The 4 Realms of Application - Part 2
Professional (Outside of Work)
Your involvement in professional activities outside of work is an area that a lot of people neglect. In the order of importance, this is the second most important next to your performance at work. Your involvement in outside professional activities should be a future vision of what you want to do after business school. So what does that mean? Because you have the complete freedom to choose what to do with your time outside of work, choose something that is relevant to your future career aspirations. For
example, if you are currently in Finance but want to pursue a career in Marketing, then join professional Marketing associations and volunteer to help with the organization. Here are some guidelines:
Pick one or two organizations
Pick one or two professional organizations that you are interested in. As you think about the organizations to join, you might want to choose one organization that is currently relevant to your job function and another one that is associated with your future career. The reason you might want to pick an organization that is related to your current job function is that you may have a chance to lead or be a significant impact to the organization immediately. Again, your thoughts should be to choose an organization
that gives you the most opportunities to contribute and make the most impact.
If you can’t find an organization, start one
You can always start a professional organization. This takes some time and resources but even if you are small, you can make a larger contribution. For example, let’s say you want to be an entrepreneur when you get out of business school. You might want to start an entrepreneurs club. You could start with Yahoo! Groups or Linkedin.com to find potential members.
Begin by volunteering
It is important that you begin by volunteering. In fact, talk to the president of the organization and find out where there is a need your help. Remember to be flexible. Take on projects that will allow you to meet other people in the industry you are interested in.
Take on a leadership role
Once you have shown that you are valuable to the organization, take on a leadership role. Run for a position on the board if possible. If not, try to create a position for yourself that aims to accomplish a goal. The title of the position is not as important as what you can do for the organization. Make sure that you take on an operational leadership role. Even if you are just the secretary who takes meeting minutes for the organization, make sure you get a chance to lead a project that has impact.
Community
It’s important for everyone to have a sense of the community you live in. You are not out to save the world, but you should be thinking about how you can make a difference to benefit society. The easiest way to start is to look for volunteering organizations you might be interested in joining.
Research potential volunteering organizations to join
Do some research on potential volunteering organizations to join. The goal of your research is to determine which areas of volunteering are interesting to you and which organizations have opportunities that allow you to do projects with the most impact for the group that you are trying to help.
Decide which organization/s to join and which areas to focus on
After you have chosen a few organizations that fit your interests, go to a few of their events and find out if you like the management and members. Pick one or two organizations to volunteer. In general, I would pick organizations that involve its members in team projects and allows individual members to lead.
Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer
Realistically, for a community service organization, you’d most likely start off volunteering in different projects to get a feel of the organization and the groups that you are trying to help. Don’t try to cut corners here, just put in your time, have fun with the projects and make new friends.
Lead your own project
Lead your own projects. Work with the organization’s management to access the membership list or website so that so that you can send out invitations for volunteers. Then hold meetings and form a team to accomplish a task. Remember to leverage your skills as a leader of a team rather than trying to do everything by yourself.
Run for a management position of the organization
After you have volunteered and led a couple of projects, you should try to run for a management position in the organization if possible. If the opportunity is not there, see if you can be appointed a special position. Again, as I have mentioned before, make sure you put yourself in an operationally management position where you can do something extraordinary for the organization.
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