Lady Princes Toribio BSIT-FSM

A Reaction Paper on “Career Fitness: Keeping Sharp in Today’s Changing Workplace”

by Adora C. Balmer

One of the most significant parts of one's life is a career. A successful career is a must
for you to place food on your dining table, to earn recognition from society and for your self-
fulfilment. But the concept of "good career" is ambiguous and depends on individuals and
individuals. There's no thing called a successful job like that. For some, a career choice that is
good for me might not be inherently good. Being a college student taking up BSIT – Food
Service Management, I have considered various criteria and factors (both internal and external)
upon choosing this course. As I have read the text entitled, “Career Fitness: Keeping Sharp in
Today’s Changing Workplace” by Adora C. Balmer, a lot of realizations popped up in my mind
leading to personal realizations with regards to my chosen career.

The main idea of the text revolves on how people who are already permanently fixed
and comfortable with their jobs become rusty, in the sense that they solely depend on the skills
and tactics that they learned at first; they are dependent enough on these styles which they
believe are really effective, without even considering if these are already obsolete and
ineffective in the workplace. These people are characterized by closed-mindedness which
depicts how they disallow the coming of new and innovative ideas which can be so much vital
for the progress of their career and for the attainment of their goals, especially in this fast-pacing
world where you can’t be stagnant in your old process because it might cause you to struggle
more than you normally expect and totally fail eventually.

Basically, pieces of advice from career consultants who are really experts in their field of
specializations have been listed on the text. Being exposed in their niche, they have really
known a lot, including techniques on how start a business, how to run it effectively and
efficiently, and how to deal with problems and conflicts that might arise in the long run. Each of
the career consultants mentioned in the text has a specific point of idea that they stress on or
want to give emphasis on, based on their personal experiences.

Pointing out first is what Noemi J. Gaddi suggested as the initial thing to do, and that is
to admit the fact that “change is inevitable,” it may sound too cliché but it’s the real thing most
significantly in today’s world. As the famous saying goes, “Change is the only constant thing in
this world,” and this saying essentially applies to any aspect of our lives. Focusing on its
quintessence on career, she has mentioned how she can’t afford to be at a standstill, especially
that she is the finance and administrative officer of Genetic Resouces Action International
(GRAIN), which involves agricultural bio-diversity research , policy development, education, and
information dissemination. GRAIN, being an international cultural organization, needs to be
adaptive to change in order for it to be at its maximum level of effectiveness, success, and
competence and to be influential enough across countries and across the world. She gave so
much point on the need to tolerate change, and I can reflect to this as a college student.
Learning is an unending process, even if I graduate years from now, the acquisition of
knowledge will never end. Now that I am still on the process of studying and mastering the
essentials of my chosen job, I must have the urge to change and modify my learning styles. In
my long years of education, I can never say that I already have known what style I am most at
is, or what learning technique I can learn most adequately. That is why change is a must, not
just for 30-year workers but even to us students, especially of the 21st century.

Maricel Chan, executive assistant to the COO of Meyer Corporation, on the other hand,
gave emphasis on career as an ultimate juggling act. She managed to hold down a full-time job
and at the same time maintaining a home with her husband, daughter, and mother. She was
able to do this by going online. She literally juggled work, family, and school. For me, it seems
like a sacrifice, I feel like she struggled so much and it was a tough experience for her up until
now, but for her, it wasn’t, she seemed to enjoy every moment of it and coped with it, and finally
tasted the sweetness of ultimate success. It would be futuristic to reflect on this, as I am still a
student. But the lessons that I can learn from her experience are something that I can apply to
my present experiences as a student. It is a mere fact that students struggle every single day,
and I am one of them. Being in a family that is not able enough to provide my needs, I need to
strive for myself, that’s one of the main reasons why I take my studies seriously, so that in the
future, if I get a stable job and get paid, I can also provide for my family who constantly gives me
support even if it’s a difficult thing to do for them. It is also my way to reciprocate their sacrifices
for me from the start.

Licensed Realtor Rose Linda Gonzales pointed out her discovery that being in
cyberspace gives a sure edge in the competitive world of sales. She emphasized that “great
customer service” will always be the industry catchword. Capturing and building trust among
your customer is a different level of challenge, and using the Internet and other social media
platforms is a great avenue to market your business all around the country or even across the
globe. Clients nowadays are no doubt tech-savvy, more educated, and more business-oriented.
That is why there is a need for us to adapt to this constantly evolving world. I can so much relate
to this as a student, learning in the 21 st century requires you to be technologically literate. We,
students of the 21st century, have to maximize learning with the use of different technological
tools for our academic improvement and ofcourse for the acquisition of skills that we need in the
future when we are already immersed in the worklplace.

Lastly, Juan Conrado Manicad, president of Harness, Inc., stressed the need to find new
perspectives on viewing an individual’s position within the organization’s place in the individual’s
life. Harness, Inc., is an adventure-based training that custom-fits workshops for corporate
clients. He pointed out the most effective ways to search out those hidden potentials and bring
them to the fore. I can reflect to this as a student. I have this act of finding alternative ways of
learning new things. I also re-learn old concepts using the experiential learning approach. I
strongly believe that these techniques are vital in keeping sharp and growing in my journey to
my chosen career and will develop my personal clarity, continuous improvement and
competence in the job that I have chosen to take.

The word passion sounds cliche, but it is an important criterion to consider before
choosing a career path. Every one of us would have dreamt of something during our childhood.
We all wanted to become a police, a cricketer, an actor, a doctor or an engineer.But the real
challenge here is how will you manage to perform well in the workplace, considering the pieces
of advice given by field experts mentioned above. Risk-taking is a part and parcel of life, it is just
up to us to weigh if our actions and tactics will be of great help in our chosen careers. Don’t be
stagnant in your process, always be open for innovative ideas, take time to consider the
suggestion of others, and most importantly, be adaptive to change!