Planning your career isn't difficult

One does career planning as part of strategic planning to make career dreams come true. It involves some amount of marketing of self too, in addition to always displaying an anticipatory disposition. The world as a whole is fast changing and evolving’ and hence, if you stick to your plans, you will encounter least impediments in your career path.

Men and women, more often than not, generally attain whatever they set out for, provided they maintain the desired resolve. If at all they fail, they do so in the scheduling process. This is largely because they do not address their concerns in advance, implying that they fail to do advance planning. Therefore, it is essential that all aspects of career planning are understood thoroughly.

The entire gamut of career planning encompasses two basic but very crucial steps:

• Acknowledging wherever you are at present: Like in the case of any planning, you need to know where you stand today. You should be well aware of your strengths and vulnerabilities as pertinent to your present job. Issues relating to the reasons behind job discontentment, if any, current financial status should be subjects for reflection to tell you if your well-poised to achieve your objectives. Your planning will never be complete if you do not focus on your qualifications and skills; this will allay all fears of others doing better than you. It is also necessary that you cogitate over the progress that you have achieved in the last few years and the resultant satisfaction enjoyed. And most importantly, you cannot afford to ignore your sentiments vis-a-vis your job so that you feel inspired to do well and move forward in the correct direction. If you come to terms with your present and have an a relatively clear comprehension of where you stand today, it is only then will you be able to consider and plan anything about your future.
• Deciding on the position where you want to be: This can be best done by reducing to writing each and everything that you seek to accomplish in spans of three years of the your residual period of employment. As it is, you are clear of the progress that you have made over the years and your current status. On the basis of the pace that you have accomplished so far, it should not be difficult to identify positions that you will like to hold in the ensuing future, together with the salary packages that should go with them. These will also help you perceive various employment aspects as pertinent to you so that you can take the desired initiative for a positive outcome. A point to note is that any failure to overlook focal areas will make your overall profile plummet. To put it in other words, you should be able to narrow down on to giving a boost to your personal attributes and skill sets together with additional experience; and a timetable for the same. It is quite likely that prevailing circumstances may compel you to go in for a new employment immediately or after some time, the exact stage of which ought to be discernible to you. 

The above exercise will unravel before you a fairly accurate image of your present position and future aspirations - all very well programmed and scheduled. This image is nothing but your career plan. You should not forget that no plan or no amount of planning will bear fruits if you yourself do not display a resolution for their adherence and implementation. Whatever plan you formulate should be periodically evaluated and midterm corrections incorporated in it. Ithaca been seen that as years roll by, men and women set fresh objectives. Considering all this, the significance of strict adherence to your career plan needs no emphasis.

An important point to remember is that if at all there lies anything between you and your aspirations, it is premeditated strategic action. In the light of the foregoing, you must do good career planning and display dynamism to make certain that your plan does not remain on paper. You will encounter hordes of opportunities in your career journey, though most of them will come with difficulties appended. You need to harbour a positive outlook at all times and be on the lookout for opportunities in difficulties too. And above all, you must oversee your career as if you its sole proprietor. It is then that success will come to you.