1. Career planning
Master class by Amir Aisautov
10 November 2010

2. Introduction
Amir Aisautov
• Education:
• KazNTU (undergrad);
• Georgetown University (MBA);
• Current employment
• SCM, Director of metals&mining business;
• Previous professional experience:
• P&G (marketing);
• McKinsey & Co. (management consulting);
• Clever management (investment company).
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3. Short pre-assignment
• Get piece of paper;
• Take 2 minutes to think about how you picture
yourself in 10 years both professionally and
personally;
• Write it down.
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4. Today’s agenda
• Career vs. careerism;
• Types of careers;
• Career and business;
• Career and success;
• Personality types and career choices;
• People on top;
• Planning your career and personal strategies.
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5. 5

6. Career vs. careerism (1/2)
• “Career” coming from
• Italian “Carriera” – run, way of life;
• Latin “Carrus” – cart, wagon or “Carrera” – race;
• Career is defined* as …
• … an individual's “course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of
life)”;
• Mostly referring to renumerative work and formal education;
• So is it good or bad?
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7. Career vs. careerism (2/2)
• “Careerism” coming from the same roots as “career” but probably with focus on Latin
“Carrera” – race (“Rat Race”?);
• Extreme careerism is defined* as …
• … the propensity to pursue career advancement, power, and prestige through any non-
performance based activity that is deemed necessary;
• Themes of extreme careerism
• Competence is not enough;
• Impression Management;
• Personal vs. organizational goals and short term focus;
•So is it good or bad?
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8. Types of career (1/2)
• Professional career – growing skills and capabilities / competencies
• Specialization;
• Widening;
• Inter-organizational career
• Vertical;
• Horizontal;
• Moving towards decision making center;
• Often difficult to combine different types.
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9. Types of career (2/2)
• Examples
• Your parents?
• People you know?
•…
• Is any type good or bad?
• Pros and cons of different types?
• Interesting view: Incompetence principle (Peter’s Principle).
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10. Career and business
• Levels of management
• Junior positions – managing tools;
• Mid management positions – managing operations and teams;
• Top management positions – managing strategies and people;
• Shareholders – managing own capital, to lesser extent strategies and people;
• So in your view can you do “career” as a shareholder?
• Is any path good or bad?
• What are pros and cons?
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11. Career and success
• Remember that career refers mostly to remunerative work and
formal education;
• Is it all you think you need in life?
• Now take a look at your piece of paper with pre-assignment;
• Let brainstorm together - Success in life is …
•…
•…
•…
• Personal opinion.
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12. Personality types and career choices (1/3)
• MBTI - Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
• is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people
perceive the world and make decisions;
• based on typological theory of Carl Gustav Jung;
• widely used by companies all over the world;
• Classifying dimensions (16 types)
• Extraversion (E) - (I) Introversion;
• Sensing (S) - (N) Intuition;
• Thinking (T) - (F) Feeling;
• Judgment (J) - (P) Perception;
• Some limitations exist;
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13. Personality types and career choices (2/3)
• Take into account:
• Type not trait;
• Own best judge;
• No right or wrong;
• Not for selection;
• Isabel Briggs Myers quote:
•“Whatever the circumstances of your life the
understanding of type can make your perceptions
clearer, your judgements sounder, and your life
closer to your heart’s desire”.
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14. Personality types and career choices (3/3)
• Other classification (720 types!) – J. Holland often considered more appropriate in
context of career selection:
• Realistic – oriented towards manipulation by tools and mechanisms;
• Investigative – oriented towards search;
• Artistic – oriented towards emotional, self-presentation;
• Social – oriented towards interaction with people;
• Entrepreneurial – oriented towards influencing people;
• Conventional – oriented towards manipulation with data / information;
• Limitations exist as well;
• Read more on MBTI and Holland (other tests if like), your type and think how it can be
applied to your career choices and life in general.
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15. People on top – Lakshmi Mittal
• Lakshmi Mittal
• CEO and major shareholder of the largest steel maker in the world
making 100+ mln. tones of steel / year;
•Born in small business (steel making) family in India in 1950, educated in
St. Xavier's College in Kalkuta.
• Has 30+ years of experience in steel making;
• Known for forcing consolidation in industry (grew his company from 1989
to number #1 in the world mostly through acquisitions on emerging
markets – Trinidad and Tobago, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Romania, Algeria,
Bosnia, South Africa, …and then developed world) and technological
innovation (mini-mills, DRI instead of scrap).
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16. People on top – Alexey Mordashev
• Alexey Mordashev
• CEO and major shareholder of one of the largest
steel companies in the world (~20 mln. tones of
steel / year);
• Born in Cherepovets, Vologodskaya oblast of Russia in 1965;
• Graduated from Leningrad engineering – economical institute in 1988;
• After graduation started as an economist, in 1989 was intern at
VoestAlpine (austrian steelmaking company), in 1992 at the age of 27
became CFO, created Severstal-invest where he owned 76% and via it
consolidated shares of the plant.
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17. People on top – Oleg Deripaska
• Oleg Deripaska
• CEO and major shareholder of Rusal – the largest producer of aluminium in
the world;
• Was born in 1968, grew up in rural areas of Krasnodar region;
• In 1993 graduated from Moscow State University (physics) and Pleshka
(1996);
• While in MSU (early 90-s) his company started buy out of shares of
aluminium producers in Russia (Sayanskiy aluminium plant);
• In 1994 (at the age of 26 he became majority shareholder
and CEO of the plant).
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18. Planning your career and personal strategies (1/4)
• Why do you need to plan it at all? Remember “Alice in Wonderland”?
•“Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from
here?
•The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to
•Alice: I don't much care where.
•The Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go
•Alice: …so long as I get somewhere.
•The Cat: Oh, you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough”
• It’s always just a personal choice:
• Random;
• Tradition;
• Requirement;
• Though-through choice.
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20. Planning your career and personal strategies (2/4)
• Think about you life priorities, who you want to be (pre-assignment?),
where you want to live, what lifestyle you are interested in several time
horizons;
• Think about your preferences (MBTI and Holland?);
• Think what can lead to archiving priorities while suiting your preferences
(in several time horizons if necessary!);
• Industry;
• Company;
• Function;
• Position;
•…
• Always plan some degree of flexibility.
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21. Planning your career and personal strategies (3/4)
• Most important industries in Ukraine
• Metals;
• Mining;
• Agro;
•…;
• Most important companies / groups in Ukraine
• State:
• Ukrzalyznytsa;;
•.;
• Private:
• SCM;
•…
• Functions
• Finance;
• Operations;
• …;
• Always plan some degree of flexibility.
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22. Planning your career and personal strategies (4/4)
• 2 volunteers needed for example;
• Volunteers will state:
• Priorities;
• Preferences;
• How she/he would archive priorities while suiting
preferences;
• What do you think, what would you advise volunteers?
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23. Conclusion
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24. Thank you for attention!
Any questions?