CASE – 2

Management and Organizational Behavior

BUS 520

Fall 2020 | Section – 1

Submitted to_
Dr. Mahmud Akhter Shareef (MDS)
Professor
North South University

Submitted by_ [ GROUP 2 ]

Sl. Name ID
1 Arifur Rahman Chowdhury 203 5397 660
2 Sumaiya Nowshin 192 5203 060
3 Fahim Un Nabi 203 5018 660
4 Nadia Tabassum Hoque 201 6197 660
5 Tasfia Binte Mojumder 203 5295 660
6 Subrata Sarker 202 5158 660

Date of Submission: January 7, 2021

Background
This case is about a college student named Ralph Power who is undergoing his Master’s in
Business Administration from Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario.
This situation highlights the struggle of this individual in bringing his career to a standpoint. He
has been searching for job opportunities in the Finance division of an organization but has not been
successful in receiving an opportunity. However, he has been fortunate to be introduced to a person
named Professor Henry Baker who has been a successful career advisor. Professor Henry Baker
questions left Ralph Power in a confused state wherein he is forced to ponder on his decision which
is again not based on self-assessment but a mere colleague’s pressure. In the case we also saw that
Professor Henry Baker took Ralph Power's resume with him and advised him to come with the
self-assessment test result in their next meeting. In their next meeting, Prof. Baker will tell him
more about the job market and try to give some guidelines to prepare himself for the job market.
Further his Resume in Exhibit - 1 also spoke of his varied experience in dealing with people,
training them, creating awareness on topics among them which was in larger prospects than in
comparison to the field he desired to step into that is Finance.
Hence it could be said that this case is about a wrong career choice and an incorrect job fitment
strategy as he seems to be more of a people person than a person with a strong analytical mind.
Also, Professor Baker needs to identify the problems of Mr. Power at first so that he can guide
Power. In the following part of our writing, we will try to demonstrate all those problems and also
try to come up with some advice that will help Mr. Power prepare himself for the job market.

Problems
The case study and analyzing it was concluded that Professor Baker may find the following
problems regarding Power’s job search –

I. Chose career only based on salary range & due to peer pressure:
As the people surround Mr. Power was applying for financial job position which has a high
range of salary, it influenced Mr. power to do the same. But he was not applied there with
real motive or passion but only for following others and high salary. So, the problem with
Mr. Power was the criteria based on what he was choosing job was not right.

II. Incapable to recognize his personality and lack of self-esteem:

We can see from this case that he rejected from every recruiter but his roommate had
obtained job offers from 9 renowned organization. He was not confident, and always
puzzled in his every interview. But this situation only creates more problem and lessens
self-esteem. For that reason, he is unable to find a job, and attract an employer.

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III. Lack of preparation before appearing in any interview:
In this case, we have studied that once a job interview board, recruiter wanted to know his
perception and thought about the company’s recent merger with the other competitors. He
could not give a proper answer and he confessed that the concept and matter is new to him.
For this it created a negative impression about the candidate and as a result he failed to
impress recruiters. This clearly indicates that he does not have well preparation before
attending any interview board.

IV. Lack of subject knowledge:

There is a high chance that the maximum recruiters rejected his CV in the first recruiting
stage because he has a lack of subject knowledge. In this case from the given CV, we see
that he didn’t mentioned the concentration subject of his MBA program and also his BA
was administration and commercial studies. So, his subject knowledge about the Finance
was not adequate and he was not suitable for any finance related job in any firms.

V. Applying in a job market that does not match his experience:

Power has a strong background on Human Resource management and project management.
He did his bachelor’s in Arts with concentration on Administrative and Commercial
Studies. He has 7 years of experience in project management and human resource
management, like supervising staff, launched and led a company as a new venture,
coordinated staff training. He is seeking a finance job which doesn't go with his background
or experience. As Power had no experience as well as little knowledge regarding finance,
recruiters were not interested in him and shut down very quickly.

VI. Lacks concern to build a professional network:

A person with excellent professional network with the top-level managers of the
organization always gets the priority or upper hand while being recruited for a job. It
happens because it is a part of common human psychology that they prefer those candidates
with whom they are familiar with. Whereas in the case we can see that Mr. Power was not
that much concerned in building a professional network with any top-level people of any
organization.

VII. Some mistakes can be found in CV:

We have found some mistakes in his CV, which can make a negative impact on Mr. Power.
Those errors could be the significant reason for his CV being dismissed by the enrollment
specialists more often than not. For instance, there is no email ID, no proper picture, some
unacceptable arrangement of training and professional training, unsuitable career interest,
and also no language abilities referenced in the CV.

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Recommendations
Analyzing the problems professor Baker may suggest the following advice to Mr. Power which
can help to solve the problems –

 Recommendation for Problem 1:

Once we choose a track for our career, we have to keep on going on the same track
throughout the whole life in our next phases of career. So, if we do mistake in choosing
suitable path of our career initially, we have to keep paying for our mistakes forever. This
is why it is not wise to choose a career based on attractive salary or peer/family pressure.
Choosing career based on these things cannot give best output. So, we should choose our
career based on our passion and based on our uniqueness on a particular field. By this we
can enjoy whatever we are doing and ensure the best output.

