Taking Command of Your Career Path

By Jack Baranson

Pursuing a new career path is a challenging task; and you need a game plan to move effectively toward your career goal. I will briefly share from my life some of the building blocks and lessons learned that helped me to find my way and take command of my career path.

1. Recognizing and acting on critical milestones helped me to identify, develop and refine new career interests.

The first milestone was the job I landed at the Brookings Institution. I got my basic training in policy analysis there, interviewing staff at Bell Labs re: their pioneer work on communication satellites.

• The second milestone was my two years with the Committee for Economic Development, working on policy issues related to the Alliance for Progress with Latin America. At this time, I recognized the need to return to school to get my doctoral degree.
• The third milestone was obtaining my doctoral in Economics. The World Bank would not have hired me without it; and my thesis was an entry ticket to the Bank.
• The fourth milestone was my experience at the World Bank, where my published work on the automotive industry established my reputation in the field.
• The fifth milestone was setting up my company. I gave up a career in the World Bank in order to start my own company, thereby obtaining control over the assignments that I took on and how I carried them out –which included publishing rights. The trade-off was between the continued security of a monthly salary, and the challenge and satisfaction (coupled, of course, with the risk) of managing my own company.

2. Upgrading my education provided stepping stones that helped me achieve career goals.

I took a leave of absence from the Aeronautical Chart Service to obtain my Master’s degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced Studies; and I returned to get my Doctoral degree at Indiana University ten years later. Based on the professional credentials I had attained by then, I was employed as a full- time faculty member at IU while I earned my doctoral degree.

3. Willingness to risk changing jobs played a key role in reaching my chosen career goals.

I was prepared to do this a number of times in my career. The first time was when I gave up my position at the National Science Foundation (and seven years of accumulated time in U.S. Government service) to accept the offers from the Brookings Institution and the Committee for Economic Development after that. The second time was when I gave up a career in the World Bank in order to start my own company.

4. Having solid research and writing skills in core competence fields was critical for career goal attainment.

I developed and evolved a core competence in the technology component in international development, business and trade. Field work and factory visits were an important part of my research capability. Most of my work was in policy analysis leading to action programs for change.

5. Using interdisciplinary knowledge was important in my policy analysis career.

My doctoral work on the Cummins engine technology and my transfer to India, coupled with the interdisciplinary work at the International Development Research Center of Indiana University, provided me with a set of unique insights. These insights proved invaluable in my subsequent work at the World Bank on the economic problems of automotive industries in developing countries and in the DEWIT contract on international transfers of technology by American multinationals.

6. Visiting factories was what made me a different kind of economist.

The time spent in the Cummins engine factory contributed significantly to the insights in writing my thesis. I also visited factories in much of my work at the World Bank, something other Bank economists rarely did. I recall the time I revisited a country where I had done work before and was greeted with the remark, “Oh, you’re the economist who likes to visit factories.” Visiting these factories was what made me unique and memorable and as a result, I got noticed.

7. Using publications as stepping stones enhanced my efforts to reach career goals.

Sending out dozens of resumes as a means of restructuring your career path may not be the best way to find a new job. A more effective means for many is using publications to demonstrate your capabilities in desired areas. My first published article, “A National Program for Science and Technology in the Underdeveloped Areas”, in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, led to the job offer I received from the Brookings Institution and afterwards with the Committee for Economic Development. I was hired at the World Bank after a staff member had seen a copy of my doctoral thesis. My book, Technology and the Multinationals, broadened my reputation and attracted other contract work.

By reflecting on some of the building blocks and lessons learned in taking command of my career path, I can now succinctly summarize them in caption form as the following:

• Acquire Relevant New Skills
• Refine and Apply New skills
• Risk chance to evolve
• Gain Experience
• Get Noticed

Dr. Baranson is a lecturer and consultant on the technology component in international business, trade and economic development. He had a career as an economist with the World Bank and as a research director of a policy research group, “Developing World Industry and Technology.” He also taught courses as a Visiting Lecturer at the Harvard Business School and as a Research Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology Stewart School of Business. He is the author of nine books and over fifty articles in journals such as The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Harvard Business Review and Foreign Policy.