Planning your career is as simple as ABC

Career planning is a strategic procedure that also entails certain amount of self-promotion too, with the intended objective of making career advancement. You also need to be forward-looking and forward-thinking. Notwithstanding the fact that the world is in a state of flux, if you adhere to your career plan, you will not face any hitches and glitches.

It is not that people are unable to accomplish whatever they conceive design; if at all they fail, they do so in the timetabling process. It because they are unable to transform their advance worrying into advance thinking and advance planning. In other words, you need to comprehend all the nuances of successful career planning well.

The process of career planning comprises two general but important steps:

· Know & recognise your current position: Like in the case of any scheduling and prearranging, it is necessary that you know your current status. You should know what your capabilities and flaws are, particularly with regard to the job that you are presently in. In case you are not fully contented, what are the issues that frequently upset you? You also ought to mull over your earnings and reflect if they are adequate to afford all possible prospects to do and attain anything that you seek. No planning will be complete unless you pay attention to your qualifications and skills; and take stock of things to obviate any apprehensions of being overtaken by others. You must carry out a holistic appreciation of the advancement that you have made in the last couple of years and vis-à-vis where you stood earlier, the degree of fulfilment that you enjoy now. It is important that you contemplate over your present state, including sensitivities and sentiments as related to your job; and also the progress you have achieved so far. This will function as a beacon light and guide you in your way forward. You will be able to gauge your makings and capacities as also the speed at which you will be able to march on your career path. The current position of your career having been defined, you should now concentrate on thinking about the future and making a viable plan for your career advancement.

· Outline the position that you want to attain: This can be best done by cataloguing what you want to attain in three-year spans till your age of superannuation. You know fairly well the progress that you have made ever since you set out on your career journey and where you stand as of now. Therefore, based on the pace that you have achieved, you should be able to identify positions or appointments that you would like to hold in the years to come. And with the positions, you should also be able to envision the remunerations that you will earn. These will also help you discern various job features so that you are afforded adequate challenges and spot profound drive and resolve in your efforts. You should without fail ponder over areas which you need to focus on to bring about an overall improvement in your profile. In a nut shell, you should be able to zero on your individual traits, practical acquaintance with enhanced responsibilities and the time frame in which they need to be acquired. The situation may prompt you to look for a job change; at what stage that would be necessary should be discernible to you.

The above efforts will unfold before you the precise state of things with regard to your current position and also your future aspirations – all appropriately timetabled. What is that? It is nothing but your career plan. Isn’t it surprising? Don’t you agree that there is nothing difficult about it?

It should be noted that no plan can serve its intended purpose if you do not act on it. The plan that you make and embark upon should be secured and refined periodically. As time rolls by, your viewpoints are likely to change and your objectives elevated. Therefore, it is extremely important to follow everything that you enunciate in your career plan, hone your skills, improve upon your qualifications, and gain additional experience. This will facilitate your moving on to the next higher echelon or position in good time.

Remember that the only thing that lies between you and your dreams is nothing but prearranged strategic action. You must plan well and take all necessary action to put it into effect. There will be many opportunities that will come to you and it will be rare that they will be sans difficulties. Be an optimist and see opportunities in them too. After all, your career is your business; you will have to manage and superintend it as if you are its lifetime CEO. So planning for your and your career’s future is your responsibility because that is where you will be spending your life.

Attaining success in work, career & life

     Have you ever wondered why some people are successful in attaining their objectives and others are not? Or for that matter, why you have been successful at your endeavours and others are not? If you do not know why, you are not the only person suffering from puzzlement.

The most successful people may at times be confused when it comes to knowing why they do well or fail to do well. The instinctive response invariably is that everybody has inherent talents and deficiencies. But this answer is just a grain of sand on the seashore of enigma. It is a proven fact that success is not contingent on who you are but on what you do. Doing something entails:

· Being explicit: When you enunciate an objective to be attained, it has to be definite. A clear-cut objective offers you a well-defined picture of the shape of success that you seek. It also serves to keep you inspired till you achieve it. You are thus able to decide on particular steps that you ought to take towards attaining your objective. You should be absolutely unambiguous about various actions required to be initiated by you and whether you are actually initiating them or not.

