Job references should be itemised with care

Job references are individuals whose names you make available to your prospective employers to back and espouse your application for a particular job. They are also used to denote letters of recommendations for the same purpose. References are contacted for obtaining additional information or seeking clarifications about your qualifications and suitability. They are supposedly expected to respond about the correctness and truthfulness of facts in your CV by providing frank opinions about inter alia, your rectitude, dexterities and disposition, etc.

In the light of the above, itemising job references should be a part of your job search. How should you go about doing so?

The best way is to establish contact with the references you have in mind before you actually make their names available to your prospective employers. In other words, you need to seek their permission to use them. However, the decision to use who and for what is dependent on you, but they should be most pertinent to the post being applied for. The references that you identify should be informed in advance about the type of information and feedback that will help you if a prospective employer get in touch with or drops a line to them. And of course, you must fall back to them and express your gratitude. The following skills will invariably be commented upon by your references:

· Social attitude, including your capacity to work in a team & communication skills.

· Readiness to go along a manager’s lead, reliability & trustworthiness.

· Self-confidence & capacity to withstand stress.

· Leadership qualities & crisis management skills.

As an integral component of various documents and information of your job search, it will stand you in good stead if you make available to prospective employers letters of reference. Such letters could be from your current employers to include your line manager or others. Even letters of reference from clients or social personages will not be out of place. Your prospective employer will thus get to know details of your present work, your execution skills, accomplishments, and social disposition. It is always advisable to obtain all such certificates and testimonials when you are leaving a company because at that point of time, your association and dexterities will be alive. However if you request for a letter of reference after significant time has elapsed, there is every likelihood that people may not be in a position to recall relatable information.

An annual confidence report rendered by any of your previous line managers can also prove to be a good reference about your competence. In certain situations, the concerned individual could be more than favourably disposed towards you and will have no objection to you showing a draft of the certificate that you seek to obtain. A minor amendment is all that could be necessary before the letter of reference is signed. While this will be more an exception rather than a rule, the important point is that such a document will economise on both time and exertion. The major advantage of course will be that you will have in hand a well-tailored and effective letter.

In Western countries, it is mandatory for you to acquiesce to any move by employers to verify your antecedents and confer your application with your previous employers. The practice is fast catching up in India and multinational companies invariably resort to this. Western laws stipulate the degree of information that can be shared about a previous employee because any incorrect assessments or pictures conveyed always have the potential of being drawn to court.

A reference may speak highly of you in the recommendation letter, but provides a blend of both positive and adverse aspects to your prospective employer. If you feel that you have not got a call-letter because of this, it will not be out of place to request a friend to establish contact with the concerned employer as part of an ersatz reference check to ascertain additional information regarding judgements rendered on you. It will be your sole discretion to fall back to the person to bridge any gaps that may have surfaced or take a call on whether to continue making use of the reference in question.

Most job seekers have doubts on whether job experience should be enumerated in the CV in detail or not so that reference checks that have the potential of any belittling or stigmatisation are precluded. But it is always to your advantage if you mention your job experience in your CV. Things could well be in your favour if you diligently apprise your potential employer about the possibility of receiving an unfavourable feedback and succinctly explicate your version of facts. Any attempt to omit your work experience in your resume could lead to more serious ramifications.

Having another professional speak on your behalf as a reference is an important and critical component of your job search. To that extent, the process of deciding on a reference should be a well-considered one.

Overcome dilemmas in making career choice decisions

“The greatest accomplishment began as a decision once made and often a difficult one.”

― Michael Rawls

When a youth steps out of the portals of a college armed with a degree, he suffers from assorted feelings – exhilaration at one end of the spectrum to consternation at the other. The achievement of having graduated inspires delight and the uncertainty of the future arouses anxiety. Whatever be the state, nervousness is more pronounced, though not initially sensed.

