Etch your profile well

Have you ever seen an artist at work? He first makes an outline that characterizes major shapes but no minutiae are exposed. The magnum opus follows later. Like a work of art, career planning too involves sketching but with all details included. It is a meticulous and reasonably prearranged procedure. The commonality between the two however, is the need to have an unambiguous image of the final product.

Career planning is a never-ending procedure. It entails adjustments, alterations, and occasionally a complete change of the original scheme of things. Importantly, career planning should commence as early as viable, even if it amounts to doing it ahead of schedule. Some pertinent aspects related to career planning are enumerated in the succeeding paragraphs.

·   Unearth and improve: Every organization prefers to recruit people with prior experience. This qualitative requirement is of advantage to both the employee and employer; and obviously facilitates early settling down. The newcomer understands and visualizes things; and thus is able to make better contributions. Therefore, self-improvement ought to be your prime priority. Professional development and advancement of individual perceptions should be looked upon as a crucial prerequisite for your career planning. If you are able to devote twenty to thirty minutes daily for your own learning and growth, things will be better from you.

·   Look for alternatives: If you happen to be working in a company, it cannot be taken for granted that the openings and prospects available within the department are the only alternatives available to you. To grow and advance, you can move laterally and then vertically. At all times, you have the option to move to another appointment in another division in the same setup; or walk out and take up a similar assignment elsewhere. It is possible that you shoulder twin responsibilities; and should you do this, you will be able to lay the foundation for an enduring and stable career growth.    

·   Assess & pronounce:  This implies taking decisions related to organizational pursuits or even your personal future. There is no management that does not seek to promote eagerness and dynamism amongst its employees. Therefore, a display of passion, inventiveness and enterprise will always be viewed in the correct perspective, provided your ideas are not extraordinarily bizarre. Considering the foregoing, you should not shy away from making concrete resolutions and assessments on issues that concern your career and which, expand the scope of your professional progress. It is not much of significance to feel something; what is important is to make your opinion known.      

·   Be forward-looking: You should have a futuristic point of view. In fact, your outlook should be positive and nature optimistic. If you are able to maintain such a disposition, you will always plan your advancement well; your career will move on at good pace. If there happen to be any impediments, your flow per se will help skirt them, precluding any possibility of getting stranded. Remember that life is all about being in motion; the past and the present should serve to guide you in scheduling the growth of your career.  

The fundamental as well as crucial importance of career planning lies in the enunciation of prerequisites and provisos of self-development. You may dream of gaining admission in a reputed college and if it materializes, perhaps will alter the shape of things to follow. But a dream is a dream; your performance in the entrance examinations will hold the key to its realization.

Young men and women tend to play safe and opt for colleges that have least stringent conditions to fulfill. There may be no entrance examinations or admissions are based on donations, these are facilitators for the not-so-bright. The real complexity pertains to the selection of subjects. However, in order to exercise a suitable choice, you have to adhere to some codes and tenets. Aspects that you need to understand are:

·   The size of the institution in no way characterizes the difficulty planes of the entrance examinations. It is fallacious thinking when you are informed that bigger or reputed colleges have very severe entrance tests. The fact that most laissez-faire educational institutions have on their rolls anything up to five thousand students speaks for itself.

·   A college’s name does not necessarily imply its recognition or reputation; this serves to divert the attention of students. It is however, linked with the two inevitability factors – colleges have to preserve their repute, big or small and accept boys and girls who are willing to join them. This will make it inescapable for you to display your keenness and zest together with a brief of any investigative studies that you may have done.

·   People may narrate to you various accounts, but it is up to you to believe or discount them. Exaggerations will always be there and you have to guard against them. First sight discard is not recommended; you should give a patient hearing and then draw inferences. Hearsays and word of mouth publicity should be seen with caution because they have intrinsic qualities to unfold unfounded stories.

      To conclude, it is your strength of mind that matters. It far exceeds the clout of all conventions, systems and regulations combined. You should never lose sight of your real objective – ascertain all appropriate information, gather relevant evidence and then submit your application. There should be nothing that should inhibit realization of your dreams – you and you alone can chase them and make them a reality.