 Recommendation for Problem 2:

There are some personality test and survey to understand own personality. Among them
‘The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) or Big Five Model’ is most popular. These
types of test help people to find personality traits like introvert, extrovert, reliability,
confidence level, emotional stability and so on. Mr. Power can use these personality test to
understand and develop himself for the need of his career.

 Recommendation for Problem 3:

Candidate must be well prepared before attending in any interview session. Candidates
should study and gather vast knowledge about the company’s history, information about
the owners and shareholders, company’s mission, vision, goal, company’s current
situation, current product line, core benefits of the product, company’s strategy, unique
selling proposition, company’s main competitor’s and rival’s strategies this are the
valuable knowledge the Candidate must have before attending interview. This vast
knowledge about the company gives the candidate a competitive advantage over other
candidates. It creates a positive impression about the candidate in front of the recruiters.
The recruiters think that that the candidate has a genuine interest about the applied position.
The sources where the candidates can gather information from the company’s website,
articles, magazine, newspaper or from the employees working at the organization. The
candidate not only need to have the knowledge about the company’s background but also
need to have the knowledge about the subject area which he/she has applied for. Here in
this case, we see Mr. Power applied for finance position because he thinks those who works
under any financial sectors are highly paid and well reputed but for that Mr. Power need to
have basic financial knowledge or do a few courses about it.

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 Recommendation for Problem 4:
In this case we learned Mr. Power doesn’t have any degree related to finance and also
didn’t completed any course related to it but thinks to apply for financial related job by
only pursuing BA and MBA. He can peruse MBA with a finance as a concentration or can
gather any professional degree related to finance, if he is very much interested in finance
related job. All this process can increase his chance to draw the kind attention of recruiters
for the applied position related to finance.

 Recommendation for Problem 5: Need to open eyes in the job market:

Ralph Power needs to have more in depth knowledge about the job market. Professor Baker
suggested power to look into various ways to be integrated in the job market. Ralph Power
needs to collect more market analysis data in regards to the job market. He was looking for
a managerial finance position as it was one of the best paying jobs but it was not something
that he wanted whole Ralph was himself confused about his career goal. It was suggested
by professor Baker to look into other fields of the job market. Power surely didn’t do his
research on the job market. Any job market, especially related to Finance is very
competitive. So, Power should have done his proper research before appearing for any job
interview. Professor Baker should advise Power to do his research if he is actually up for
the competition and rush that is in the job market of finance. This advice is actually for
anyone is looking for a job. Having proper knowledge on the job market actually helps a
person to scrutinize the chances of competing and actually having a chance of that job.

 Recommendation for Problem 6:

Mr. Power should try to build a professional network with upper top-level officers who are
working for financial organizations and he can do this by interacting with finance graduate
student or with an alumni of his University. Mr. Power can also try to connect with top-
level finance managers via the professional network site like 'LinkedIn'.

Power basically didn’t know about his expectations from the job he was giving interviews
for, such as- why he was interested to get a job in finance, what is his long-term plan with
his career etc. which showed that he was unfocused and unprepared.

Power should take the self-assessment tests to know about his strengths, interests and
abilities. It will help him to know about his expectations as well he will be able to focus on
his short term and long-term career goals.

 Recommendation for Problem 7:

✓ Mr. Power should include LinkedIn profile and Email ID besides contact number
because in todays generation these two represents someone’s professionalism.
✓ He should also attach clear formal picture in the CV.

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 ✓ If his interest in financial position, then his long-run interest would be more
appropriate if he mentioned "financial Manager "or Chief Finance Officer (CFO)
instead of "Strategic Planning" or "General Manager."
✓ He should also include expertness in Microsoft Excel along with Microsoft Word
and Microsoft PowerPoint.
✓ If Mr. Power has any different language skill, he should also mention it in the CV.
✓ If he has some scholastic or expert skills like report writing, Presentation,
arrangement, quick composing, or research skills, he can include those strengths in
his CV. Those will expand the heaviness of his CV.
✓ He should write down professional working experience first, and then he can put
down the educational background. This is the universal acceptance sequence
worldwide.

Conclusion
In our country there are so many candidates who always complains that they don’t get proper
qualification for the respected position of a job. In our assigned case, maybe the complete scenario
matched with Mr. Power. Maybe Mr. Power is the presenter of our current job market situation.
The candidates are going after the position, which isn't his/her advantage or subject recorded. They
are not satisfactorily ready for the meeting or have a ton of normal slip-ups on their CV. The
candidates are in any event, going after a position without perusing the set of working
responsibilities or sending a CV through email with no legitimate subject or email
body/introductory letter. Accordingly, most competitors get frustrated by not finding an
appropriate line of work despite the fact that some are qualified. It additionally kills significant
time of recruiters to CV screening and shortlisted qualified applicants. Along these lines, the
candidate should be honest about their errors.