Repositioning Your Product: Transforming yourself in the world of work
By Kim Weaver Spurr

roper positioning in the marketplace is essential to a product's success, whether it's a new car, a fancy technological gadget or a laundry detergent. But how do you reposition yourself in the marketplace to create your desired career outcomes?

Reinventing your career isn't simply about advancement or your next position … it's about designing the job you want, examining your goals and ambitions.

It takes strategic action and introspection to create a new plan for your life, to find the ideal match for your priorities and values. Do you want to work for a large company or start your own business? Should you go back to school to advance your education?

You've got to do some intense marketing research on what's important to you - and determine how to best position yourself.

"Thirty years ago, you worked because you needed money. There's a whole new way of thinking about it now that a job has to matter," said Dan Cable, a Kenan-Flagler management professor who studies "person-organization fit" or values-congruence. He researches how people can find the best company fit based on their values and how companies can find the best candidates to match their corporate culture.

"When you share the values of your firm, you're committed to its goals - you care about the company. It's more like a family and not just a job," Cable said.

If you are unhappy in your current career, Cable suggests personal examination about what needs to change - and what you can do to change it. Think about why the company or the job is a poor fit for you.

"Employees' person-organization fit perceptions affect their decisions to stay at organizations," he said. "You're more likely to walk away from a job you're not committed to, usually after about two years. Sometimes you have to have that misfit stumble a couple of times to figure out what you do - and don't - like."

Four Kenan-Flagler alumni shared their personal odysseys to find meaningful work, to reposition themselves for the ultimate goals of career satisfaction and perfect fit.

More Info:

• "The sources and accuracy of job applicants' beliefs about organizational culture," by Dan Cable and Jeff Edwards of Kenan-Flagler and Lynda Aiman-Smith and Paul Mulvey of N.C. State University, Academy of Management Journal, 2000, Vol. 43.
• Professor Dan Cable's bio: http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/faculty/directory/30.html
• "What Color is Your Parachute?: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers," by Richard Nelson Bolles, Ten Speed Press. (www.jobhuntersbible.com)