March 1, 2025 • 8 mins
This episode is the second episode in my series on the NACE Career Readiness Competencies.
In 2022, the National Association of Colleges and Employers developed a list of competencies that illustrate whether someone is career ready. For more information on how they came up with their list of competencies, I have shared a link to their report in the show notes.
The competencies illustrate different aspects of ourselves that need focus as we become professionals and maintain a professional career. The competencies are very intertwined and connected, but they each have their own individual characteristics.
Professionalism is my focus on this episode.
Further exploration:
NACE Career Readiness Competencies
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
[Auto-generated transcript. Edits may have been applied for clarity.]Welcome to Career Connections. I'm your host, Kevin Fullerton.
This episode is the second episode in my series on the base Career Readiness Competencies.
In 2022, the National Association of Colleges and Employers, or Nace,
developed a list of competencies that illustrate whether someone is career ready.
For more information on how they came up with their list of competencies, I have shared a link to the report in the show notes.
(00:30):
The competencies illustrate different aspects that need focus as we become professionals and maintain a professional career.
They are very intertwined and connected, but they each have their own individual characteristics.
And professionalism is my focus on this episode. This defines professionalism as follows.
(00:51):
No, I work environments, differ greatly, understand and demonstrate effective work habits,
and act in the grit in the interest of the larger community and workplace.
Sample behaviors of professionalism may include. Be present and be prepared.
Demonstrate dependability, uh. Prioritize and complete tasks to accomplish organizational goals.
Consistently meet or exceed goals and expectations.
(01:14):
Consistently use the is the important word there attention to detail uh, showing a high level of dedication to the work.
This comes down to communication, which of course is another competency.
There are many ideas about professionalism, and I find people's expectations are not often communicated to others.
For example, I have listened to many employers complaining to me about how student some students dress for interviews.
(01:39):
Yet the employers haven't specifically stated their expectations.
If you're having a conversation with me about professional development, leadership,
and continuous improvement, it does not take very long for me to mention the author, Seth Godin.
He is a very prolific author and I have benefited from his writings for many years.
I subscribe to his daily blog several years ago, and I found his blog post from January 2nd, 2025 entitled Winging It.
(02:06):
Apropos of this topic. In the post, he writes the artifice of sitting at a desk, having good lighting,
writing a memo instead of making stuff up as you go along, looking people in the eye, quoting your sources.
Measuring twice, not once. Showing up on time.
Doing the reading. Showing your work. These are signals, not just signals to the person you're working with or persuading, but signals to yourself.
(02:32):
He continues on with we should forget that the unspoken rule is don't ship junk.
We send a message to the market when we're in such a hurry that we don't put in the care and focus needed to do great work.
This is the essence of professionalism. Caring enough about yourself and the people you are interacting with to prepare and contribute.
(02:54):
Prepare your appearance, environment and content for your audience or customer or client or colleagues and do this for yourself.
Contribute relevant content, products, ideas, etc. this of course requires focus.
It also requires optimism. It requires engaging with your community.
It requires vision and strategy.
(03:18):
So when I discuss professionalism, I like to use a graphic I developed that highlights three aspects of professionalism tactics, strategy and vision.
I like to use this graphic as a visual aid, so I made it available to download in the show.
Notes. Tactics.
Regard. I think what most people cling to when discussing professionalism.
(03:38):
Show up on time, dressed appropriately. Be courteous, respectful, know your job, complete tasks correctly the first time,
etc. they are part of what Seth Godin was referencing in the quote I shared earlier.
The tactics are of course important. They are easily observed and diagnosed, such as you were late or you're not wearing the correct uniform,
or you cannot talk your customers that way, etc.
(04:01):
Tactics are often where the conversation stops because the strategy and vision are a bit more abstract,
hyper individualized, and less easy to actually observe.
To get the tactics right, it is your responsibility to understand the culture of where you are working or where you want to work.
Are you looking to run a construction business? How do they dress? What are their interview practices?
(04:23):
Are you looking to work at a law firm? I imagine their culture is a bit different than a construction company.
If your only work experience is from the family farm and you want to get into a corporate office position, you need to research the office culture.
You probably have a really good understanding of working long days.
However, those long working days on the farm were not spent sitting at a desk or a conference room table,
(04:45):
reading, looking at spreadsheets, formatting, PowerPoints, etc.
