How to build a rewarding career in private sector

by Gayani PERERA

Energy, willingness and capability to interact are three of the key factors that are necessary to start a career, said Dr. Anura Ekanayake, the Vice Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, at the monthly Leadership and Career Guidance seminar organised by Youth Empowerment Division of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS) held at BCIS auditorium recently.

Dr. Ekanayake said, “We did not have benefits like you are having today from organisations like this and when we went for a job after the degree, we did not have any idea about how to face an interview, how to select a career, the required skills for the job. Fortunately nowadays you do not want to use the trial and error method.”

He said that some traditional educational institutes do not prepare their students to meet the needs of the private sector and still they are exam oriented and very academic in nature. Exams and academic excellence is important but they are not enough to launch a successful career.

He also said that “to start a great career, a person should have leadership qualities. That is to say that to become a leader he/she should have leadership characteristics. But there is nothing called universal leadership characteristics. So anyone can be a leader.” First thing a potential leader must discover is about themselves what they can mobilise in the leadership context. This means everyone has to figure out what they are good at and how they can inspire people around them, how can they make other people to listen and to follow them. Secondly, the followers want their leader to be authentic. Authenticity means practising what you preach.

If leader won’t do what they preach people will lose faith in them. Thirdly the followers want to get a sense of excitement, a sense of some significance and want to be a part of something big. Fourthly the leadership should be smart all the time which means changing leadership styles according to the situation. Winston Churchill is the world famous example for this category. Fifth and the important thing is that a leader should remember that the leadership is not hierarchical and it is about how a person relates to other people and gets them to do things with them. Finally a leader must be consistent and coherent. And also he/she must be at ease with his/herself.

In addition Dr. Ekanayake identified three important qualities that a leader should have all the time. A Leader should have - (a) vision (b) Commitment and (c) Deep concern for and engagement with the followers. He discussed these qualities along with the world famous characters such as Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill etc.

Dr. Ekanayake emphasised Nelson Mandela’s eight principles (1) Courage, (2) Inspiring others, (3) Leading from the front, (4) Knowing your enemy and learning about their favourites, (5) Keeping your friends close and enemies even closer, (6) Appearance matters and remembering to smile, (7) Nothing is black and white and (8) Quitting is also leading.

Buwenaka Samarasekara, the Deputy Director of BCIS who also addressed the seminar said that is an important seminar for the young people. He also said that in their younger days they did not have guidance to choose a suitable job and benefits that young people are having today. Hence, they searched and learned about it those days. But as an advantage nowadays the youth are assisted by the institutions like the BCIS and other institutions that help to enhance your skills get experience in certain fields. He also said that when a person goes for a job the employer will took into his/her skills rather than their paper qualifications.

There were so many youth participating in this seminar representing various organisations such as schools, hotels, companies and youth organisations etc.

The main objective of these seminars is to create a platform for the youth to interact with one another and develop leadership skills required for the younger generation. Since its inception the Youth Empowerment Division of the BCIS has been empowering the youth in their activities and has helped many youth to develop the skills required to survive in the modern world.

BCIS is organising another Leadership and Career Guidance Seminar in October and the Youth Empowerment Division of BCIS is inviting the young to participate and to make use of this great opportunity to build links with eminent corporate sector leaders.

Further the youth will gain invaluable insight from the speakers on their road to success.