Raison d'être of a career development plan

People who lack a focus often find themselves in the same position for a long time because they lack the initiative and motivation to seek something better. In your life and career, it is important to always be on a forward-moving mode; towards that you need to have objectives.  A career development plan is a way to set future objectives for making headway in a selected career.  It is an extremely beneficial resource for any individual wanting to grow consciously and purposefully through a particular career path.

Knowing the method of formulating one prompts you to decisively reflect on your current position and state; the place where you want to be; ways and means to reach there; and the process of evaluating your efforts. In case you have no idea of the direction and end-point of your endeavours, you are unlikely to clock any professional growth and in the process, will always be faced with severe dilemmas. Therefore, the need to have a career development plan is inescapable. The why and wherefores of having a career development plan are:

· You need to maintain an upfront advantage: To do well in your career, you need to be in the lead over others. The fact that everything in your life will not always be fine or for that matter like what it happens to be today should be well appreciated by you. Going as per current trends, people stick in a particular job for not more than three or four years and invariably move on to explore better avenues. This implies that if you seek to manage and improve your prospects, there is an inescapable requirement to be continuously changing and being on a winning streak.

· You need to convey appropriate signals to your company: Today, companies are rather keen to know about their staff who are determined to maintain an upward curve or those who are merely unenergetically exhausting its resources. There were times when you could afford to remain camouflaged, but it is no more so presently. When you do career planning and carve out a line of action for development, you are able to steer yourself on the right bearing. Organisations discern this aspect and thus appreciate your willingness and capacity to embrace change and keep pace with it.

· You need to have career objectives to aspire for: With a career development plan in place, you will be able to continuously assess your objectives and be able to discern if you are moving on the correct personal and professional track. In the eventuality of any impromptu happenings, you can always apply mid-term corrections to ensure that you do not go off-course. It is essential that keeping in mind your long-term career objectives, you split them into smaller ones that could be attained piece by piece in short spans of time.

· You need to draft your own route chart: The career development plan that you formulate ought to assist you in envisioning the level you seek to be at in the ensuing five to ten years. To that extent, it has to be precise and well-defined. A list of actions required to be initiated by you for improving your qualifications should be catalogued so that you become more vendible and sought after. Your career development plan can serve to provide you exact bearings to move on and ruminate over essentials. You will thus be able to decide on the precise ways and means of attaining your objectives.

· You need to let go of all rigidity & be adaptable: Most people do not cogitate about the importance of being lithe at work as also in outlook. A career development plan makes you more adjustable. Your objectives once set need not change, but the methodology to attain them can be subject to alteration. You have parameters to operate within and hence can decide on various alternatives available to you and which will always figure in your scheme of things. On the contrary, if you do not have a career development plan, you will simply be doing firefighting.     

Career development is actually an all-time procedure to manage knowledge, work, leisure, and changes in order to move towards an individually resolved and embryonic preferred future. Making a career development plan entails identification of various career possibilities by focussing within to ascertain your prime interests, values, skills, precedence, make-up and various environment issues that are vital for your work satisfaction. You thus decide upon a path that you can embark upon and which is harmony with you and your aspirations.

The significance and meaning of career development varies from person to person. However, it is an important benefactor for your personal happiness and even financial security. If you spare time to set career objectives and an action plan to attain them, you will invariably find that your job responsibilities and compensation will advance securely. But if you ignore it, you will find yourself stuck in dead-end and unfulfilling jobs. Your career development plan will make you aware of various opportunities open to you and how you can best achieve your work objectives.

Bolster your job security

The term ‘job security’ implies a guarantee that you have about the permanency of advantageous employment for your work life. It generally arises from the terms of the contract of hiring; and rules and regulations that preclude its subjective termination. Job security can also be impacted by general financial and economic conditions.

In your life you will have liabilities and obligations to fulfil. And that is precisely why you learn and develop skills; and eventually take up a job. And once you are in a job, your focus invariably shifts to protecting it. With a job for a lifetime having become history, the issue of job security is more important today than ever before.