This brings me into vision. The research on companies is tactical, but it relates to your vision of yourself as a professional.
We are all familiar with the typical questions. What's your major?
What do you want to do when you graduate?
These questions are so common and uttered by family and acquaintances so frequently, you can start to sound like a dumb question.
(05:13):
However, it is really the fundamental and most profound question to answer.
What kind of professional do you want to be after you graduate? You majored in history.
Great. What do you want to do with the knowledge and skills you gained by earning that degree?
You majored in English. Great. What do you want to do with the knowledge and the skills you gained by earning that degree?
(05:33):
Accounting. Fantastic. What do you want to do? You owe it to yourself to answer that question.
But my view. You also owe us an answer to that question.
We, as in the collective university and community, need you to be clear on how you are going to contribute to this world.
So what is your vision? Strategy.
(05:57):
Strategy is the planning process to execute the vision. Maybe you want to be a researcher for a government agency.
Awesome. You won't get there with a bachelor's degree alone. So what are your next steps?
Maybe you want to take over the family farm. Wonderful.
There are many unknown questions that will need answers in the next five, ten, 15 years on agricultural business practices and policies.
(06:20):
How are you going to understand the questions and solutions when they arise?
Maybe you are a musician at South Dakota State and you want to perform professionally in New York.
What is your timeline? How are you going to develop your competitive abilities to make this a reality?
This might require grad school, but it might not. The vision and strategy aspects of professionalism are not fixed or set in concrete.
(06:44):
They evolve, but it requires your engagement. True professionals understand their agency and their own development, career path and success.
As students, it can often be hard to make the pivot from student to professional.
One of the fundamental shifts that needs to happen is the idea of ownership.
As a professional, you cannot leave it up to your professor or advisor to get the interview or job or grad school acceptance.
(07:10):
There are a multitude of folks on campuses tasked and interested in helping you gain skills and experiences.
My staff and the Office of Career Development, of course, want to help you prepare as much as possible for your career.
But as it is, your responsibility is worth your time considering professionalism as part of your career career development.
(07:31):
So download my professionalism graphic and identify key aspects of the three realms tactics, strategies and vision.
Discuss them with your friends and family and coworkers. You will find unique items for different disciplines, but there are many universal concepts.
Understanding the differences is part of being a professional. Okay, that is it for this episode.
(07:54):
Thank you for your attention. Has always and thank you for listening and please reach out with questions or topic suggestions.
I can be reached at Kevin Fullerton at SD state that you.
[Auto-generated transcript. Edits may have been applied for clarity.]Welcome to Career Connections. I'm your host, Kevin Fullerton.
This episode is the second episode in my series on the base Career Readiness Competencies.
In 2022, the National Association of Colleges and Employers, or Nace,
developed a list of competencies that illustrate whether someone is career ready.
For more information on how they came up with their list of competencies, I have shared a link to the report in the show notes.
(00:30):
The competencies illustrate different aspects that need focus as we become professionals and maintain a professional career.
They are very intertwined and connected, but they each have their own individual characteristics.
And professionalism is my focus on this episode. This defines professionalism as follows.
(00:51):
No, I work environments, differ greatly, understand and demonstrate effective work habits,
and act in the grit in the interest of the larger community and workplace.
Sample behaviors of professionalism may include. Be present and be prepared.
Demonstrate dependability, uh. Prioritize and complete tasks to accomplish organizational goals.
Consistently meet or exceed goals and expectations.
(01:14):
Consistently use the is the important word there attention to detail uh, showing a high level of dedication to the work.
This comes down to communication, which of course is another competency.
There are many ideas about professionalism, and I find people's expectations are not often communicated to others.
For example, I have listened to many employers complaining to me about how student some students dress for interviews.
(01:39):
Yet the employers haven't specifically stated their expectations.
If you're having a conversation with me about professional development, leadership,
and continuous improvement, it does not take very long for me to mention the author, Seth Godin.
He is a very prolific author and I have benefited from his writings for many years.
I subscribe to his daily blog several years ago, and I found his blog post from January 2nd, 2025 entitled Winging It.
(02:06):
Apropos of this topic. In the post, he writes the artifice of sitting at a desk, having good lighting,
writing a memo instead of making stuff up as you go along, looking people in the eye, quoting your sources.
Measuring twice, not once. Showing up on time.
