Dear Alfredo and colleagues,
Your question is a poignant one for me. My colleague and I have been teaching a Career Transitions seminar for UVA alumni (both B-School and all others) for over a decade now, 2-3 times a year. In my experience, these people, average age in the forties, are not looking for academic overviews, rather, a practical model for making career decisions and then advice about finding options. Our program is built on the award-winning model built at HBS by Tony Athos, Victor Faux, and John Kotter. Namely, that a) people tend to be creatures of habit, b) jobs have multiple demands on incumbents, and c) one should look therefore for the best fit between self and job. Jeff Edwards at UNC has studied fit in a variety of ways. I still come back to the fit model. So, we suggest three chunks:
1. Self-awareness (no single instrument is accurate enough or comprehensive enough, so use a lot, but rigorously)
2. Develop Options: finding jobs options is a complex process, but bottom line is that information (not job hunting) networking is critical.
3. Make better decisions: armed with a rigorous self-assessment and new tools for finding options, USE your self-assessment to make better fit choices.
We had a site, CareerNextStep.com, going for 3-5 years. The site was intended to be a stand-alone place where one could archive and access their career development activities including self-assessment, job search, and decision-making throughout one's career. The site would calculate lots of things that were more tedious by paper/hand, add data, building a database. But it's folded now that our CTO has gone on to other things, and we've been unable to find a replacement. In its place, we've developed a paper-based web page for participants that let them download materials and slides, but there's no behind-the-scenes calculations. Here is the site. Note that the materials are copyrighted, please.
http://faculty.darden.virginia.edu/clawsonj/COURSES/CAREER_TRANSITIONS/CT_Home.htm
Note also that this is just for a 3-day seminar. The longer version we used at HBS and here at Darden included some 25 instruments-again, the philosophy being that we can always add new and better insights to refine and polish their self-assessments.
SO, while this is not a "Free web-site" exactly, it is. BUT the materials have costs associated with them, and this is attached to a seminar, and in that sense is "not quite" stand-alone.
I hope you find this information modestly helpful.
Jim
James G. S. Clawson
Johnson & Higgins Professor of Business Administration
Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia
Tel: 434 924-7488
Fax: 434 243-7680
Mail: Box 6550, Charlottesville, VA 22906
Packages: 100 Darden Boulevard, Charlottesville, VA 22903
Web: http://faculty.darden.virginia.edu/Clawsonj
From: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv [mailto:OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Guerrero, Laura
Sent: Monday, November 01, 2010 1:10 PM
To: OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Re: [OB-LIST] What to do when MBA students demand more attention that docents can give
Alfredo,
I would refer your student to a more academic source. There is a great book by Brown and Lent that summarize various theoretical lenses on career choice and development.
http://www.amazon.com/Career-Development-Counseling-Putting-Research/dp/0471288802/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288631190&sr=8-1
The problem with career choice is that it is often geared to high school students and your EMBAs are in a different situation. Frameworks like SCCT (social cognitive career theory) and CIP (cognitive information processing) may be more helpful to them.
Laura
Dr. Laura Guerrero
Assistant Professor of Management
Marketing & Management Department
College of Business Administration
University of Texas at El Paso
500 W. University Avenue
El Paso, TX 79968-0539
915-747-5014
lguerrero5@utep.edu
From: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv [mailto:OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Alfredo Behrens
Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2010 8:17 AM
To: OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: [OB-LIST] What to do when MBA students demand more attention that docents can give
What is your preferred gratis first site to refer EMBA students considering a carreer change? Not that the site would resolve the problem but it might help framing it,
In about a fortnight will share your recommendations and any indication you may be willing to add about them.
Many thanks