· Not missing out on opportunities: With preoccupations galore and the multitude of tasks that we are required to perform at a given time, we miss out on opportunities. Is it that you are so busy that you even fail to make out or discern opportunities? You have to clutch at opportunities to attain your objectives. To be able to do that, you have to decide the time and place where you will act in advance; and you have to be specific about them. Such planning will condition you to detect and seize all opportunities; and boost your prospects of success several hundred times more.

· Visualising what is remaining to be done: Attainment of any objective calls for periodic evaluation of whatever you have done so far. If you are not sure of your performance, you will never be able to fine-tune your behaviour or tactics. The periodicity of monitoring may vary from objective to objective, but the need to do so is inescapable.

· Being a pragmatic hoper: When you decide on an objective, you can let your imagination loose and indulge in extensive upbeat contemplations. You need to be convinced of your capabilities to achieve success to keep your inspiration levels high. Concurrently, you must also appreciate that the road ahead is not bumps-free. All meaningful objectives call for detailed planning, sparing time and making relentless efforts. If you keep thinking endlessly, doubts will crop up in your mind and enhance the prospects of a fiasco.

· Concentrating on excellence: While trusting that you possess the capacity to attain your objectives is significant, believing that that you can acquire such a capacity is also equally important. It is a fallacy that we regard our brainpower, persona and propensities as hard-and-fast; and that no matter what we do, we are unlikely to better. Consequently, we tend to focus on objectives that entail demonstrating our worth instead of growing and securing fresh expertise. Studies conducted have proved that all capacities and skills are intensely supple. If you subscribe to a willingness to change, you will exercise better options and connect with your maximum capacity.  Individuals who aspire for excellence brush aside impediments with ease and appreciate the career flight as much as they would the endpoint.

· Being resolute & unrelenting: Perseverance is nothing but readiness to bind yourself to long-term objectives and see through all hitches en route. People who are determined acquire more qualifications and skills. And people who are not reconcile to their deficiencies. You can always fuel your tenacity if you make efforts to understand that your preparation, strategy, endeavour and doggedness should always be of a high degree. You can take one step at a time and plan for possible impediments; it may be difficult ab initio, but gradually things will fall in place. With a progressive increase in your willpower, you will be able to take on stiffer challenges. However, you must guard against over-exertion and situate yourself in circumstances where enticements are abundant. People who are successful understand that making an objective tougher will render its attainment all the more difficult.

To conclude, it is emphasising what has been stated earlier. Success is not contingent on who you are but on what you do. Do not be part of the club that want things to happen or   hope for them to happen. You should make them happen. And you can always figure how you can do so. Remember that once you make a decision, the entire world will collaborate and machinate to make it happen.

Prognosticators of career success in today’s milieu

What is it that defines and regulates the career success of people? Is it simple brainpower or technical expertise? Do community and monetary factors related to upbringing have a bearing on it? Is academic attainment an influencing factor in career success? And lastly, are the contributory factors same as what they were twenty or thirty years ago?

All the above issues have been delved into comprehensively by behavioural scientists. What have been their findings?

First and foremost, it is essential to understand that there are several falsehoods and figments floating around that tint and affect our outlook on career success; the most important one being that any individual can reach the zenith of his career ladder. This could have been possible around two or three decades ago, however, the situation today stands altered.

Acumen, aptitude and astuteness are still the most crucial contributing factors of career success. But their undertones and connotations have changed drastically. Today it is not just intelligence in the classical sense that gives your carer a boost. The capacity of individuals to be aware of, control and express one's emotions; and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically have come to be regarded as vital for career success.

Your intelligence will always matter. But you have to be sharp and perceptive. Your people skills, self-knowledge and public appreciation – all these constitute what is known as emotional intelligence – are better forecasters of career success as also career failure. Emotional intelligence deficiencies have been concluded to be the main cause of career muddle and shapelessness. With statistics indicating that emotional intelligence capabilities solely distinguish star performers from average employees, it is no wonder that while hiring people, organisations tend to lay great stress on such capabilities, particularly compassion and self- understanding.

