Triumphing over career & life hurdles

No career journey is sans hurdles. If you realise this truth, the hurdles cease to be hurdles and can, at best be small jabs. The most painful of all jabs can also be converted to growth and success because every difficulty, every failure and every disappointment carries with it the seed of a greater or equal advantage.

During the course of your career journey, you are likely to encounter different types of hurdles. There are bound to be domestic issues, educational impediments and deliberate efforts by others to pull you down as you chug and focus on your way up in your career. However, the best way to deal with them is by simply storming ahead. And the greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it. If you expect life to be easy, challenges will seem difficult; but if you admit that challenges will occur, life will be easier.

There is no hazard and luck that can bypass, impede or command the well-founded determination of a strong-minded person. You need to embrace all challenges on your career journey. Some guiding canons to overcome them are:

· Anything different is always good: You need not close your eyes to new and different experiences, opportunities, tests and trials. If you can learn something from them, how can they be bad? And if a different thing or experience can supplement the exclusive scheme that is you, the entire process will never be a miscalculation. For example, you may be thrust upon a new project and which you detest, but the process of learning will be there because you would reap a helpful understanding about yourself. In any case, being different is an advantage in every circumstance and situation – that is what true medley actually implies.

· All snags & hitches fuel advancement: Growth takes place only if you are elastic; your flexibility makes you bodily, psychologically and intellectually robust. You will never be able to appreciate your true worth and realise your full potential if you do not make an attempt to do anything in the first place; and exert and confront your own self thereafter. This in no way implies that you should be frazzled perennially because such a condition can be detrimental to your wellbeing. Everybody requires a break for rest and recoup; the foregoing makes it imperative to not evade anything tough just because it is tough. The times in life when things do not unfold as per your expectations can be the most powerful. You should try to clinch these experiences and understand that they are opportunities to learn, grow and evolve. You should utilise snags and hitches as a doorway to your dreams.

· All failures are learning experiences: Failure is an opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely. You should always remember that your best feels and advancement are invariably brought about through disappointments and fiascos. As a matter of fact, such learnings are better than succeeding with a narrow margin because you are able to learn the maximum about yourself in the process. More importantly, if you fail, it in no way implies that you yourself are a let-down or flop. A failure enables you to discern the difference between being the greatest and being your finest. You need to develop success from failures because discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. Remember that being the greatest always is more or less impossible to be but being your finest is rather attainable and contributes to true contentment and even victory.

· Keeping good company pays: In this world, your life is all about associations and connections – the ones that you build and nurture. You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. Relationship matter everywhere and hence you should not try to be a loner in your endeavours. The encouragement that you receive from others and the encouragement that you provide to others will always stand you in good stead. The truth is that life’s greatest joys also stem from this. Therefore, it is essential that you have positive people around you so that you always remain motivated and in high spirits to bash on regardless.

· Life is always about you and not others: There will be nobody who has had a cakewalk in his life. Everybody has his share of prejudice, disapproval, condemnation and other forms of upsetting treatments. There will be scores of people who would gun for you, spare no efforts to project you in bad light and even strive to wreck you. It is essential that you pay no heed to them and instead concentrate on your own success. After all, what is happening to you is just a miniscule portion of what is happening to others. While you may not hold the reins to exercise control others, you definitely hold them for yourself.

You should always remember that the career path that you embark upon is your own choosing. There is none who can discover it for you, just like no one can live your life.   

Importance of scheming your career path

Any person who has been successful and is contented will invariably opine that the significance of planning your career path is to make certain that you do not become purposeless and directionless in your career journey. And this aspect assumes greater importance when you understand that no organisation is in a position to promise its employees a lifetime career. All organisations perpetually tend to focus on organisational interests and which need not be always in harmony with employee interests.

A company can always assist you in superintending your career to an extent that training, job progression and increased responsibilities can offer. But it is you and you alone who has to actually plan your career by setting objectives, initiating appropriate midway measures and taking suitable jobs to make your imaginings come true. If you think that anybody else will understand the importance of career planning, you will be in for a shock. You only have to do that.

What is the importance of planning your career path? It is something like having an insurance policy that caters to various risks. When you plan your career path, you derive immense gains like:

·  Expanding your skills: A widened skill base will make you more desirable to several other companies.