Researches undertaken have indicated the preferred lines of action by students to lend effectiveness to their career pursuits and improve their prospects.  Statistics point to the fact that nearly fifty percent of fresh graduates are unable to find a job straight away and have a tough time doing so. And hence, it is no surprise that they struggle to discern what their initiative should be like to secure a job at the earliest. However, the manner in which students prepare for and execute their job search is instrumental in creating a long-term effect in this context. Their career choice satisfaction is influenced greatly by their ability to make sound career decisions.

Making career decisions entails two different methodologies. The first one entails deciding on and pursuing a course of action satisfying the minimum requirements to achieve a goal. People who resort to this have a tendency to grab the first opportunity that is in harmony with their basic aspiration criteria. The second method is to make best use of available options, but after detailed evaluation; people who adopt this approach invariably carry out exhaustive research of different career choices available and then make a decision.

Individuals who conduct in-depth research of career options face a peculiar challenge in making career decisions. They have restricted capability to realistically weigh different career options to discern the most appropriate one amongst them. Efforts are made by them to evaluate each and every option that supposedly meets their own benchmarks before making a final decision. This process calls for having more time at one’s disposal; more often than not, the experience turns out to be rather exasperating.

Just as a motorist gets confused on a highway from which several roads branch off from a particular point on it, if ab initio, you have many options and alternatives, you will invariably end up battling question marks. A thought process like that is unfruitful by all standards. It can also have an adverse effect on your well-being. Therefore, making massive efforts to identify that single, ideal career opportunity from amongst a multitude of them can cause you more detriment than advantage. In actuality, you tend to clog your own ability to make a decision.

To overcome the dilemmas associated with career choice decisions, the following aspects warrant serious deliberation:     

· Be pragmatic with regard to the job market: You must understand that the prevalent conditions of the job market conditions are indeed tough. It will be very difficult to firstly, spot your ideal opportunity and secondly, grab it as it whizzes past you. Therefore, you need to harbour a practical outlook to everything and accordingly fine-tune whatever aspirations you may otherwise have. Remember that a sensible approach towards your aspirations will invariably bring about a boost in your satisfaction level, particularly those related to the choice that you exercise. 

· Don’t be irresolute: If you have to make a decision, there is no way that you should not. But you simply cannot keep pondering over the pros and cons for long; you must impose some strictures of time for it. If a decision-making process is unduly put off, the degree of anxiety that will be aroused in you will be intense. It should be remembered that you are bound by a decision that you make. No career decision should be regarded as absolute; it can be modified at any time. That is precisely why career change-overs are not glowered upon today.  

· Take responsibility for your decisions: It is essential that you direct your attention on the upbeat advantages that your career or job choices offer. Brooding unnecessarily over opportunities that you think you missed out from some career choices serves no gainful purpose. All your efforts should rally around positive issues only so that your move ahead in your career and life is facilitated.  

If you move forward confidently in the direction of your dreams to live whatever life you have imagined, you will surely encounter success. And that calls for being clear about what you seek in your career and life; and then leaving no stone unturned to achieve it. Therefore, making good career choice decisions is contingent on your self-awareness. However, you must trust your instincts and make judgements on what your heart tells you. Your heart will never let you down.

Expedite getting a new job

How wonderful would it be if a job search was not strenuous at all? You may feel that your qualities of head and heart manifest your suitability for a job. But a job search is all about selling yourself. Therefore, it is essential that you promote yourself amongst prospective employers. If you fail to do so, somebody else who does self-promotion in a better fashion will overtake you in the race.

A job search calls for a proactive approach and that again calls for extreme urgency and determination. The focus of attention of your prospective employers must remain on you. You need to be dynamic, maintain contact with the concerned employers and ensure that you emerge as a hot favourite. In this way, you will generate new career opportunities for yourself.

You could dispatch several resumes or spend time surfing the internet for jobs; for most people, these are arduous endeavours by themselves. But if we look at them with a certain degree of positivity, the pleasure that you will derive hunting for jobs will be unsurpassable. If job hunting was that easy a task, people would outsource it. The responsibility to plan, design and execute a result-oriented job search is invariably that of the job-seeker.   

