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Career Planning

Rather than throwing yourself into the job market without any idea of where you are heading, planning your career will help ensure that you have the right tools to get the perfect job for you.  It is important to keep in mind that career planning isn’t about getting a job as soon as possible.  In fact, once you have a job you enjoy, you will still be in the planning process.  Career planning means setting career goals for the future and taking the steps to ultimately reach your desired career.  Here are some career planning steps:

Step One: Assess Yourself
Before you can even begin planning your career, you first need to figure out what you want to do.  To do this, career assessment planning will help you gain a better understanding of yourself to figure out what kind of career path is right for you.  Before taking any assessment tests, spend some time reflecting on yourself.  Think about your interests, personality, skills, abilities and preferred work environment.  Ask yourself questions like, “What do I enjoy?” or “What am I good at doing?”  Try not to think about this in terms of work — just think about yourself.  Once you have done this, you can move on to seeking outside advice.  There are some great free online career assessment tests that will suggest industries, work environments, job tasks and specific careers that may fit in with your personality and needs.  Check out sites like CareerPath.com for some insightful career assessment tests to aid in your career planning.

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Step Two: Research
Now that you have done some self-assessment, the next step in career planning is research.  Don’t be turned off by the thought of research — even if it seems tedious now, your future career and happiness depend on this!  Using the information found in Step One to guide your research, figure out what sort of careers are out there, which sound interesting to you, and which careers are a good match with your personality and needs.  Also, you may be interested in researching specific industries, such as advertising, healthcare, hospitality or manufacturing.  It is also beneficial to investigate some careers and industries that you have never considered before.  Vault and WetFeet are two great Web sites for industry, career and company information.  Finally, an important part of research is to talk to people.  Set up an informational interview to ask someone a few questions about his or her career.  Most people will be more than happy to help you, and you may even have the opportunity to shadow someone for a day.  By talking to real people with firsthand experience, you will get valuable information that you wouldn’t find otherwise.

Step Three: Make a Decision
After assessing yourself and exploring your possibilities, you should have in front of you a list of a few different options.  Now is the time in the career planning process to start narrowing down your choices.  This step is very practical, and because of this the decision-making process will vary depending on where you are in life.  If you are a high school or college student, then you might have the opportunity to receive education or training in almost any career path.  If you have already entered the working world, you still have that option of going back to school or getting a degree in a different field.  However, if more education is not in your future, take a good look at your list and determine which career paths are actually possible.  For example, if you are currently working in accounts payable, then it might be difficult to become a zookeeper (although it’s not impossible); however if wealth management is also on your list, this would be a more sensible career goal.  Narrowing down your list by using the criteria of practicality and personal interest will ensure that you make a career decision that is both practical and enjoyable.  And of course, no decision is ever final.

Step Four: Plan
You have made your decision and chosen a career path, but how are you going to advance from where you are today to where you want to be?  Surely you can’t go straight from salesperson to vice president of sales.  You need to set goals, both short term and long term, and include these goals on a written plan.  Think about where you want to be in two, five and ten years.  With these goals, write down any obstacles that you may face and make a plan of how to overcome them.  What will take you from assistant manager to manager?  How will you go from registered nurse to nurse practitioner to health administrator?  For example, do you need more education, training or certification?  If yes, figure out where you will go and how you will finance this.  Look at job postings (even if you aren’t ready to apply) to see what qualifications you have and which ones you need to add to your plan.  Finally, remember that your plan is not set in stone.  It is your plan and you can change it as you feel necessary.

Step Five: Take Action
A plan is a great start, but you need to take action in order to follow through with your career planning and development.  What do you need to do to progress along your plan? Consider updating or improving your skills.  Enroll in computer classes or public speaking classes, or attend conventions and seminars in your field.  Students may want to get involved in organizations on campus that will help them learn about different careers and network with other students, professors and advisors.  Professionals may want to speak to their supervisors about advancement or other departments if they are interested in staying with the company.  If not, they should continue to excel in their current job while seeking out advice and looking for other opportunities that will follow their plan.  Work on general skills such as communication, leadership, team-building, and organization to aid you in future advancement.  In career planning, it is also important to take action by removing any personal barriers, such as fear of failure, and motivating yourself to reach your career goals.