How can you bolster your job security? It is all contingent on the following factors:   

· Availability of avenues: In the first place, there have to exist adequate possibilities of promoting your abilities. You need to look beyond your current organisation to discover companies that could be seeking people with skills that you possess. It is necessary that you carry out an extensive survey of the job market to infer if there is a requirement therein or not. You can gain extensive and all-inclusive insight by going through various job portals and hiring sites. If you have to learn and develop new skills, the efforts involved can be tremendous. The entire process can be rather difficult, but it tends to defeat all other options. The maiden initiative has to come from you and it is all about ensuring that your skills remain perennially updated and in demand.

· Being brilliant: When you are at work, it is not necessary that you take delight in each and every facet of it. There will be some components of your responsibilities that will be lacklustre and uninteresting; and fail to inspire you. You may have problems in dealing with colleagues or seniors or even clients, but such problems need to be acknowledged as encounters of tests and trials. In your endeavours to outshine, you have to make certain that whatever is your charter of work is comprehended by you well and that your performance is good. You will be expected to make useful contributions at all times. Today’s workplace is all about teamwork and hence your output will be contingent on you as also them. You will invariably want conscientious and good people as part of your team. Remember that there is no job that is plush and sans challenges; there will be potholes on your career journey. If you think that things elsewhere will be rosy, you will be mistaken. A point that needs to be understood that it is your camaraderie that will matter the most. Notwithstanding your expertise and knowledge, if you cannot gel and pull along well with others, expecting that another company will take you will amount to being presumptuous. It is a real skill by itself working with others and there are no two ways that you can underplay it. .       

· Connections & contacts: They say that if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail. In all your efforts, you need to prepare well. And this holds great relevance in establishing and widening your contact base too. You simply cannot go about establishing a network at the last moment. It is all an advanced action. If you are well-prepared, you can always serve your moment of inspiration. You can always get into a new job if you excel in your current one, but when people know you well, the process becomes all the more easy. When you establish contacts, it need not be seen as an inconvenience. Your networking efforts can easily be incorporated in your daily schedule. The key point is to always to stay connected; the internet and various social media sights facilitate your endeavours. Having a contact base is one thing, but being able to render assistance to people in your list is another and very important. When you help others, you can expect the same from them.

You cannot take your job security for granted. You need to remain proficient at your work and be marketable at all times. In doing so, you will automatically generate job security for yourself. The driving force of a career must come from you. Your employer will always desire that all workplace problems are resolved, all opportunities are exploited and that the job entrusted to you is completed. You have to persuade your boss and management into believing that nobody can do such tasks better than you. When you create an impression of being too valuable to be dispensed with, you safeguard your job security.   

In the light of the above, you have to get in the habit of making decisions based on what is best for your company. You will need to be on the lookout for tasks that are being neglected and volunteer to take them on. If you are perceived as an employee who makes serious efforts towards organisational growth and who is willing to take on new challenges, your indispensability will stand highlighted. The key to your job security thus lies in good performance and being irreplaceable at work.

Do well in your career

Your career objectives need to extend into the distant future and be supported by a plan to attain them. However, micro-management of your career calls for a number of small steps to facilitate steady career advancement. Such steps may appear to be trivial at first sight but they have a colossal effect in the long run.

To start with, you have to be fully convinced that the line being trailed by you or likely to be trailed by you is to your liking. Your career has to be your own choosing otherwise the prospects of you delighting in it will be bleak. The job that you undertake to do has to be to in harmony with your penchants and proclivities. Going to work day in and day out but sans any liking for it actually serves no purpose and will lead to disinterest and disenchantment. On the contrary, when you love what you do as a career, you will put in sustained efforts towards your growth and eventually towards the accomplishment of your set objectives.

Some simple but highly important steps that you must take towards your career advancement are:

· Be frank & say your piece: You should never let yourself be intimidated into muteness. It is essential that nobody else other than you define you. And towards this, your lips and mouth are there for a purpose. You should say your piece and say it candidly. At work, you will have several opportunities to speak up. You must take an active part in all deliberations and conferences; doing so will manifest your zeal and concern for your organisation. You must make advance preparations for all events. The points that you put across should be pertinent and in consonance with the aim behind such events. You should not hold back any recommendations or ideas that you may have that can serve as value additions. 

