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This video is part of our professional development series focused on career paths, networking, resume and cover letter, interviewing, and performing in the organization. This series compliments our business and law lecture series.
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Jason Mance Gordon
The Business Professor
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0:01
Okay, in this segment, I want to talk about a breakdown of jobs in the US but more specifically
0:08
the classes or categories of workers within industry within the US. Now I want to preface this by saying I don't want anything to come across as offensive
0:22
or in any way insensitive because sometimes this can be a touchy subject in ways
0:30
But because what I'm breaking down is basically jobs that society largely associates with classes of individual
0:40
like blue collar versus white collar, etc. But I want to be a little bit more specific to kind of break down about how a level of, say, education
0:50
or experience or training translates into a given job in a typical industry or career
0:57
So with that being said, let's talk about classes or categories. To start with, I want to differentiate between say labor in an organization, the skilled
1:06
worker and then the manager or management in the organization. In basic terms, business is about delivering some level of value proposition
1:19
Now you're going to need workers that can actually do the function that you're doing
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If you're building a skyscraper, someone has to put in the rivet
1:27
Someone has to weld the beams. Someone has to put in drywall, lay the flooring, etc
1:34
That is a laborer function. Typically it has a level of skill associated with it that is unique to that individual
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They tend to be as they say blue collar jobs. They are as highly paid as others and it often times depends on a level of physical exertion
1:54
or in other cases say secretarial functions, things of that nature are less dependent on
2:06
logic or thinking or the ability to manage others. It's more task oriented and often times focuses on mundane tasks at that
2:15
So that's your labor and then you have your skilled worker group which tends to be your
2:21
individuals who have become extremely proficient in some area like your IT folks or something
2:28
like that. Oftentimes from technical degree programs and things like that. That's sort of an extremely valuable function in itself but again, they tend to be not a
2:40
a lot of room for upward mobility or advancement from those positions itself That is there not a full career track associated with them Often times the beginning spot and the end of career spot is not a great deal different
2:56
Now lots of times those skilled worker positions, these individuals jump over to management or
3:03
management of labor or other skilled workers which we'll talk about in a minute
3:11
And then you have the management class or group in the organization and this is generally
3:17
what we talk about as corporate within any branch or segment of a business
3:24
And this is going to be your accounting, your marketing, your advertising, your sales executives
3:34
all the people that fall directly under the vice president level of any given segment
3:38
intersection of the organization. There's a definite dichotomy from the laborer or the skilled worker
3:48
Within labor management, there's labor management and then there's management track professionals
3:55
Lots of times you'll have labor or the skilled worker that will graduate up and manage other
4:01
laborers and skilled worker. Again, it's not tied to these individuals may not have the highest level of education
4:10
They might not have a bachelor's degree or a master's degree that's often required for the management track professional
4:17
So while there is upward mobility from these individuals, they'll typically be the manager of the local branch or the local store, etc
4:27
etc., or a particular manager of a particular work crew or something like that along the
4:32
operational lines. But again, like I said, these individuals started out as laborers or skilled workers
4:38
themselves and after years graduated to that where they're managing others in that system
4:44
or function. And then you have the management track professionals where the management track professionals are
4:50
generally coming out of business schools, oftentimes having worked in entry level management
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professional training, accounting, marketing, finance, operations, etc. Early on immediately after college and they go back for a master's degree and a specialized
5:07
degree generally in MBA which is a more gentleness degree. And then they come back at the ground floor of what it means to be a management track professionals
5:19
and these are the individuals who are going to work in a given area or often times in
5:23
multiple areas of the internal corporate role the accounting the operations the finances etc And they going to seek management experience in all of these and they on a track to move up in the organization and their objective is to be vice president one day or potentially
5:41
an executive officer one day in a given area or field. And they'll generally acquire their specialty tracks whether it's operations or marketing
5:53
or finance or accounting. and accounting tend to converge a little bit later on
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With that in mind, there is this dichotomy and education overlaps with these very much
6:07
because lots of times the labor or the labor management go back to school and get their
6:11
bachelor's degree in hopes of making that jump over to the management track professional
6:19
group or class where they may start out again on the ground floor with 28, 30 year old MBA
6:28
graduates or masters degree candidates and again they're on the track to grow with the
6:33
corporation and move up towards an executive function. The real difference there are the soft skills associated with and then the general awareness
6:47
of or knowledge of different areas that are associated with education that you have a
6:53
well rounded view of education in general so you can think outside the box that your
6:59
exposure to these different areas give you edge in thinking strategically or making the
7:07
right decisions as you move up the organization. That's the difference and right or wrong, that dichotomy exists
7:16
In other countries, these job positions or classes are more pronounced and are strongly
7:24
tied to socioeconomic class or status in society where I think in the US, we're a little less
7:32
tied to that than you see in some of the other countries in the world
7:39
That's the different classes or characteristics there and the job environment. And now I want to talk to you about the new employee versus the lateral transfer
7:49
As we'll talk about later, lots of times the new employee strictly comes from internship
7:55
programs in larger corporations. So Coca-Cola, Delta, Johnson and Johnson may only hire new employees on a management track
8:07
from accomplished business schools. They not putting out blanket advertisements for these individuals to apply for their firms They hiring internally or they like I say going to recruit at larger business schools to bring in this talent
8:28
The jobs that they put out are generally for lateral transfers from other organizations
8:34
like this to come in. Okay, now much of what I'm saying doesn't really apply to the smaller business or the
8:42
small to mid-sized corporations that they don't have a developed internship program
8:48
They don't have as many people internally to hire from. They're more apt and more likely to put out job calls for individuals in these positions
9:03
Now again, you're going to have tons of listed positions for the labor or the skilled worker position
9:12
not going to have many for the management track. So that's why it's extremely important during your business school career that if you know
9:22
you are going to go into that management professional track to try to get into that track as early
9:29
as possible. If you're not at a school that allows you to do on-campus interviews and to get internships
9:35
and then to get into the early new employee programs at Fortune 500 companies if you want
9:42
to go that route. That getting out of school you do get into professions or environments that is going
9:48
to give you that professional experience. If your ultimate objective is to not be in a small or mid-sized business, which if it
9:58
is that's fine, that's completely valid, it's my area of research, it's what I love
10:03
But if you are going to look towards the Fortune 500 track that may be later the ability to
10:11
go back and get your MBA or another professional degree at a school that's going to allow you
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those on campus interviews or the early interview process where you can potentially get your
10:22
foot in the door at the ground level of the management professional track within the organization
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So anyway, again it is a sensitive subject but it is important to understand or at least
10:37
recognize that this dichotomy of class or characteristic or categories of employee and
10:47
jobs within an organization exists so you can adequately prepare or plan your education
10:54
and your professional experience and for the type of career and the manner that you can
11:00
move up in the organization
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