·  Facilitate in making job changes: A career path charted by you will help you discern and appreciate various skills and work charter that you need to look for in a new job.

·  Shouldering greater responsibilities: Because you would have identified fresh qualitative requirements, you can improve upon your skills to perform better.

·  Having more windows of opportunities: You will be in a better position to comprehend the place where a particular position or responsibility measures into your overall career plot.

·  Making sound decisions effortlessly: You will be able to understand the larger mosaic of things and thus be better poised to evaluate both your alternatives and preferences.

·  Earning better remuneration: Just because you would have delved into details of all career issues, you will be aware of industry packages and what exactly is your worth. Your earnings will thus be in consonance with your expectations.

·  Deriving greater contentment: The direction in which your career moves will be such that it compliments your inclinations, pecuniary objectives and everyday life.

The career path that you draft should manifest your objectives and requirements. With the passage of time, you will invariably be required to take re-looks and apply corrective measures as deemed appropriate. In your career journey, you will have different phases and stages that through which you will have to transition; these are periods between:

·  Late teens and mid-twenties: During this phase, parental influences are immense and so are the sways exerted by your teachers and friends. There is every likelihood that a career that you select may not necessitate extensive educational qualifications. And in case you want to pursue higher education - engineering, medical or any other field – your preferred choice is bound to be influenced by your friends and parents. Though unfortunate, but this happens to be the truth because you have very little contact with people who can actually render you an all-inclusive career advice.  

·  Late twenties and early thirties: This period is in actuality a threshold. The career that you possibly embarked upon while you were still a teenager or while attending a technical college is still plaguing you. But you gain practical experience about life as a whole – tests, trials, contests and skills alike to name a few. Perhaps you may also enter into matrimony in this phase; the views of your better half will be imposed and become an important factor for compliance. A woman may decide to become primarily a home-maker. Developments that take place in this phase may serve to be a spur for you to support or have a change of heart about your elected career path.

·  Mid-thirties to late-forties: This period is of the most importance. You either make it to the top or have a fall. The period is one of growth and progress; and career decisions arrived earlier together with whatever experience you have to your credit will present before you new opportunities. The high degree of importance that this phase deserves will manifest in varied career-related choices that you make to ensure that your compass bearings are set favourably. Some mid-term corrections will have to be applied in case you happen to not be satisfied with your career and the progress that you may have achieved in it so far.  

·  Fifties to mid-sixties: This phase can be quite bothersome for a large majority of people because of the need to have supplementary career planning to put up with a job loss or a decision to call it a day. Your career path can undergo a radical alteration as you seek more flexible work that calls for special concentration of efforts.

·  Mid-sixties & after:  This is the time when most people decide on the precise role their career should play in your very life. Your focus can change and you may accord greater priority to things that were neglected so far.

Your career planning has to cater to changing times. You will have to assess and reassess things on a continuous basis to see if you are actually fulfilling your aspirations and meeting your objectives. Modifications and alterations can thus be prompted to bring about improvement on various fronts. And in case you fail to take stock, you are likely to go astray. The importance of having a good networking capacity under such circumstances needs no emphasis because at that stage it is only through word of mouth publicity, information about new openings will get known to you. It is necessary that you keep abreast of all developments all around so that you can gear up suitably to take on challenges. Remember that it is good planning that helps to make elusive dreams come true.

Know if you are doing well at work or not

When you are at work and working hard, you may still have doubts if you are indeed doing well. You may ponder if whatever you are doing is creating the desired impact. Such concerns may be superfluous because ostensibly they could be generated by disturbances in work currents caused by excessively busy schedules or even differences with your co-workers. It may also be possible that your co-workers and others are reluctant to acclaim your efforts for reasons best known to them. Therefore, it is your responsibility to watch out for indirect telling indications to suggest that your work is being appreciated.  