Selling yourself can prove to be a monumental responsibility. But you can always cut down on its complexity and increase the prospects of easy identification of additional challenges. Here is how you can do so:

· Get ready for the search: You should appreciate that job search entails work toil. Today, there are agencies who hunt for suitable candidates for employment with companies. However, given the increasing trend amongst corporates to do recruitment without incurring unnecessary expenditure, you simply cannot bank upon head hunting agencies to spot and recommend you. What you should bank upon are your own ingenuities and enterprises that ought to ensure that your candidature and name is disseminated well in the environment. You should be your own marketing manager. A recruiting agency can just recommend your name and help you to be called for the selection process. It is likely that you may not be the best amongst the candidates, but nevertheless get hired. Under such circumstances, you will have to prove that you are in no way inferior to the person who was otherwise the best.

· Guard against overstretching yourself: If you overstrain, overstress and overtax yourself, you are more likely to go astray in your job search; and render yourself unsuccessful. If you have to be successful, you should concentrate your efforts on limited target organisations that as per your wisdom and perception require skills that you possess. Having done that, you have to identify methods to gain access into such establishments and cast your potential as a probable efficient talent. In devoting time and effort to gain knowledge about a target company and appreciating its specific requirements, including cultural values, you will be able to portray yourself as an incomparable find. The net result will be that the company will be impelled to recruit you.

· Be liberal and large-hearted: A significant characteristic of today’s job market is that your credibility needs to be established beyond doubt. It is you and you alone. You need to win faith and confidence of your prospective employers by volunteering to undertake a test assignment. This will help in the acceleration of the hiring process. During interview sessions, you need to portray yourself more as a professional advisor to the prospective employers and partner with them to conjointly reach some pre-meditated objectives. Neither you nor your prospective company is more powerful than the other or has excessive control; and hence both stand to gain from the success attained by the other party and also getting what each seeks from the association.

· Be prudent on larger issues: This caution is applicable to negotiations related to remunerations and perks as also various other suggestions that are deliberated earnestly by you. You must discard any feeling of superiority or smugness that you may have; and consider everything from the financial angle. It also needs to be appreciated that just in case if your earnings are not much, then any extra payment is a boon. As your association with a company grows, the probability of excelling and establishing your credentials and capability will always be high. But if you remain unemployed, then every single day is essentially amounting to some monetary loss.     

During your job search, you have to believe in yourself and have full faith in your talents and capabilities. Remember that if you do not have a modest but sensible self-confidence in your own fortes, you can neither be efficacious nor pleased. 

Long-term career planning

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be,”

-        Lao Tzu

Out of college and aspiring to settle down in a job? This condition plagues everybody’s mind. The college would have primed you for many career paths like military, education, finance, administration, law and hospitality, etc. But which is the one that you are best suited for? Surely, you would have a picture in mind of where you aim to be. You can reach that position through strategic planning and career management – something that you implement to attain your career objectives and also your everyday outlook towards your work.

Long-term career planning entails the following:

· Introspective self-evaluation: You need to assess your career appeals as also what you seek from your work. You also need to know your skills and disposition. A career that is not in harmony with your principles, standards, concerns and disposition will make you unduly discouraged. Therefore, the earlier you spare time to determine what you are all about, the better it will be. It is essential that you decide the destination of your career journey; envisioning it in the light of the overall picture will help you a lot. Quite a few people get afflicted with uncertainty because they become apprehensive of incorrect decisions that can be made in this context. Quite a few people also switch careers as years roll by. It is thus necessary to be clear about what success implies for you. You may have to go through career planning several times and hence, you cannot be rigid by any standards. Aspects related to the desired place of work, image of success harboured and most-favoured type of co-workers should be identified by making repeated inquiries.  