· Always be ready to walk an extra mile: It should always be your endeavour to do more what is required. Remember that the distance between someone who accomplishes his goals steadily and those who are the run-of-the mill type is the extra mile. If you remain in recluse or hide behind curtains, career advancement will never come to you. You have to make your presence felt. It is inescapable to shed any reservations that you may have in helping out others at their work or willingly accepting additional tasks. You may perhaps not realise it, but doing so is very important to remain in limelight. Success is virtually and entirely contingent on effort and tenacity. And the best part of walking the extra mile is that when you walk the extra mile, you have at your disposal new dimensions with little or no bottlenecks.    

· Network & share your thoughts and knowledge: If you have a name carved for yourself, there is no doubt that you will not advance in your career. You can build a name for yourself through networking. There will a number of seminars, workshops and other events; each one of them will have immense potentials for widening your contact base. You will thus open up yourself to greater knowledge – both acquisition and sharing. All said and done, interactions and dialogues will broaden your horizon; and the knowledge you gain can be gainfully applied at your work. The road to career advancement will be obstacle free for you.

· Make your presence felt & become a guiding light: When you help out your co-workers, you exchange ideas. A good idea can always be incorporated by you in your working methodology. Periodic consultations and dialogues with your colleagues will get noticed for sure and you will come to be regarded as a good team player. You need to make your presence felt and this is achievable if you engage yourself in various organisational activities, including participation in thinking cliques. The more number of associations that you have, the more number of opportunities you will encounter and all of them will point the way to your career advancement. You will be able to display your fortes and in the process, you will find that many people will come to you for guidance. As a guiding light, the focal point of your efforts should be to make useful contributions for organisational growth. And when you do that, your company too will go all out for your career advancement. You will become indispensable.

There is nobody who is working and does not seek to advance in his career. If you have to really advance in your career, you will have to get out and look for situations that you desire and if you are unable to lay hands on the, create them. You should set for yourself small objectives for self-improvement and headway objectives. Towards their accomplishment, you will have to develop explicit but sound schemas. There is no way but to always remain on the correct path so that whenever an opportunity comes into clutching distance, you can grasp it and take full benefit of it. But your fidelity will matter the most. 

Hitches in selecting a career

One of the major predicaments faced while selecting a career is identifying what you want. Even when it appears that you know what you seek, you may still have doubts about your career choice decision. Dispelling all abstruseness on the issue is perhaps the most significant thing you can do in your career

Under ideal conditions, all individuals will generally be able to identify what the correct career for them would be and what it involves. But pragmatically speaking, career selection can be a very challenging task. From apprehensions at one end of the spectrum to a general absence of discernment at the other, there can be many impediments to the very process of choosing a career.

The more knowledge you have about the difficulties and downsides of career selection, the better geared you are likely to be when you actually get down to any exercise associated with it. Common difficulties faced during the process of selecting a career are:

· Ignorance about talents, ideals & concerns: If you are not aware of your abilities, principles and appeals, you are likely to run into serious problems while selecting your career. This phenomenon is more applicable to people who are embarking upon a work arena, but can afflict any person who lacking up-to-date knowledge or information about what he actually seeks from his career. Today, there are many career counselling institutions where your propensity for different careers can be determined. You can always visit them for help.

· Finding your cup of tea: Every person has his own calling; in fact, his capacity and abilities are his call. No man can succeed in a line of endeavour which he does not like. In other words, a person’s career has to be the just right match for him. That there is only one great career for every person, is a fallacy. As a matter of truth, there are several careers that have similar features and highlights. Rather than seeking only one work path that may perhaps appear to be an ideal match, it is prudently significant to explore an array of options that have analogous attributes. The primary essential is to find out what you are cut out for and what you can do with delight. Your perfect career match lies in one where your heart is. And wherever your heart happens to be, you will find a minefield of gold there. Finding that perfect match implies discovering that minefield so that whatever you learn as you move along in your career holds some meaning for you.

