation. 5. "What do you want?" implies the very important 5Ws1H(my personal understanding).
36. 6. References 36
37. 6. References 37 • What Career Planning the top player of a division in Recruit Co.,Ltd. thinks of as? What he realise in the timing when he wondered whether or not he should leave the current job(written in Japanese language) • Last Accessed On: 18 July 2024
38. EOD 38