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.