· Consideration, zeroing & evaluation of choices: You may have a number of career options available to you. You should not disregard any of them to start with. You should ponder over different methods that you can adopt to move forward from wherever you are at the present and attain the objectives that you set for yourself. This would necessitate getting into the nitty-gritty of various options and for which you could be required to undertake some investigations too. Every option should be evaluated for its plusses and minuses so that you can decide on the one that is best for you. It will always be prudent to test some of them; this is possible by informational interviews, honorary work and attendance at professional seminars or workshops, etc. This will enable you to gain first-hand information and practical acquaintance with your prospective job conditions. You will also be able to visualise yourself in explicit functions for long durations of your career. Concurrently, you will also be able to expand your contact base and which could usher in fresh opportunities and throw open other alternatives that possibly did not cross your mind earlier.

· Making a career decision & putting your career plan into motion: Furnished with a plethora of self-knowledge and aware of the position that you eventually want to be in together with a host of other related information acquired through your efforts, you should establish precise goals and a road map to attain them. These goals could well be career milestones that you want to achieve in the immediate and distant future. Having figured out your ultimate long-term objective, you should do some reverse-engineering to identify what you should be doing on a continual basis to attain them. You should think pragmatically about the entire matter and visualise impediments in your career journey as also how you will negotiate them. Keeping in mind the objectives that you set to accomplish, you should also try to visualise the shape of success that could accrue in the bargain. There will be a number of special qualifications that will be mandatory acquisitions for moving ahead. It may not be possible to do everything all by yourself and will thus necessarily require exertion of influence. People whom you know will come a big way in supporting you. The application of your plan on ground apart, you will also have to spare time for introspection and to gauge if your bearings are correct or not.                 

You may make an excellent strategic career plan and chart a course accordingly. However, that may not suffice. It is your day-to-day approach to the management of your career that will determine whether you reach your final destination as planned or otherwise. Remember that you can succeed at almost anything if you do plan for it well. Planning apart, if you set out to achieve anything with passion, the entire world will collude to help you achieve it.

Make career planning on top of your agenda

Much that we may claim, most of us lay little emphasis on career planning. We tend to give more thought on other issues; planning a social event or a vacation perhaps occupies a greater priority in our lives. We do not realise that in actuality, more than sixty per cent of our life as an adult is spent working. So should not your career be your top priority? After all, it is your career that defines the quality of life that you lead.

Nobody else will ever feel a concern about your career. It is you and you alone who has to do that. You simply cannot allow yourself to be complacent about your career because things can get altered drastically. Be it because of a personal matter or a workplace issue, your life could suddenly be in doldrums. Therefore, it is essential that you are clear about where you want your career to take you so that in case you encounter difficult situations, you know how to overcome them. Three things that you should not miss out on are:

· Set objectives for achievement: Whatever career plot that you carve for yourself, it can always be transformed into objectives and sub-objectives. This implies identifying things that you need to accomplish within specified time-frames. To illustrate the point, your objective could be to secure a salary hike by the end of the current year. Having an objective like that will evidently entail injecting additional purpose in your work; and doing so will raise your inspiration level too. The objectives that you set for yourself should be pragmatic, reasonable and feasible. It is possible that you may fail to achieve them and if that happens, the fact that you know what you wanted to accomplish will help you analyse the causes for your failure better. But if you do not have any objectives or if they are not practical, you would remain rudderless and directionless; and drift aimlessly and repeatedly in the job or position that you are in.

· Considering & evaluating yourself: The need to regularly evaluate yourself should not be lost sight of. When you assess yourself, besides looking into your personal skills and qualities, you should also measure various attainments that you have had. It is always in good stead to keep a record of all your accomplishments. In addition, details of professional clubs and institutions of which you are a member should also be maintained. When you do all these, you will be able to estimate your true worth and professional value so as to facilitate a good marketability of the person that you are. You will thus be able to see yourself from a professional eye and be able to identify shortcomings so that you can bring about an improvement. In this way, you career will not get paused but will keep progressing instead.

· Monitoring employment opportunities: A career or job change may not be on your wish list, but there is no harm in staying abreast with all developments related to employment opportunities. It has been seen that most organisations regard spontaneous and reactive job-hunters seriously because anybody who is contented in his or her current employment perhaps feels that he or she is on the correct path. It is essential that you keep updating your resume regularly, besides being aware of every development in the field you are working. You should keep your contact base alive – besides staying in contact, you should also focus on expanding it on a continual basis. If you think that there is no scope to improve your present settings, how certain and convincing will such an assumption be? Any new opportunity ought to be evaluated in detail and for all you know, it could well be a jumping board for a monumental realisation.