Doing the reading. Showing your work. These are signals, not just signals to the person you're working with or persuading, but signals to yourself.
(02:32):
He continues on with we should forget that the unspoken rule is don't ship junk.
We send a message to the market when we're in such a hurry that we don't put in the care and focus needed to do great work.
This is the essence of professionalism. Caring enough about yourself and the people you are interacting with to prepare and contribute.
(02:54):
Prepare your appearance, environment and content for your audience or customer or client or colleagues and do this for yourself.
Contribute relevant content, products, ideas, etc. this of course requires focus.
It also requires optimism. It requires engaging with your community.
It requires vision and strategy.
(03:18):
So when I discuss professionalism, I like to use a graphic I developed that highlights three aspects of professionalism tactics, strategy and vision.
I like to use this graphic as a visual aid, so I made it available to download in the show.
Notes. Tactics.
Regard. I think what most people cling to when discussing professionalism.
(03:38):
Show up on time, dressed appropriately. Be courteous, respectful, know your job, complete tasks correctly the first time,
etc. they are part of what Seth Godin was referencing in the quote I shared earlier.
The tactics are of course important. They are easily observed and diagnosed, such as you were late or you're not wearing the correct uniform,
or you cannot talk your customers that way, etc.
(04:01):
Tactics are often where the conversation stops because the strategy and vision are a bit more abstract,
hyper individualized, and less easy to actually observe.
To get the tactics right, it is your responsibility to understand the culture of where you are working or where you want to work.
Are you looking to run a construction business? How do they dress? What are their interview practices?
(04:23):
Are you looking to work at a law firm? I imagine their culture is a bit different than a construction company.
If your only work experience is from the family farm and you want to get into a corporate office position, you need to research the office culture.
You probably have a really good understanding of working long days.
However, those long working days on the farm were not spent sitting at a desk or a conference room table,
(04:45):
reading, looking at spreadsheets, formatting, PowerPoints, etc.
This brings me into vision. The research on companies is tactical, but it relates to your vision of yourself as a professional.
We are all familiar with the typical questions. What's your major?
What do you want to do when you graduate?
These questions are so common and uttered by family and acquaintances so frequently, you can start to sound like a dumb question.
(05:13):
However, it is really the fundamental and most profound question to answer.
What kind of professional do you want to be after you graduate? You majored in history.
Great. What do you want to do with the knowledge and skills you gained by earning that degree?
You majored in English. Great. What do you want to do with the knowledge and the skills you gained by earning that degree?
(05:33):
Accounting. Fantastic. What do you want to do? You owe it to yourself to answer that question.
But my view. You also owe us an answer to that question.
We, as in the collective university and community, need you to be clear on how you are going to contribute to this world.
So what is your vision? Strategy.
(05:57):
Strategy is the planning process to execute the vision. Maybe you want to be a researcher for a government agency.
Awesome. You won't get there with a bachelor's degree alone. So what are your next steps?
Maybe you want to take over the family farm. Wonderful.
There are many unknown questions that will need answers in the next five, ten, 15 years on agricultural business practices and policies.
(06:20):
How are you going to understand the questions and solutions when they arise?
Maybe you are a musician at South Dakota State and you want to perform professionally in New York.
What is your timeline? How are you going to develop your competitive abilities to make this a reality?
This might require grad school, but it might not. The vision and strategy aspects of professionalism are not fixed or set in concrete.
(06:44):
They evolve, but it requires your engagement. True professionals understand their agency and their own development, career path and success.
As students, it can often be hard to make the pivot from student to professional.
One of the fundamental shifts that needs to happen is the idea of ownership.
As a professional, you cannot leave it up to your professor or advisor to get the interview or job or grad school acceptance.
(07:10):
There are a multitude of folks on campuses tasked and interested in helping you gain skills and experiences.
My staff and the Office of Career Development, of course, want to help you prepare as much as possible for your career.
But as it is, your responsibility is worth your time considering professionalism as part of your career career development.
(07:31):
So download my professionalism graphic and identify key aspects of the three realms tactics, strategies and vision.
Discuss them with your friends and family and coworkers. You will find unique items for different disciplines, but there are many universal concepts.
Understanding the differences is part of being a professional. Okay, that is it for this episode.
(07:54):
Thank you for your attention. Has always and thank you for listening and please reach out with questions or topic suggestions.
I can be reached at Kevin Fullerton at SD state that you.
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