· Anxiety about fulfilling present responsibilities: Harbouring undue worries about your inability to fulfil any of your current commitments can prompt you to ignore certain careers.  You will have doubts about your capability to suitably assimilate and amalgamate your obligations and career in your life schedule. To illustrate the point, if your domestic compulsions necessitate presence at home, you will not take up a career that involves frequent travelling, howsoever suitable you may be for it. But if you feel strongly about taking it up, you can always formulate a line of action with a cut-off date in mind to fulfil your obligations and render them redundant in the context of moving on your preferred career path. You will perhaps use that aim as an inspiration to adhere to your line of action.

· Possession of requisite academic & technical qualifications: Different careers have different qualitative requirements. If a career that you seek to pursue calls for a particular or higher qualification, you should waste no time in planning to acquire it. Any failure on your part can prompt you to go in for another career that may not truly be very inspiring for you. In case you are unable to acquire the required qualification straight away, you can always go in for a subordinate job in that field. Concurrently, you can pursue your studies to acquire the higher qualification to be able to make your dreams come true.

· Fright about debacles & botches: If you suffer from any fear of failure, that fear will invariably get reinforced. In the context of a right career selection too, anxiety and fear will manifest themselves as problems that will have to be dealt with. You may have serious apprehensions about a career if you bind yourself to it. Trepidations related to the likelihood of not doing well will always be there. You can certainly put to rest such angsts by carrying out exhaustive enquiries about various jobs and their characteristics, interacting with those who are into similar careers and even taking some time off to observe what things are at the preferred venue of work. You will have to look all apprehensions straight in their eyes and supplant them with sureness and poise.    

The point to remember is that you do not have to limit yourself to what you think you can do. You can definitely go as far as your mind lets you. You can achieve whatever you believe. All of us are in the gutter, but some of us are always looking at the stars. Look at the stars and you will be what you want to be.

Handling a difficult boss

During the course of your career, you may always run into a difficult boss. While some can be simply forceful and insistent, others could be impolite and uncouth. In most cases when a boss tends to be insulting and offensive, the general impression generated is that he has problems on the domestic front on account of which he has adopted and intimidating disposition. You may not be able to bring about a change in such disgusting outlooks but that does not, in any way imply that you have to subsist through a frightful work life.

Your boss, howsoever difficult he or she may be, should not be allowed to have a free run and exercise control over your life. Some methods to tackle difficult boss situations are:

· Have an alternative line of action at hand: People are generally apprehensive of sitting across the table to discuss outrageous boss conduct. They either worry about being castigated or even losing a job. Such worries are justifiable when a boss feels endangered by juniors. Therefore, to have an alternative line of action at hand is recommended prior to any initiative to deal with your boss in this regard. The alternative line of action can be implemented if your boss seems incorrigible. It entails having a secured job offer in hand prior to discussing your boss’ misconduct with him because you cannot be certain if the boss will be relenting or not. But in case you do not, you afford your intemperate boss an opportunity to further subdue you.  

· Refrain from reacting expressively to ill-treatment or punitive disparagement: You may land up in difficult situations yourself because of clash of self-esteems. There will be every possibility of your boss harbouring a bigger sense of self. If at all you are subjected to a dose of personal condemnation, the intention could well be to prompt you to react sensitively so that you become easy targets for additional such attacks. You simply have to grant and carry on; in the process, you will successfully strip your boss of all sway behind such attacks without creating a dispute. You need to remain balanced and poised; saying sorry will be in the fitness of things.

· Engage in a dialogue instead of an open altercation: Any impulsive action on your part to take your boss head on will lead to deteriorating circumstances for you. You could well make use of censure, reproach and disapproval as an opportunity to discuss various concerns and objectives; and solve thorny issues, requesting assistance, if necessary. If it is your work that comes in for denigration, it implies that your boss harbours affixation on how needs to be done. Under such situations, seeking guidance on how to go about and bring improvement is a viable option.

· Dealing with a new boss: A new boss may lay down new working procedures and that may generate some resentment. There is always hostility to change and most employees generally keep doing their jobs as hitherto fore till such time the new boss intervenes and disapproves the entire working methodology. Therefore, you need to display foresight and to avoid any subsequent admonition or rebuke, get on the same wicket as your boss. Any assignment can be undertaken in numerous ways and hence, discussing its modalities ab initio will help you to comprehend your boss’ perception and also making yours known to him. You need to be cognisant of what your boss likes and dislikes.