You will not be able to excel in your assigned responsibilities if you do not take delight in it. A lack of enthusiasm towards your work will probably preclude you from coming to it all together. On the other hand, you can always be happy at work if your efforts are acknowledged. But it is likely that you fail to notice appreciative feelings. It is possible for you to evaluate your overall performance at work by some introspection. You should gauge your work and performance in the backdrop of three yardsticks:

· Meeting various job expectations set out for you: Every job has a set of fundamental expectations that would be defined as a charter of responsibilities and made known to you at the time of hiring. It is necessary that you are fully aware of them. And more importantly, you should know for yourself if you have discharged them satisfactorily or not. You could be fulfilling the minimum that is expected of you, but your boss and others could expect additional contributions. And unless you do that, things may not prove to be really rosy. You need to exert more and deliver more if you really seek to excel and rise up. Hard work will entail pain, but then you have to experience it to inherit the gain.

· Willingness to walk the extra mile: When we talk of additional tasks, they imply those that others do not do. You will have an assigned charter, but you still need to shoulder responsibilities that are beyond it so that you are able have the spotlight on you. And when you indulge in such volunteering, your contributions will be seen as worth-augmentation initiatives because of new ideas that you will put forth. Just in case if you are not clear about how to go about doing this, remember that all organisations seek to boost productivity levels and make maximum profits. You can make significant contributions in this regard by suggesting interior economy measures. At the end of the day, it is what you contribute beyond your primary responsibilities that will matter and make you stand out. Remember that you were not born to just trudge along like others; you were born to make a difference. And you can make a difference if you are willing to walk the extra mile.

· Estimations of others about you & your work: You should have a clear discernment of how others feel about you and the work that you ought to be doing. This discernment is significant because in any business environment, it is the discernment that constitutes actuality. You simply cannot work in quarantine and be oblivious of what your seniors and others who matter expect of you. If you are unaware and unmindful of their acuities, you doing well will be of no consequence. Therefore, you should make serious efforts to obtain responses and reactions to the way you work and results you achieve. It is essential that you stay line up with their outlooks and anticipations.

It is your responsibility to watch out for all pointers of appreciation, howsoever small they may be. The indicators will be apparent when:

· People talk to you and about you reverently: The timbre and style in which people engage in conversation with you will manifest their respect for you. It is an established fact that if a person is liked and valued, people to him or her more deferentially. All upbeat remarks attributed to you will manifest a positive impression that you have created in the minds of others.

· Others come to you for assistance & support: If you find that people look up to you for guidance and direction, it should be indicative of how valuable your views are and how conscientious you are perceived to be.

· Additional work is assigned to you: You can be convinced that your efforts are not going waste if you are assigned additional tasks because they manifest trust in you and also your capacity to shoulder added accountabilities. And if it happens that you are required to be the head of a project, it will go to prove that your headship attributes are acknowledged by the environment.

You stand the best chance of success at work if you can discern responses and reactions from people; they will serve to signpost to you whether you are on the correct course or not. The main thing however, is to persist with whatever you are supposed to do. And the bottom line of course is to take pleasure in your work.

Pivotal actions to develop your career

In order to succeed in your career and life, you need to be possessing acute self-awareness, requisite wherewithal and necessary skills. Irrespective of where you work or the nature of it, you should be able to discern what you can excel at and improve upon yourself.

The process of selecting a career path and planning to develop it calls for personal foresight and forethought. Your career journey cannot be expected to be a smooth sail; there will be ups and downs. Such demanding circumstances will call for serious reflection and effective decision-making. And your decision-making ability will be contingent on the quantum of information at your disposal and knowledge in your possession. Since knowledge is truly empowering and facilitates informed decisions, you stand to great advantage if you have it. However, you need to know what your knowledge deficiencies are and take appropriate action for its acquisition. Once available, it will require scrutiny and examination.

You could be at any stage of your career planning – selecting options, formulating a road map or evaluating a job offer – your decision-making abilities will be critical for your career development. You may even want to go in for a career change, but before you explore any such option, you will have to compulsorily comprehend what you are all about. You will need to be aware of yourself, your inherent capabilities, your principles, your propensities and your current position or status in your career journey. It is only after having done so that you should identify a new profession or job.

There are basically eight different but highly decisive actions that you need to take for your career development. They are:

· Gauge your aptitudes: You need to be aware of your abilities and proficiencies which could pertain to performing specific tasks, observation, communication skills, learning prowess and social attitude, etc. In other words, you need to be aware of your preferences and propensities. Once you are cognisant of and responsive to them, you can plot your career development with ease.

