Most people do some career planning when
they are just out of college; they ponder over which career line to adopt and
nothing more. Thereafter, there is no such thing as career planning in their
careers. Nothing can be more wrong than this. In fact, career planning should
be undertaken periodically because there is every likelihood of you doing a
career change as distinct from a job change certainly in your career span.
Therefore, any time is appropriate time for career planning.
Career planning is not a fear-provoking
activity, but something that ought to be regarded as something that is
redemptive and satisfying. It should suggest to you objectives for
accomplishment in your present pursuit, besides indicating to you strategies
for a career change. Some planning tips for sure shot success are:
· Let career planning be a yearly affair: Don’t you go for
an annual holiday? Don’t you have an annual medical check-up? Don’t you have an
annual sprucing of your home? If the answer to any one of these questions is in
the affirmative, then you need to answer why you shouldn’t be doing career
planning once and if possible twice a year? You must earmark a day for the
purpose. On the designated day, you must frustrate all disruptions,
interferences and interruptions so that you can concentrate on all issues
pertaining to your career. Such an exercise will offer you a feeling of
security, as a result of which you will be able to handle unforeseen problems
in your career journey better.
· Examine the course that you have steered yourself on: You need to devote
time to plot the course that you adopted after the last career planning exercise.
While not dwelling excessively on your past, however, you must review it for
its outcome so that you can organise yourself for the future. You will thus be
able to gauge your satisfaction level and also comment on the possibility of it
having been better. In other words, you will be in a position to identify
specific issues that you could possibly address in a different way in the
coming months.
· Contemplate on your preferences & requirements: Change is an
important element in our lives. Over a period of time, even our preferences and
likes change. It is thus necessary that you ponder over all issues that matter
to you in your career and life alike. Whatever be your likes and dislikes, they
should be recorded; and then evaluated in the context of your current job and
career. If you evoke more likes, you can take it that you are on the correct
track; but should you have more dislikes, there is something wrong and perhaps
you ought to think of a change. You should be clear on what you seek from your
job and career; and also what prompts you to do so. Many people realise that giving
wings to your passions can be immensely fruitful and hence they change careers
to undertake their leisure activities as a fulltime pursuit; you could also
consider this option.
· Make a record of your successes & achievements: Quite a few people
are rather poor at this activity and hence just do not know how to go about
when they have to draft a new resume for a new job. If you know various fields
where you have done well and have been appreciated, you will be able to churn
out a good resume and which will also help you in your career planning efforts.
You will realise that recalling accomplishments may also disclose overlooked realisations,
some amongst them could prompt you to look for other avenues that are likely to
enthuse and gratify you better.
· Evaluate trends & set objectives: Every individual
carves out prospects for oneself in his or her career and work. This helps one
to sell oneself to get into a new job. Therefore, you need to be aware of
current career trends and the job market to achieve success in the long term. You
should be able to discern where precisely growth is likely to take place, more
so in areas that you have a penchant for. An evaluation of existing career
trends and job market will also gear you better to display flexibility in
reinforcing your strongpoints. You will have to formulate a road map and that
would entail setting short and long-term objectives. These objectives will also
have to be reviewed periodically and if necessary, modified. As and when you
accomplish your objectives, the process for formulating new objectives will
have to be set in motion.
· Delve into new education & growth prospects: Your own knowledge
base counts a lot and hence you simply cannot afford to let opportunities for
enhancing skills slip out of your hand. It is your individual responsibility to
evaluate those that will facilitate accomplishing your career objectives. This
will necessarily entail scouting around in your current company, various
professional clubs and other institutions that offer learning programmes. But
most importantly, you will also need to find ways and means to subscribe to and
qualify on them. To put in simple terms, you need to be clear about where you
envision yourself at certain stages and for which, you must research different
career paths. If in case you do not have ample opportunities for growth in your
current job, you should develop scenarios wherein such visualisations become an
actuality. There is absolutely no harm if you even decide to look for even a
change of career.
It should be appreciated that career
planning can offer you a horde of advantages – starting from formulating
objectives at one end of the spectrum to a change of career at the other; and
eventually a contended professional life. So, what are you waiting for?
No comments:
Post a Comment