Formulating a career plan is important alright; it is also necessary that you periodically visit it for the purpose of swotting and review. A proactive approach is what is called for. In case you adopt it, you will remain focussed on your future and endeavour to prepare for it. But if you do not, you will remain preoccupied in fire-fighting only. Remember that it is important to find a career to which you are tailored innately and thereafter toil hard at it, is a sure-shot method to be successful and happy to the maximum extent possible. The best characteristic of this recipe is that if you get into the correct career, your industriousness will propel you up and ahead.  And when that comes about, you will not feel any strains of your toil.

Make your job pleasant & gratifying

 “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”

---- Aristotle

One of the most common issues that is frequently talked about is job contentment. Though it is based on several inquiries, demands and ideas, it cannot be described concisely. There could be some factors that mean the world to you, but others may not attach such significance to them. In this context, facets like salary package, working environment, charter of responsibilities and superintendence exercised over you are undoubtedly important. However, of late, the dynamics of non-rigid work timings, offering of facilities for learning and development, growth possibilities, recognition and feeling of determination are other influencing causes. If you are in love with your job, you will realise that the job you are in is indeed your cup of tea and that the salary package is also commensurate. In words, you are happy with the way your career is advancing.

Job dissatisfaction springs up if your job is excessively demanding and nerve-racking. Frequent travel or tours, schedules eating into your leisure, low remuneration, absence of healthy workplace relationships and insensitive management can contribute to workplace stress and eventually lead to job discontentment.

Statistics indicate that less than half of working people enjoy job satisfaction. How do you find out if you are contented with your job or not? Honest responses to the following questions will help you to discern the truth:

· Are your contributions acknowledged?

· Do you take delight in the work that you are required to do and feel that it is a good match?

· Do you feel that you are being paid well?

· Do you participate voluntarily in off-hours activities?

· Are you afforded opportunities to speak up and are you opinions and suggestions taken seriously?

· Do you enjoy a congenial association with your colleagues?

· Do your seniors work like genuine guides and inspire you?

· Does the work that you do and the charter assigned to you give you a feeling of self- attainment?

· Does the issue of job security bug you or not?

· Do you get adequate time to fulfil your other obligations?

It is also quite possible that you do not like your job, but yet cling on to it for various reasons, primarily financial. If that be so, the only viable alternative available to you is to love your job and work so that you remain satisfied. While job satisfaction is a state of mind, it can have different meanings for different people. In essence, it is something that inspires you to work and undertake assigned responsibilities with due enthusiasm and sincerity. Factors that keep you motivated and without which you cannot derive job satisfaction are:

1.   Working environment: Issues that comprise the working atmosphere, amongst other things are your work station, associations with your colleagues and relationships with your seniors. These aspects play a prime part in defining and moulding job satisfaction. Good relationships will always speak positively and manifest in the work output. People will genuinely want to be at work and as a result of this, their contentment levels will shoot up.

2.   Acknowledgement & support: If good work done or valuable contributions made is acknowledged, the inspiration levels of employees register a boost. And thus, the level of job contentment goes up. It is therefore, essential that all good work of employees is valued to boost organisational yield and profitability.

3.   Adequate remuneration: This actually is one of the most important factor that prompts an individual to take up a job. Job contentment gets to be remarkably swayed by the salary that an individual is paid for obvious reasons; even award of increments also matters to a great extent. Any employee who is satisfied with his remunerations package will undoubtedly display zeal and devotion towards his or her work. The job satisfaction will manifest in the form of increased productivity and work-efficiency.

4.   Attainment of objectives: Every individual harbours some aspiration or the other and seeks to attain some objectives. Such objectives have to be in consonance with professional advancement. Job conditions that lend support to attainment of objectives invariably offer more job satisfaction.