Today, careers have become more or less sans confines and frontiers. If that be so, what are the prognosticators of career success? It has been proven that the hitherto fore rectilinear and lifetime careers that had traditional barometers to gauge success are no more there. With careers that have practically no stipulated precincts, inner and mental triumph has become a crucial determinant for career success vis-à-vis earlier tangible ones like earnings. But gratification and achievement are what are viewed as more significant today. Aspects connected with inspiration, individual import and self-awareness have assumed greater importance than ever before. Another prognosticator of career success is your networking capability, which translated to practical sense, means your capacity to develop and sustain relationships. Courage means to keep working a relationship, to continue seeking solutions to difficult problems, and to stay focused during stressful periods. And this type of courage is inescapable at workplaces today. Your survival as also business survival today is contingent on networking. Your own education, training and efforts to improve your skill sets are the other predictors of career success.

Amongst various predictors of career success, your motivation, identification and self-cognizance are the most essential ones. But the key question is, “Can you increase your emotional intelligence?” Scientific studies conducted on emotional intelligence infer that though it is largely influenced by early childhood happenings, an improvement can be brought about through personal effort and counselling.    

It has been contended that career success in old-style establishments tends to be in support of people who are relatively less resourcefully endowed; this is largely on account of dependence on hierarchal superintendence frameworks.  However, in altered settings today, the workplace success is all about being foreseeable, reducing boss’ burden and taking on extra workload. To be precise, managers at all levels expect their subordinates to be well-organised, display competence, expedite assignments and conform to the guidelines issued. These imperatives are evidently not dictated by perceptive or emotional assessments; and hence impede the progress of individuals who howsoever luminous, gifted or inventive that they may be, are not at ease working under close and authoritative superintendence.

The change that has come to stay is this. The conventional typecast of an organisational leader as self-assured and to some extent even unapproachable but overenthusiastic but with a good sense of strategic perception has been rendered obsolete. It is essential that business leaders of today possess high degree of emotional competencies; in fact, such qualities have to be uppermost.

Considering all the above, traditional skill-based or cognitive assessment as a tool to predict career success is fast losing its relevance. The prognosticators of career success in the altered work milieu today are plain and simple emotional proficiencies.

Self-awareness is vital to get on correct career path

Your career is a type of a voyage – you board, you travel on a particular course and reach a destination. Quite a few people embark on their career journey wherein neither the course nor the destination is their own choosing. If you happen to be one of them and are not satisfied with the direction in which you are heading or the destination that you are ordained to go, you can always alter the course. However, that would necessitate getting into the cockpit or the driver’s seat and taking control of your career.

· You need to be aware of yourself: Imagine this… one fine morning, you dress up to go to work, but cannot find your wallet. It has cash, your driving licence and a credit card. You search for it all over the place, but in vain and conclude that your wallet has indeed been lost. Then you tap your hip pocket and find it there. Finding a new career course is just the same set of circumstances. You look around for it, but atypically and paradoxically, not where it lies – within you. You need to know that you have all the tools within yourself to get to know your inclinations, capabilities and mental space so that you can confront and banish the dark parts of yourself.

· You need to rake and delve reflectively: There is this general tendency to describe yourself on the basis of what you enumerate in your resume. Doing so means considering only the tip of the iceberg and settling for mediocrity when you were created for greatness. If you seek to actually know yourself, you will have to break up the earth in you to discover:

v Your strong points: Anything that you excel at and take delight in is your forte. You may discern the strengths of various people who are top performers alright, but are unable to do so in your own case. Your strong points have a very potent correlation with your metier; as a matter of fact, you perform only on the basis of them. Therefore, if you do not make full use of your strengths, you will never stand out. It is thus important to know what they are and where they lie; and get into a career that facilitates their optimum utilisation. You can do so by identifying work aspects that you excel at and that give you pleasure; that serve to stimulate and motivate you; and that come to you effortlessly and inherently.

v Your makeup: A concordant blend of your social, innate and expressive traits is what your makeup is. Going by this, people who are by nature gregarious, always enjoy the company of others and love to meet people. On the contrary, people who are born introvert, invariably feel happy and relaxed when left by themselves. Research has proved that there exists a straight connection between an individual’s makeup and career. If you are sociable, you will excel in functions that entail meeting people like front-office work in hotels, teaching, marketing, sales, public relations, human resource management and even law. And if you an introvert, you will be better off in functions that do not necessitate much public dealings; accounts, statistics, technical writing, etc. to name a few would be better career options.   