· Realise that you cannot alter your boss: The very fact that your boss is difficult implies that his personality is such and that you can do nothing substantial to alter his stance, attitude and conduct. Your efforts should be directed to bring about a change in how you regard his comportment. Just because he happens to be your boss, you should not brand him as thoughtless and imprudent; but if you persist with such an approach, you are more liable to anger yourself and develop animosity towards him.

· Maintain a professional stance at all times: Professionalism entails going ahead with assigned tasks in an obedient manner. Differences apart, you need to realise that as a subordinate, you have no option but to comply with the directions of your boss. You also need to introspect and assess your own outputs, requesting feedback from your colleagues, if required. There could be people who support you and this is bound to make your boss take a relook at things and alter his behaviour.

· Reporting to higher-ups should be last option: If you do so, you are increasing disturbing workplace harmony. You may be viewed as a back-stabber and your boss could be inspired to harbour a silent grudge against you. Whistle-blowing may not be seen in positive light by even some of your co-workers. Sitting across the table with your boss should be your first priority.

Remember that your charter of responsibilities apart, your job is also to make yourself as flexible, alert, brainy and adept in as many situations as possible. And such traits are required to be displayed in your dealings with your boss – good or difficult. 

Plan your career success

There are hundreds of people who keep struggling and wallowing for decades without having any comprehension of why things have not turned out in their favour. Success continues to elude them. The job that they are in and the career path that stands in front of them are more often than not a consequence of coincidence. Evidently, the options that they have exercised that have brought them to wherever they happen to be in their life are not an outcome of a well-defined and conclusive preparation and scheduling.

If you are truly keen to boost your prospects of success in your career, you need to formulate a personal growth plan. This will serve to offer you a precise ‘to-do’ list of actions for the purpose. What you need to do is to make certain that all chances and probabilities are harnessed in your support to accomplish whatever you set out to in your career. And this can be achieved by the growth plan that you make for yourself. In order to lay the e foundation for success in your life and career alike, you need to understand:

·  What a growth plan comprises: You growth plan encompasses certain highly specific components that need to be reduced to writing. In essence, they are your individual career plan, actions that you need to take, your fortes, your principles and objectives that you set for yourself. Once you have it in a written form, you can always peruse it periodically and be reminded and goaded to move forward to materialise it. With regard to your fortes, you need to be clear about how they can facilitate your move ahead.

· How a growth plan helps you: Your growth plan impacts the manner in which you lead your life. Most of us live in the present, rather the current moment and are thus prone to respond to various changes that take place in our surroundings and resultantly on our lives. The foregoing notwithstanding, all of us harbour aspirations and yearnings as also an earnest desire to be successful. But if your compass bearings are not set properly, it is evident that you will head on the wrong course. The growth plan that you formulate will manifest your precise aims. If followed sincerely, it is unlikely that you will go off-track and fail in achieving your objectives. Your growth plan will prove to be a very useful tool to progress deliberately through a specific career path. You will be able to judiciously and decisively consider where you are in your current career, where you intend to be, how you think you can get there and how you will judge the effectiveness of the actions that you take.

You have to understand that creating a personal growth plan is plain and simple hard work. And following through on the plan and sustaining your efforts is something that may not come easy at first. It is bound to take time and a considerable amount of discipline. As a matter of fact, the process may involve some introspection to find out ways and means to deal with those facets of your life that so far you have felt were not possible to be addressed. All along the following aspects should always be remembered:

· Your growth is your responsibility and to attain your dreams, you need to regularly set higher yardsticks and targets. To start with, you should be fully aware of your strengths and weaknesses.

· If you really seek to be at the wheels, you must have well-defined objectives and the time frame in which ought to be achieved by you. Once attained, you need to assess yourself afresh and adapt proactively the limits of your job and functions.

· Stiff competition will be posed to you by others as you move ahead. You need to overlook trifling contentions and yet find a way out to keep moving forward.