Your job should be a source of pride, self-reliance, self-confidence and your individuality. This will happen only if you are genuinely inspired. Such inspiration will come only from attainment, personal growth, job contentment and acknowledgement. And when that happens, you will love your work. You should always remember that it is your work alone that fill up a large part of your life and that the only way to be truly satisfied is by doing what you think to be great work. Doing great work will be facilitated if you love your work.

Triumphing over career & life hurdles

No career journey is sans hurdles. If you realise this truth, the hurdles cease to be hurdles and can, at best be small jabs. The most painful of all jabs can also be converted to growth and success because every difficulty, every failure and every disappointment carries with it the seed of a greater or equal advantage.

During the course of your career journey, you are likely to encounter different types of hurdles. There are bound to be domestic issues, educational impediments and deliberate efforts by others to pull you down as you chug and focus on your way up in your career. However, the best way to deal with them is by simply storming ahead. And the greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it. If you expect life to be easy, challenges will seem difficult; but if you admit that challenges will occur, life will be easier.

There is no hazard and luck that can bypass, impede or command the well-founded determination of a strong-minded person. You need to embrace all challenges on your career journey. Some guiding canons to overcome them are:

· Anything different is always good: You need not close your eyes to new and different experiences, opportunities, tests and trials. If you can learn something from them, how can they be bad? And if a different thing or experience can supplement the exclusive scheme that is you, the entire process will never be a miscalculation. For example, you may be thrust upon a new project and which you detest, but the process of learning will be there because you would reap a helpful understanding about yourself. In any case, being different is an advantage in every circumstance and situation – that is what true medley actually implies.

· All snags & hitches fuel advancement: Growth takes place only if you are elastic; your flexibility makes you bodily, psychologically and intellectually robust. You will never be able to appreciate your true worth and realise your full potential if you do not make an attempt to do anything in the first place; and exert and confront your own self thereafter. This in no way implies that you should be frazzled perennially because such a condition can be detrimental to your wellbeing. Everybody requires a break for rest and recoup; the foregoing makes it imperative to not evade anything tough just because it is tough. The times in life when things do not unfold as per your expectations can be the most powerful. You should try to clinch these experiences and understand that they are opportunities to learn, grow and evolve. You should utilise snags and hitches as a doorway to your dreams.

· All failures are learning experiences: Failure is an opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely. You should always remember that your best feels and advancement are invariably brought about through disappointments and fiascos. As a matter of fact, such learnings are better than succeeding with a narrow margin because you are able to learn the maximum about yourself in the process. More importantly, if you fail, it in no way implies that you yourself are a let-down or flop. A failure enables you to discern the difference between being the greatest and being your finest. You need to develop success from failures because discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. Remember that being the greatest always is more or less impossible to be but being your finest is rather attainable and contributes to true contentment and even victory.

· Keeping good company pays: In this world, your life is all about associations and connections – the ones that you build and nurture. You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. Relationship matter everywhere and hence you should not try to be a loner in your endeavours. The encouragement that you receive from others and the encouragement that you provide to others will always stand you in good stead. The truth is that life’s greatest joys also stem from this. Therefore, it is essential that you have positive people around you so that you always remain motivated and in high spirits to bash on regardless.

· Life is always about you and not others: There will be nobody who has had a cakewalk in his life. Everybody has his share of prejudice, disapproval, condemnation and other forms of upsetting treatments. There will be scores of people who would gun for you, spare no efforts to project you in bad light and even strive to wreck you. It is essential that you pay no heed to them and instead concentrate on your own success. After all, what is happening to you is just a miniscule portion of what is happening to others. While you may not hold the reins to exercise control others, you definitely hold them for yourself.

You should always remember that the career path that you embark upon is your own choosing. There is none who can discover it for you, just like no one can live your life.   

