Eyes on the future, take stock of your career

You must evaluate your current position to discern and decide where you want your career to lead you tomorrow. The earlier you take a decision, you will find your career fast-tracking in a different direction. And when that begins to happen, you must view your future confidently and optimistically because the decisions that you make today will impact your coming years.

Taking a career decision does not imply making a sprint for the next one. All the ramifications of your decision have to be seriously contemplated; aspects that warrant consideration are the type of job that you seek, the organisation in which you want to work, the emoluments that you expect to receive, the working atmosphere that you desire, how you and the job gel and most importantly, whether the job is in sync with your career objectives and aspirations. Important issues in this context are:

· Setting career objectives: Your primary aim right now could be to get hold of a new and gratifying job. However, it is not a bad idea to assess all your life objectives. To be able to attain few of them, you may have to split them into smaller ones extending into the middle-term. This will also call for their periodic assessments because as time passes, they could be subject to change or modification.

· Identify your career choices: What do you actually want to do? It is likely that you want to start your own venture or switch over to a field absolutely new. The career choices that you identify should be based on your personal preferences, your health condition and even your age. The place you want to settle down is another important factor that has to be considered while making a career choice.

· Path that you would like to follow: It is you and you alone who can take a call on this. Do you want to move up or laterally? If you are stagnating in your present position, do you think that it is the right time to look up? On the other hand, if you prefer an easy-going job, can you switch over today? Changing your job and getting into one that is akin to your present one is perhaps the easiest of choices that you can make.

· Type of organisation that you want to be associated with: You need to decide if you want to work for a small company or a multinational giant. There are pros and cons to both and which you should weigh.  It is also essential that you mull over aspects of your present or earlier jobs that you do not appreciate so that you arrive at a realistic decision.

· Desire to change over to a different line altogether: This warrants a very serious reflection. Changing over to a different industry or even a new branch of your current industry has to be done consider the pros and cons in detail, including prospects ahead of you. There could also be a total change of profession and direction; and this could be toughest issue to consider, particularly if you are not sure about your present or earlier choices. Discussing the issue with a mentor and members of your family will be warranted because of the implications the move will have on your life.

Having carried out a holistic consideration of various career choices, you should now decide on your next move. You need to cogitate over and evaluate all options available to you in a pragmatic manner. Remember that even a small slipup can turn out to be a dear proposition. And if you are unable to make a decision, it can be equally disastrous too because then you are foregoing on what you actually want to seek and do.

After you make a decision, you will need to draft or re-draft your resume. The resume that you draft should reflect what you seek to do now as distinct from what you have already done. A point to note is that your past should speak about you supportively and constructively. In case you are unable to churn out a good resume yourself, you can always take assistance of professional CV writers. The bottom line is that your resume should align your earlier career choices with where you seek to be next. This will boost the chances of your application being favourably considered and prompt an interview. 

Knowing the place towards and the direction in which you want your career to take you is indeed a difficult prognostication. And so is getting to know what career choices are readily available to you. The responsibility to do so rests on your shoulders alone. You never know when an opportunity will knock at your door or an option will appear before you out of the blue.