· You may not be able to move ahead on your own steam. You may require guidance and which you will need to have a mentor. It is not that you will fail totally, but with a mentor by your side, you will be able to acquit yourself creatively, effectually and vigorously.

The crux of the matter is that sans any exact line of action, you will not be able to reach the zenith of your career, howsoever hard you may slog or remain devoted to your work. It requires only efforts of two or three days to formulate your growth plan and once formulated, you will realise that you possess the requisite three Cs - capabilities, capacities and confidence – that will impel you forward in attaining the career and life that you have always sought. Positive alterations will automatically be brought about in you and which will steer you towards success.   Although success does not come immediately, good judgment, conscientiousness, industriousness and careful planning are what it takes to propel even an ordinary career to enviable pinnacles.

Benefitting from a sudden job loss

“Set fire to the broken pieces; start anew.”

― Lauren DeStefano

Jobs today are like roller-coaster rides; they may come and go. Some job losses could be forced like when a company is downsized and the axe falls on you, despite having worked satisfactorily for a number of years. There are some that are voluntary, but nonetheless anticipated; you yourself decide to quit because of various reasons. However, the strain and ordeal are just the same in both.

A job loss is a loss, whether expected or not, whether voluntary or otherwise. It is rather difficult to foretell who will survive an unexpected job loss and flourish thereafter, their background or reasons for the crash notwithstanding. This is a fact relevant to everybody – men or women, young or old and leavers or losers. But while some people cope with it in a positive manner, others find it difficult to terms with. How is that possible? Having rendered jobless, what are the vital tasks that need to be done to put your career back on rails?

Anybody who is able to bounce back will agree on one singular truth and that is that the revival process is gradual and not overnight. The period can extend to weeks and months. You may discover shortcuts in your job search, but finding them for your emotional regaining is indeed difficult. The transition to a fresh stability will have to undergo three elemental phases entailing forgetting the past, remaining without a clear identity for some time and then embarking on a new path. These phases are:

· Liberating yourself of the past: The maiden step required to be taken by you is severing your links with your previous job – both physically and mentally. You must refrain from making references to or using your old designation, status or associations till you are secure at some other place. Your old company should be out of your mind, including what is transpiring there or what is happening to whom there. You may find your experience enjoyable and to some extent also invigorating. But the fact is that you will find it difficult to reconcile to the fact that you are jobless. You will be able to come to terms with it when you mourn its demise once and for all and understand that on the emotional plane it is all over. This phase can be trying alright, but it has to be undergone. 

· Lolling about to open up: People have varying personalities – they could be loud and unreserved or quiet and reticent; bright and buoyant or gloomy and unenthusiastic; and precise and measured or creative and imaginative. But when a crash hits them, there could be drastic changes in their outlooks. That apart, you need to be flexible in your approach because you are now required to cut through your skylines and cogitate all-over again as to who you are and what you aspire to be. You need to afford yourself time to reassess your abilities and aspirations. This will be possible only if you repel the stunt of settling in a new career straightaway. This phase will be one when you could be devoid of an identity, but you can overcome this disturbance by treating your present times like a vacation. It is only when you have come to terms with your job loss should you think of get going once again.

· Taking the forward plunge: Your lolling about automatically ceases when you decide to take on a job. Your precedence should not be to find a job alone. While at a job, people regard it as central to their life and a source of their [H1]  self-esteem, self-confidence, pride and dignity. Little do they realise that it is devouring all their time and there is no happiness in their life. That is why, it is necessary to go through a self-awareness exercise before taking up a job or career. Now that you happen to be once bitten and twice shy, you need to alter that arrangement. You need to consider all things more holistically and accord priorities to other things that you now realise are important. Your new job could well turn out to be a different pursuit altogether, a new beginning as they say.

Following a sudden job loss, you should view your life as a fresh chapter. You should explore yourself one again. And if you are persevering enough, you will emerge as a more self-assured and assertive individual. You will find your new job or career rewarding on both your individual and professional planes. Remember that there are as many worlds as there are kinds of days. You ought to realise that if a door closed, it was because whatever was behind it was not meant for you. Just as an opal changes its colours and its fire to match the nature of a day, so can you. You always raze the old to raise the new.

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