Reference no: EM132176265
Organizations have mission statements. Mission statements ideally serve to provide a sense of priority to the many tasks individuals in an organization must face. Linking this back to Porter’s work on coherence, a good mission statement tells you what not to do, as much as it tells you what to do, it identifies the trade-offs you are making. Most of you want to find a good job, but after that, what is your mission? What do you plan to do five years from now?
A good mission statement for you will be for the next resume you write, where you identify specific types of responsibilities you want to have in your career. If it helps, think where you want to be five years from now—what has to happen for you to get there? Think of the “objectives” line at the top of the resume page—that is your mission statement.
1. Identify an industry, firm, and a job title you seek to attain.
2. Identify their mission statement. Critique it—is it coherent in terms of Porter? Explain why you think so Here are some items to consider: does it give you an idea of what the firm does and does not do? This last point is important—many mission statements talk about excellence and values, and employees, but you wouldn’t know what industry they are in from reading the mission statement. Similarly, do they leave a lot of wiggle room to do other things, or do they close off other quasi-related fields?
3. Next, identify what an entry level position at that company would be like, then what you could expect to do in five years there. This is more than a single sentence! How does this position contribute to the overall firm mission? How crucial are you to the firm’s success (put differently, could your work be easily outsourced)?
4. How must your mission statement cohere to theirs (it shouldn't be the same, but related).
5. Write the “objectives” portion of your resume for a job targeted at this company, for a position you would want five years from now (please include the job title). What skills and strengths will you need to make achieve that objective?