v Your principles and standards:  Anything that you regard as significant and worthy are your principles and standards. They vary from individual to individual and could possibly include issues like wealth, status, reputation and authority at one end of the spectrum to relatively imperceptible ones like esteem, peace and freedom at the other. However, they are all indicators of the work that will go well with you. For example, if you cherish accomplishment, any work that is ‘high-pressure’ will gel with you. Likewise, if you treasure helping others, professions like medicine and nursing will give you contentment. The bottom line, however, is to know what you stand for.  

v Your concerns & inclinations: Who does not you seek work that is exciting and fascinating? If interest is aroused in you, you will invariably excel at work. Take the example of Steven Spielberg, the noted American film director. Since childhood, he was interested in photography and though his classmates teased him, he stood on and moved on to become a legend in his own field. History is replete with similar examples; the stories of Ralph Lauren (apparel designer) and Walt Disney (animator) should serve to inspire anybody. Doing the work that appeals to you has an unending effect on your career and hence, you need to discover your fascinations to move ahead.

You simply cannot get away from yourself and decide to turn off the noise in your head. You need to know yourself well so that you can embark on a correct path.

Outline your career hopes & objectives

“What the mind can conceive and believe, and the heart desire, you can achieve.”

― Norman Vincent Peale

Do you get a feeling that you are like a fragile paper boat moving up and down with the current in a stream? Do you feel that you have no control over your career? Instead of counting on fluke and anticipation, you need to be in command and for that you have to outline your ambitions and intents.

You cannot decide on the mode and methodology of moving ahead in your career unless you are clear of where you seek to be. Most young people, their zeal and fervour to accomplish anything notwithstanding, have no clear-cut response to where they aspire to be. They rejoice if they get a promotion or a raise and think that is what makes a successful career. They do not understand that even they work hard, it is not necessary that they will get a promotion. It is a mistaken belief that after passing out from college, if you get into a job and keep working on it without generating any controversy, your potential will be acknowledged. Nobody ever will pick you out from crowds and facilitate your rise to a megastar status; the initiative has to come from you and you alone. The maiden effort has to be engineered and made by you.

The most important key to attaining career success is the ability to express your career ambition in unambiguous terms. You can start by taking some time off, introspecting and finding honest answers to the following questions:

· When I was a child, what did I aspire to become?

· Today, what are the issues that hold maximum weight and consequence for me and my life?

· What are specific fields of work in which I can acquit myself superbly?

· What are the particular aspects of my work life that I disapprove and have an aversion to?

· Five years down the line, what would I prefer to be engaged in and what all accomplishments will I want to my credit?

· What is my portrayal of a just right and wonderful job?

If you have harboured a dream for the past so many years, let it be today that plant for making it come true. You simply have to reflect on the fact that you are more likely to hit your target when you finally aim at it. So, if you can decide on any particular career aspiration straight away, it is excellent. However, if you are fresh on a post, you can nevertheless hope to gain renown and become a luminary or simply find out the place you want to be at in the coming times.

Whatever be your career aspirations, you must make a record of the same. The next move is to discern your objectives without any ambiguity whatsoever. The objectives that you set for yourself will serve to act as ladder rungs and facilitate reaching your chosen endpoint. The point to be remembered is that the value and usefulness of your objectives are contingent on their excellence and superiority.

What are the inherent attributes of any objective? First and foremost, your objectives should be definite, in that they should be unambiguous and comprehensive. Secondly, they should be quantifiable; your objectives should invariably generate an explicit result based on which you can gauge your advancement. It is also essential that your objectives be achievable; by being achievable, it implies that you should be able to draw yourself out but without being irrational. Your objectives should also be pertinent and germane with every one of them having a purpose and implication for you. Last but not the least, your objectives should have a time-frame, in that the time for start and completion should be clearly enunciated.

Objectives are nothing but the fuel in the furnace of attainment. If you do not set any objectives for yourself, you are bound to get bizarrely dedicated to executing everyday run-of-the mill minutiae that eventually you will become subjugated by them. The bottom line is to cherish your objectives and never lose sight of them because they are a part and parcel of you and your career. You should know what you want to do and hold that thought rather resolutely close to your heart. And do on a regular basis whatever is required to be done. If you treat your objectives in such a manner, every single nightfall will see you that much closer to them, provided you align all your resources, endeavours and focus in the same direction.

