Oversee your career for an unbeaten innings

A large majority of people, at some stage or the other, start having serious doubts about the career that they have chosen. They wonder if at all they are in the right job or not and occasionally think about other avenues available to them. A square peg in a round hole is always a conundrum and hence you need to know if you are in the correct job or not. And it is equally crucial for you to be aware of opportunities and prospects available elsewhere, primarily on account of the fact that you simply cannot move forward if you do not know where you stand. You should be clear on where you stand and what you need to focus on; these per se manifest the importance of career planning and career management on career success.

If you happen to be standing at the crossroads of your career, there are some questions that you need to ask yourself and the answers to which, will help you to arrive at sound career decisions. You could even seek advice from others so that you are able to view things in the correct perspective and recall aspects that may have slipped your memory. Some questions, the answers to which you must seek are:

· What is about you that you are marketing? If you are out job hunting, you need to know what your USPs are. You should know specifically all your strongpoints that will be of use and significance to the company that you intend to join. These aspects could be your explicit talents and abilities; your acquaintance with and awareness of job responsibilities; your contacts and network; and most importantly, your name. You may find it to be a rather tough and challenging task to be pragmatically unbiased in this matter; and hence it will be in the fitness of things to discuss with others to strive for confirmation and validation.   

· How do you function and what is your approach towards work? In order to find out roles and charter that are appropriate for you as also the best working atmosphere, you need to know more about yourself. You should know what you and your personality are all about and how you are disposed towards your work. To illustrate the point and notwithstanding the type of job you may be embarking on, if you have a tendency to heavily concentrate on your work, then an advisory role in any organisation may not be your cup of tea. Remember that the way you work is perceptible to others better and hence it is advisable to ask for an opinion, if at all it is probable.  

· What is that you aspire for in your career? If you want to do well in your career, you must formulate a line of action. You need to have a career strategy and towards that, it is necessary that you identify fields in which you want to excel and stand out in the crowd. There will be several elements that you should be highlighting; identifying and incorporating them in your career strategy should be the focus of your attention. You cannot afford to be presumptuous in your approach; on the contrary, the need will be to specific to the maximum extent possible and accord precedence to various issues. A pragmatic outlook to include deliberations on important issues like salary and side-issues like getting into the good books of your seniors should be adopted by you. And all these basics and fundamentals should become your career objectives.  

· How do you propose to execute your career moves to attain success? You would have thought about alternatives, should you not succeed in one of your endeavours. Either you decide to not move out for a new job to another company and stay put in your current position; or decide to go in for a lateral transfer. It is also likely that you may decide to switch to a brand new career or say bye-bye to your job to set up a venture of your own. You must ponder over all such possibilities so that when the time comes, you can go in for the best one. There is nothing wrong if you seek feedback from hirers about where you stand vis-à-vis other competitors and then take a final call on it.

· What is that you should be doing for achieving your career objectives? This is best identified if you reduce to writing a to-do list that will facilitate accomplishing your career objectives. One such action could be redrafting your curriculum vitae. Expanding your contact base could be another. You may also consider enrolling for a course in consultation with your line manager. Whatever list you come up with, you should catalogue each one of them and set a time-schedule for their attainment.

The crux of the matter is to have well defined aims for attainment in your career journey. The journey by itself will always be a practical acquaintance with professional subjects and learning. However, the important point is to ensure that you work hard and keep working hard.