Specially designed online tools help you chart your course to success.
Do you ever have trouble figuring out what to do next? The problem can be as simple as taking too much time to pick a meal from a menu. Or it can be as momentous and sad as procrastinating till you miss out on something great. If you have this problem, it probably extends to your career choices.
Tell me about it! I epitomized “paralysis-by-analysis” whenever I thought about my career. I was distracted by every shiny new career option, overanalyzing each one, wandering aimlessly through my potential choices and never getting on the right track. My behavior was so annoying that people compared me to Dory in Finding Nemo, who had no short-term memory. “Stop swimming in circles and just pick something!” they told me in exasperation.
My problem was that I needed guidance to help me decide what to do with my career. I was afraid to make a wrong decision, and my fears left me paralyzed. Would I choose to do something that would turn out to be a big waste of time? Would the consequences of another choice limit my future career prospects? Getting the right career guidance wasn’t easy.
If you need guidance, like I did, to allay your doubts and fears about how to take your career to the next level, don’t worry! SHRM has just launched a set of specially designed online SHRM Career Resources pages for SHRM members, to help you get to know yourself better and steer your career in a definite direction. How? With user-friendly interactive tools that can assist you in identifying your developmental needs and the best ways to meet those needs—step by step, page by page:
STEP 1. Where you are now: Take the Competency Self-Assessment.
The first step in any developmental process, especially career development, is self-reflection. I always start with a self-SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunity, threat) analysis—absent the paralysis, of course. In which areas am I not as strong as I could be? Those are the areas I need to develop and improve in. If you’re interested in continuous improvement as an HR professional, taking the 10-minute Competency Self-Assessment can help you identify your competency strengths and developmental needs. It’s a fun little exercise, plus it puts you on the path to recertifying your SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP with 1 professional development credit (PDC) per year.
STEP 2. What to do next and how to get there: Use the Development Activity Wizard.
The next step is to cross-reference the results of your self-assessment with your learning preferences. How do you like to learn? What are your opportunities for continued learning? Use the Development Activity Wizard to get tailored recommendations for activities that will help you build your HR expertise and competency proficiencies. The wizard will help you think about the best ways for you to engage in learning activities that suit your needs. Better still, it will give you a customized list of recommended activities.
STEP 3. Putting goals into action: Create a Competency Development Plan.
Once you know the where/what/how, it’s time to go! The third step of the developmental process for your career is to put your self-assessment and development goals into action. Make it happen by creating your Competency Development Plan. The SHRM Career Resources pages show you how to translate your results into an outline and roadmap for your personalized career strategy.
These new SHRM member benefits reflect our commitment to the mission of advancing the HR profession and of serving HR professionals through continuous improvement. We recognize your commitment to, and investment in, developing your career and helping your organization. By helping you chart your best developmental path, SHRM’s new Career Resource pages can focus your efforts. For more information, visit SHRM.org/careers or call 1.703.548.3440, Option 3.
Alexander Alonso, PhD, SHRM-SCP is the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM's) Chief Knowledge Officer leading operations for SHRM's Certified Professional and Senior Certified Professional certifications, research functions, and the SHRM Knowledge Advisor service. He is responsible for all research activities, including the development of the SHRM Competency Model and SHRM credentials.
During his career, he has worked with numerous subject matter experts worldwide with the aim of identifying performance standards, developing competency models, designing organizational assessments, and conducting job analyses. He was also responsible for working on contract task orders involving the development of measurement tools for content areas such as job knowledge (like teacher knowledge of instructional processes) and organizational climates (like organizational climate forecasting in military health care).
Dr. Alonso received his doctorate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Florida International University in 2003. His works have been recognized for their contribution to real-world issues. They include being recognized by the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology (Division 14 of the APA; SIOP) with the 2007 M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace for the development of the federal standard for medical team training, TeamSTEPPS; being awarded a 2009 Presidential Citation for Innovative Practice by the American Psychological Association for supporting the development of competency model for team triage in emergency medicine; and receiving the 2013 SIOP Distinguished Early Career Contributions for Practice Award.
Throughout his career, he has published works in peer-reviewed journals such as Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, Journal of Applied Psychology, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, People and Strategy, Personality and Individual Differences, Quality and Safety in Health Care, and Human Resources Management Review. He has also authored several chapters on community-based change initiatives in workforce readiness, as well as co-authoring Defining HR Success: A Guide to the SHRM Competency Model in Practice.
Dr. Alonso also served as a columnist analyzing major trends in the workforce for The Industrial Psychologist and HR Magazine. In addition, he has served on several professional society boards including the SIOP and the Personnel Testing Council of Metropolitan Washington.
- 2
- 449 views
Add new comment