Importance of scheming your career path

Any person who has been successful and is contented will invariably opine that the significance of planning your career path is to make certain that you do not become purposeless and directionless in your career journey. And this aspect assumes greater importance when you understand that no organisation is in a position to promise its employees a lifetime career. All organisations perpetually tend to focus on organisational interests and which need not be always in harmony with employee interests.

A company can always assist you in superintending your career to an extent that training, job progression and increased responsibilities can offer. But it is you and you alone who has to actually plan your career by setting objectives, initiating appropriate midway measures and taking suitable jobs to make your imaginings come true. If you think that anybody else will understand the importance of career planning, you will be in for a shock. You only have to do that.

What is the importance of planning your career path? It is something like having an insurance policy that caters to various risks. When you plan your career path, you derive immense gains like:

·  Expanding your skills: A widened skill base will make you more desirable to several other companies.

·  Facilitate in making job changes: A career path charted by you will help you discern and appreciate various skills and work charter that you need to look for in a new job.

·  Shouldering greater responsibilities: Because you would have identified fresh qualitative requirements, you can improve upon your skills to perform better.

·  Having more windows of opportunities: You will be in a better position to comprehend the place where a particular position or responsibility measures into your overall career plot.

·  Making sound decisions effortlessly: You will be able to understand the larger mosaic of things and thus be better poised to evaluate both your alternatives and preferences.

·  Earning better remuneration: Just because you would have delved into details of all career issues, you will be aware of industry packages and what exactly is your worth. Your earnings will thus be in consonance with your expectations.

·  Deriving greater contentment: The direction in which your career moves will be such that it compliments your inclinations, pecuniary objectives and everyday life.

The career path that you draft should manifest your objectives and requirements. With the passage of time, you will invariably be required to take re-looks and apply corrective measures as deemed appropriate. In your career journey, you will have different phases and stages that through which you will have to transition; these are periods between:

·  Late teens and mid-twenties: During this phase, parental influences are immense and so are the sways exerted by your teachers and friends. There is every likelihood that a career that you select may not necessitate extensive educational qualifications. And in case you want to pursue higher education - engineering, medical or any other field – your preferred choice is bound to be influenced by your friends and parents. Though unfortunate, but this happens to be the truth because you have very little contact with people who can actually render you an all-inclusive career advice.  

·  Late twenties and early thirties: This period is in actuality a threshold. The career that you possibly embarked upon while you were still a teenager or while attending a technical college is still plaguing you. But you gain practical experience about life as a whole – tests, trials, contests and skills alike to name a few. Perhaps you may also enter into matrimony in this phase; the views of your better half will be imposed and become an important factor for compliance. A woman may decide to become primarily a home-maker. Developments that take place in this phase may serve to be a spur for you to support or have a change of heart about your elected career path.

·  Mid-thirties to late-forties: This period is of the most importance. You either make it to the top or have a fall. The period is one of growth and progress; and career decisions arrived earlier together with whatever experience you have to your credit will present before you new opportunities. The high degree of importance that this phase deserves will manifest in varied career-related choices that you make to ensure that your compass bearings are set favourably. Some mid-term corrections will have to be applied in case you happen to not be satisfied with your career and the progress that you may have achieved in it so far.  

·  Fifties to mid-sixties: This phase can be quite bothersome for a large majority of people because of the need to have supplementary career planning to put up with a job loss or a decision to call it a day. Your career path can undergo a radical alteration as you seek more flexible work that calls for special concentration of efforts.

·  Mid-sixties & after:  This is the time when most people decide on the precise role their career should play in your very life. Your focus can change and you may accord greater priority to things that were neglected so far.

Your career planning has to cater to changing times. You will have to assess and reassess things on a continuous basis to see if you are actually fulfilling your aspirations and meeting your objectives. Modifications and alterations can thus be prompted to bring about improvement on various fronts. And in case you fail to take stock, you are likely to go astray. The importance of having a good networking capacity under such circumstances needs no emphasis because at that stage it is only through word of mouth publicity, information about new openings will get known to you. It is necessary that you keep abreast of all developments all around so that you can gear up suitably to take on challenges. Remember that it is good planning that helps to make elusive dreams come true.