"You are Your Position" LO5922

Rol Fessenden (76234.3636@compuserve.com)
29 Feb 96 22:19:45 EST

Replying to LO5888 --

Eric Opp says, "I have invested considerable time and effort in leadership
development and communications skills development, but I keep running into
"You have a Ph.D. in Physics, therefore you belong in a position of doing
scientific analysis. Forget marketing or management...." Read between the
lines: "You are inept at these other skills (marketing management etc.),
because technical people are in general inept at these skills." I.E. "You
are your Resume." "

My own experience has been similar. I am a former Mathematician, and a
former Geologist with years of experience working in Africa. After
working in management positions in the US, I still found, after 5 years of
clearly good performance, that the prior scientific background in effect
weighed in against me when I applied for management positions.

I attributed it to a very tactical focus among hiring managers of wanting
someone who had experience rather than potential. Someone who could 'hit
the ground running.' it is short-sighted from a longer term perspective,
but it alleviates workload issues in the short term. I resolved the
problem by taking a position for which I was over qualified, and working
back up. My experience has heavily influenced my own hiring practices as
you can imagine, and I have not been sorry overall.

--

Rol Fessenden LL Bean 76234.3636@compuserve.com

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>