· Evaluate your dexterities: You always learn and develop your expertise and capabilities. But your capacities and aptitudes are inborn. Your dexterities and skilfulness are utility-focussed undertakings that over a period of time, you hone. Training, guidance, usage and practical run-throughs contribute towards improvement of your skills. It is all contingent on how you make use of and benefit from your intrinsic adeptness in acquiring handiness; the more speedily, effortlessly and effusively you acquire such handiness, your career development will be accordingly expedited.

· Recognise your individual panache: Every person possesses advanced outlines of speech and non-verbal communications; common and collective expedients; and character and behavioural individualities that are exclusive. People tend to always act in positive response to individual approaches and hence it is necessary to identify what those approaches are in your context. Knowing them will help you connect with other people better.

· Discern your appeals: A person is able to develop his concerns and interests with the passage of time. If you are clear about what appeals to you or what fascinates you, you can coalesce them with your capacities and aptitudes to be able to bring about a cohesive and thorough utilisation of both towards your career development.

· Know your personal annals: Your life and work principles are influenced and modelled by your family and upbringing. You should be well-aware of the manner in which your background and family history, including bonds therein have inspired, shaped and changed you as an individual.

· Connect with your principles: Your principles and standards prompt you to judge people and things. You are thus able to differentiate between issues that are ethical or[H1]  iniquitous, sensible or irrational and upright or vile. In other words, you are able to describe your reactions to people and happenings in your vicinity. If your mindfulness of your principles and standards are amalgamated with your knowledge of other dynamics, you evidently are poised better to accentuate your strategies and options for evolving a better career development.

· Attain your objectives: It is the objectives that you set for yourself that impel you to act on a continual basis. Whatever inborn capacities and aptitudes that you possess can prompt you to alter your objectives.

· Confront current issues: Every person has to face typical and critical phases or changes in his or her life. These phases could well be pertinent to your job or career or even both. Practically all career issues are either self-generated or prompted by outside causes like company shutdown or retrenchment. If you are able to define and look at developments provoking you currently, you will be able to come out with ways and means to overcome such transitions. Consequently, you will be able to make informed career decisions.

You need not restrict your thinking about success because you can always achieve what your mind allows you to achieve. It is your own resolution to be successful that matters the most. Let success not remain a dream; you can transform it into a reality by knocking off your slumber and work hard to attain it.

---

 [H1]

Kick off impressively on your new job

The initial two months at a new job are critical. You need to actually lay the foundations of a ‘good you’ to ensure that your career is on course. Your aim should be to embark on your career journey with purpose and gusto; and excel in it. After all, definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement.

That you have landed a new job, you deserve kudos for it. It is up to you now to live up to your promises made and assurances given when you were being screened by the interviewing panel. You have to deliver everything that you are unreservedly required to do. Some hints to simplify your embedding at the new job so that you kick off impressively are:

· Be aware of what is in store for you: To be able to perform well, you should know for certain what you are expected to do. People err by accepting jobs that hold out high-sounding designations; what is expected of you is to be fully aware of your major responsibilities and what they entail. You should know who your immediate boss is and the people with whom you are required to collaborate. In case your predecessor is available, he or she can provide you valuable inputs on how to go about. However, you will have to take initiative to find out where he or she erred. A clear understanding of how you will be assessed will also help you to work on correct lines. In case if you are viewed as nosy and others are inquisitive and obnoxious, there is nothing wrong in it because it is much better than being people seeing you as a slow, apathetic and incompetent individual at a later stage. Therefore, if you show curiosity and inquisitiveness today, it will help you settle down fast. Needless to state, subsequently you can always calm down and retreat into your individual space subject to all doubts having been cleared.   

· Failing to plan is planning to fail: A goal without a plan is just a wish; therefore, it is essential that you plan for success. Your initial weeks at your job should also be spent in charting your way forward. The route that you select should invariably indicate specific signboards in the form of assignments required to be completed and qualifications that need to be acquired. Evidently, such signboards should be placed at intervals of time. Your planning has to be at both higher and lower planes so that whatever you plan and accomplish can be monitored. When you plan in detail, you get to discern where you are headed to. If you do not know precisely where you’re going, you will not know if you have reached there or not. The plans that you make should be accorded precedence too because that will help you to determine the importance of tasks and the time that you ought to be devoting to them.  You surely do not want to jump off an aircraft and then try to knit a parachute as you fall below. 