Affording career opportunities is company responsibility

It will not always be possible for you to maintain a vertical ascent in your career. What happens then? And what can you do if your company decides to undergo a reorganisation and restructuring necessitating downsizing? Like others, you will be baffled about career prospects, particularly when people start exiting from your company even before seeking to find out the facts.

The current times have thrust added responsibilities of managing careers of employees on organisational leaderships. This additional charter has imposed a need to collaborate with employees to develop their knowledge base so that both organisations and staff stand to gain. An employee may continue to serve in an organisation or decide to leave, the fact that he develops skills, benefits both him and the company for whatever time he chooses to serve with it. Companies have thus come to realise that employee training is actually an investment.

The above new refreshed opinion of career management offers organisational leaders a chance to consider their functions and charter of responsibilities in a more all-inclusive manner than ever before. They therefore, have to focus attention on employee skill sets within the extended work-scope and discern newer career opportunities for their staff. In the process, the assortment of skills possessed by employees will also come to the notice of the management for gainful application – something that they may never be able to discern under normal circumstances.

How should company leadership go about in appreciating the career management aspect of their employees? They need to do the following:

· Pilot a job-exploration procedure: Since time immemorial, job imageries and depictions have been typical apparatuses used by HR managers. However, practically none of them pronounce the expertise & capacities necessary for a specific work. They should now devote some time to study and revise the know-how, knacks, capabilities and proficiencies necessary for every job arrangement in the company. The findings should be used to define existing deficiencies, impending vulnerabilities and growth prospects.

· Formulate a chronicle of job groups: All job skills should be tabulated and those that are common for different jobs identified for the purpose of utilisation appropriately. Skills that are comparable should be categorised into job groups and efforts made to determine additional skills that would facilitate employees to work in different roles within the same job group. The need is to create a complete structural arrangement that defines the purposes, the job groups and diverse planes in each. 

· Bring out a proficiency glossary: Different jobs, depending upon the levels at which they are pitched, will have their own set of basic and technical proficiencies. Launching and circulating a proficiency glossary should be considered so that employees can cogitate over the movement and headway of different skill categories and the fields where they can be useful. It will also help in discerning training parameters to achieve different objectives.

· Plot career prospects: A strategic map indicating various career prospects should be created so that the chain of prospects available for moving from one job to another are revealed to the employees. It is important that analogous skills are distinguishable as part of a single broad-based cluster; this will help employees to unmistakably perceive opportunities as existing in the vertical, lateral and downward planes.

· Evaluate employee skills: Companies seldom do this, but it is worth the effort. In its most straightforward form, it entails completing a skill-set record in respect of all employees. Employees can be asked to fill up a format or they be put through interviews and special appraisals to discern them. It is necessary that various skills made use of in leisure pursuits are also made note of because they can often manifest new callings and show the way to novel vocations.

· Formulate a career management model: The senior management needs to sit down with its staff so that the latter comprehends and follows all guidelines related to the career management of the employees. All apprehensions related to possible exits should be laid to rest and instead the company’s focus should be to establish an employee-employer collaboration and generate concepts for their application within the organisation. The model should also encourage employees to discern their true urges and inclinations; and how they can bring their individual attributes in line with their career objectives and organisational goals.

Organisations ought to understand that their objectives and interests are looked after better if they bring about a change in their overall philosophy; one field that needs focus is safeguarding the career prospects of their employees. It has to be ensured that employee aspirations are looked into and prospects for growth made available. Besides precluding attrition, the work atmosphere will also be transformed into one of congeniality and increased productivity.

Take a leap in your career

Is anything preventing you to take a big jump in your career? Do you have any inhibitions to bid adios to your present company and join another? There could be several reasons for your not wanting to take a leap in your career and the inaction that you are prompted to indulge in is evidently quite soothing. 

You could be passing through very difficult times, but somehow have got accustomed to them, despite you not being appreciative at all and are keen to change things for the better. However, the fear of the unknown is keeping you away from taking any initiative.

Consider this …. You are willing to take a leap and know that when it is over, you will have a safe and smooth landing. There will be someone who will welcome you. But to experience that safe and smooth landing and receive the welcome that is assured, you have to take a leap anyway.   

When you take a leap in your career, it amounts to be flying through the air for some time, with no known backing or cheer at your disposal till such time you make a landing. You are required to assume that your venture will offer you excellent prospects of growth and income. The risk is indeed colossal because you may be required to experiment with new issues, more so because as of now, you are living in a behavioural state within which you are required to operate in an anxiety-neutral condition.

