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
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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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