So, how do you take a career leap?

You need to prepare yourself. A leap is a jump and implies being in the air, both literally and figuratively. You do not know how far you will traverse and hence should know how to manipulate your flight. Some questions that you need to find honest answers to before you line up for it are:

· What is it precisely that you seek?

· Who are your dream employers?

· What are the functions that interest you and which you want to perform?

· What is that you will achieve from your dream role, if at all you get it?

· How much efforts and contributions are you ready to make to let your dreams come true?

You need to discover what your fervours are and where they lie. Most people out to advance in their career generally resort to bettering of their hard skills and even people skills. People hunting for jobs usually realise the need to do well in an interview as also create a wide contact base. Whichever category you may be in, time short and you should not waste it. The shot is about to be fired and you need to get cracking at your preparation.

 If you have full faith in your capability to take a leap and on what you intend to achieve whatever you are setting out for, the first step is not going to be daunting. All that calls for preparation, sans which, you will not be able to go far and have a smooth landing. It is only when you land, that you will enjoy a feeling of attainment.

To move forward in your career implies work and hard work to be precise. You simply cannot glide and taste success. With focal areas being subject to change off and on, your career progress is totally contingent on the strength and steadfastness you display towards your work and career.

You may encounter varying advancement involvements in your career journey. All of them will have a bearing on your individual and professional progress which could be subject to valuation at three power planes:

· Reactive: These encounters do not call for much action on your part and development that follows is rather truncated.

· Dynamic: This development calls for initiative and display of know-how, expertise and experience by way of explicit tasks.

· Change inspiring: Development that inspires change sponsors and examines aptitude, abilities and familiarity effort in unacquainted duties and circumstances.

It will not be presumptuous to state that the greater the degree of intensity, the greater will be the effect of your advancement. However, it will be difficult to determine where particular encounters will lie on the gamut because aspects like individual acceptances, openness and timings have a telling effect on personal growth. You need to reflect about your experiences that made an impact on your career and visualise the spot that they fit in on the band. In case you are unable to decide, mulling over the following would help you:

· Crucial experiences that you had and which gave you pleasure; and which even contributed in smaller ways to your career growth.

· Tasks that seemed like a load and why they appeared so.

· New and diverse responsibilities shouldered by you.

· Circumstances that made you switch careers, in case you did so.

· Efforts you made to acquire additional qualifications and skillsets.

· Your encounters with new learning experiences, including visiting new places and coming face to face with diversities.

· Happenings and events where you did not acquit well.

With experiences at hand and readily re-countable, are you contended with the manner in which your career has moved forward? If you think on the contrary, you need to mull over efforts required to alter it. The leap that you are planning to take will be fruitful only if you understand with no element of doubt that it is only your sweat and toil that will make your career move ahead.

Whys & wherefores of job rejection

Rejection for a job is perhaps the most difficult to live through. If you have had a couple of such experiences, you would be wondering why it happens to you. Why did you not make it?

With no convincing answers, do you think it is appropriate to seek a feedback? There could be a horde of factors that contributed to your rejection.  And if you can get to know the precise reasons, your job search henceforth could be more meaningful.

At what stage of the hiring should you seek a feedback? Who should be approached for it?  What is the appropriate time to ask for a feedback? And more importantly, how should you go about it?

· Stage of hiring process: It goes without saying that a feedback from a hiring company will be meaningful if it has got to evaluate your candidature in details. If you were not shortlisted for an interview or even rejected after a telephonic interview, it would have been because of some superficial reasons like mismatch of your qualifications, experience or background, Nevertheless, there is nothing wrong in requesting to know the reason for your elimination; it should be appreciated that since it was initial screening where you were excluded, the response may not be detailed and very convincing. If you go through the initial two or three rounds of the selection process, you were qualified for the job. But since you were rejected midway, the reasons could be more than one; you either were unable to make an impact, displayed casualness or others were judged better than you. Therefore, getting to know the reason for your elimination will help you in your successive interviews.

· Person to be approached: This would be contingent on circumstances and the person who conducted the interview. Your query should be directed through the recruiters as they can offer provide you some reasons based on the preliminary interactions they had with you as also responses obtained from others. If you were interviewed by a company representative, you can surely ask the concerned person. You should remember that a feedback is not mandatory after an interview, largely because of the menaces involved in doing so.

· Best time to seek a feedback: The most opportune time to seek a feedback is immediately after your rejection, preferably via an email or even telephone as nobody would like to get involved face to face in such a situation. The foregoing notwithstanding, it is always in good taste to respond to a job rejection by stating how keen you were to join the concerned company and would look forward to an opportunity in the future. A move like that on your part will help keep associations robust in times to come.

· Going about seeking feedback: No company is obliged to let you know the reasons for your rejection, however, should a person at the other end decide to lend you a favour, the dialogue that you may have could be rather sore. He is actually violating conventions in devoting time to someone who is not being hired. If you are indeed afforded an opportunity for an interaction, which by all standards is unauthorised, you should proceed in a manner that is cordial, tactful and candid. You should also remember that any such interaction is otherwise not authorised. Expressing your gratitude to the interviewer for having showed interest in and devoted time on you is what you ought to commence your conversation with. Thereafter, you could seek to know why you were not selected but without making your request sound like an imposition. “I will be grateful if you could give some inputs on my shortcomings so that I can be a stronger contender in the future” or words to that effect is undoubtedly an excellent way to solicit feedback. Any vehemence and insistence should be avoided.    

You ought to appreciate that getting a feedback is testing alright, but more testing is your patience and readiness to hear the truth. You would generally react by offering alibis or setting forth explanations to indicate that you were probably misunderstood – all in your mind of course. What has been done cannot be undone and whatever has transpired, cannot be transpired cannot be reversed. So even if you get to know the precise reasons for your job rejection, you should not take them to heart, but take not of them to fare better in subsequent chances. Take them as someone blowing a bugle in your ears to wake you up and get going, rather than ebbing.

Sidestep to move up in your career

Climbing the career ladder does not necessarily entail only vertical movement. Lateral movement can also get you where you eventually want to be – sometimes faster than usual. Sidestepping at any stage of your career is the new mantra for career success. However, ironically though, if you are unable to further your skills and poise in lateral moves, your career advancement may take a beating.

How can you transform a side-step into a step-up? Here is what you should be doing:

· Make your move sensible: Sans a strategic career path, a lateral move is meaningless. You need to chart out your course and to start with, you should visualise and be clear about the next higher position that you aspire for. It is necessary to take stock of your current qualifications and experience; and what you need to acquire additionally. Such an evaluation will facilitate seeing gaps that a lateral move will bridge.

· Do everything that is necessary: Self-evaluation as above will also help you to identify your skills that are stronger than required to take you to the next higher position. You must deliberate over explicit tactical moves that will help you to attain your objectives quicker. Networking will come to your advantage to boost your image in this context. Taking on assignments that entail public dealings or client interactions will also help enhance your impressions.

· Undertake assignments purposefully: The career journey being a rat race of sorts, you may not find time to take up projects of your own accord or take on unpaid ones to gain experience. However, undertaking assignments purposefully can prove to be a very potent means to widen your contact base and fill up voids in your expertise. Honorary assignments can offer you immense prospects for growth. Your eventual aim is to get into a work that improves your skill set, contingent on the believability that you have been able to generate. You will thus be able to apply yourself better to your actual job.

· Be an eternal learner: An odd step sideways or even backwards may take you forward no doubt, but not all career detours can be a recipe for success. A lateral move will not serve any purpose, unless you keep learning. It is essential that you analyse any such move vis-à-vis the prospects of expansion of your skill set and comprehension of work imperatives. The important point is to determine the manner in which you will utilise your newly acquired skills and experience to advantage for discharging responsibilities in the future.

· Know for certain what ascent means: Discerning and understanding what is correct for you is an essential ingredient of any career planning. If you happen to get bogged down at any stage of your career journey and are sceptical of either your actions or your career objectives, you will need to introspect. After weighing the pros and cons of a higher position being aspired for, you could well surmise that it will adversely affect your work-life balance; therefore you may decide that your present role offers you adequate growth prospects that you genuinely seek in life.

· Influence the matrix: Your lateral move could have been brought about by any factor, however, you can always make the best of living through varied viewing platform and standpoints. You will thus be able to see beyond because you will, in all probability be required to embrace and leverage varied vantage points patronised by specific age groups, specialities and experience clusters. In other words, other things being equal, lateral moves serve to provide manifold possibilities for growth.

· Plan & coordinate your own raise:  Organisations have become flat and middle-level roles have diminished. People who have served for a decade plus see no next level for elevation because their immediate bosses perhaps hail from the same age group and it is unlikely that they leave. You could tide over such a crisis situation by understanding how you are making a difference and crafting a business plan for a new section that you may perhaps head. Making such a scheme known to the management may pay dividends. Your ingenuity, hard work and self-assuredness is essential for moving up in such an organisation.

Whether you are entertaining the idea of a lateral career move or have already decided to pursue an opportunity, you must think over everything seriously. You must guard against burning any bridges and most importantly, be convinced that all your interests are being served. Your new position may not be for better remuneration, but in the long run, you will be happier if you remain enthusiastic and are not confined to one area of expertise.

The secret to choosing a right career

Career selection and career change are bewildering and anguishing encounters. When people advise to give wings to your passions, they are not totally unjustified, but there is some element of discrepancy in it too. To be practical, you cannot always do that.

Who does not want to select a career that will bring in delight? But is there any way to discern that in advance? Scientific studies have inferred that homo sapiens are bizarrely poor at predicting their reactions and feelings in situations that unfold in the future. Therefore, it is not unusual to see people who embark upon a career with a belief as if it is the beginning of a love affair. But a couple of years down the line, the fervour dies and they start detesting the very career that they passionately selected. The point to note is that you cannot fathom being happy if you have not actually done any of the things involved at all. There will be very few people for whom the future unrolls precisely as they envisage.

In the light of the above, what can you regard as your guide, particularly if passion and anticipated happiness are not? The answer lies in selecting a career that fits well with your abilities and tenets. And since you have a fair amount of idea about your own dexterities, it is in all fairness that you take off from this point. However, you would invariably select a career that offers an excellent inspirational match for you.

You generally have two methods at your disposal to remain driven to attain your objectives. A large majority of people are inclined to believe that their work and life objectives are opportunities for growth, accomplishments and recompenses. They invariably envision benefits and gains that result in achieving objectives. If you happen to be one of them, you suffer or enjoy what is could be termed as an Elevation Single-mindedness syndrome. On the other hand, there are others who view their objectives as pertinent to a sense of security and possession; they simply are not willing to toss anything that they may have achieved as a result of hard slog. These people suffer from something that can be characterised as Avoidance Focus. You tend to avoid everything, including taking risks but discharge all your duties conscientiously and become a person who is seen as a consistently reliable figure. People who have such an outlook always seek smooth sailings.

There is nobody who does not get inspired by either elevation or avoidance; however, there are various other overriding stirring emphasis in specific spheres of life. Such spheres are work, affection, education and even nurturing. It is because of this that people who are both elevation single-minded or avoidance focussed possess distinguishing fortes and limitations brought about varying impelling factors.

People who have elevation single-mindedness are known to be good at originality and invention; they can work with speed and are also capable of engendering substitutions. They are capable to clutch of opportunities and if required, take risks for early fruition of their work. They also suffer from intangible contemplations and make mistakes more often; however they are desperately sanguine in their approach. On the other hand, people who have avoidance focus have an eye for detail and subscribe to methodical and logical thought processes. They can do excellent planning, forecast glitches and believe in doing things immaculately; and because of which, their dependability ratings are high. But they refrain from any risk-taking and believe that slow and steady wins the race. Which category do you belong to?

If you can identify your leading focal points, you can evaluate your motivational suitability for different careers or appointments. People who can do this invariably deliver results and also find their work really satisfying. The elevation single-minded group ought to hunt for jobs that provide immense growth prospects and which call for boldness, quick action and unconventional thinking. On the other hand, the avoidance focus lot needs job security and should look for jobs that offer it in abundance. Jobs that require thoroughness and meticulousness but not involving playing with risks are what they are cut out for.

All careers have their own share of surprising glitches and hence,  you should gear up to face them. If you genuinely seek anything, rest assured that the world and everybody in it will collude to make your dreams come true. You have to be forward looking; life is not at all about waiting for the storm to pass but it is about knowing how to get out in the open and learning to enjoy a downpour. You need to know what you are cut out for.