· Prime yourself by being well-organised: Organising yourself for your new job implies swotting all the findings you had about your company earlier. You could have been recommended specific studies too and you should do them with due seriousness. The team or section you get assigned to should be requested for all material that can prepare you to make useful contributions at the earliest. Being well-organised calls for planning your moves; this is more pertinent if your charter of responsibilities has been spelt out. It will be in the fitness of things to ponder over your previous performance so that you can identify your weak spots and take remedial action to mend yourself. It is essential that you lay down goals for achievement and envision yourself succeeding at your job by attaining the goals set, acquiring newer expertise and allowing yourself to not repeat past blunders.

· Get involved from the word ‘Go’: At work there is no waiting hall or waiting time. You should start shouldering responsibilities immediately. This will portray an image of your fervour, readiness and resolve to make useful contribution. But you must exercise caution when you make promises that you are unable to keep. Your aim should be to have more output and a faster output so that you add value to your work and name.  It is also essential that you do not deviate from principled tenets.

· Keep your eyes & ears open: Though learning is always an eternal process, the initial days at work are actually all about it. You should shed all your rigidity and take off with an open mind. Keeping your eyes and ears open does not imply keeping quiet; you must clarify all your doubts by asking questions. If you try and practise what you did at your last job or emulate what others did at your previous work, you are likely to alienate yourself from your new friends and bosses. What you ought to do is to mingle well with your fellow colleagues and help them out if the need arises. Remember that when you pay attention, you enjoy vitality and versatility; you connect with others well and makes you eager.

Remember that most organisations function on a system that recognises abilities and potential in that utmost importance is attached to your professional knowledge and expertise. But that does not mean that you have to indulge in unhealthy competition and deviousness to move up. Work hard and honestly; and your work will speak of you.

Being happy with your career

While at college, everyone has some dreams – visualisations of things that we would like to attain in life. But as years roll by, quite a few amongst us suffer are and suffer from feelings of having botched up. You could be in a good paying job, yet feel discontented with it because you feel that you are stuck in a pursuit that carries no great weight. You tend to doubt if at all the job you are in is your cup of tea.

They say that a cat has nine lives and you have just one. There is no scope of living it over again. External influences and intensities coupled with bad judgements can unsettle and wreck you unannounced. Therefore, you need to safeguard your interests and make certain that all your career moves are apt. You need to particularly make certain that your hunt for contentment and sense remains unhindered. 

It is unfortunate but true that quite a few people select a job without understanding what it is all about or what it holds out for them. We tend to consider things from incorrect perspectives and act in haste. And then there happens to be no alternative left but to accept it as fait accompli. We are forced to rationalise our action and believe that it is not realistic to pursue something that we are passionate about.

Any decision that pertains to your career or life should be prompted by three guarantees – being successful and happy in the career that you enter; maintaining a good work-life balance so that happiness enjoyed gets a boost; and living a life that is principled and honourable.  Have you given thought to these issues or closed your eyes to them? The fact is that in our quest for instant and short-term advantages and rewards, we generally erase from our mind possible aftermaths of our decisions and actions.

When you make a career choice, it is not about getting a good job that pays you well or offers you good perks. It extends much beyond that. It is your work value that matters more than anything else, because invariably work value influences your individual life and has a great bearing on it. The satisfaction and delight that you derive from your work is contingent on the worth and import of it.

It is essential that you do what is known as tactical planning to live your life. The planning that you do has to be practical and sensible; and devoid of any rigidity in any form. Your plan has to be such that you do not get stuck while meeting emerging contentious situations and prospects. The fact that you and your company can be successful only if you cater for strategic swings cannot be afforded to be lost sight of. Likewise, similar principles are applicable in your individual domain. You invariably need to begin with a distinct and precise plan that does not allow you to deviate from your principled standpoints.

That every individual seeks to lead a meaningful life is a truth beyond doubt; this craving amongst people has been in existence since centuries. It is also a fact that nobody can offer nippy solutions to widespread problems that plague us. However, if you can strap up some concepts and thingies, the process of making choices can be rendered simple and trouble-free.

The basic question that needs to be answered is the methodology that you need to adopt to apportion your time, fortes and efforts. That is what will define your line of action. The maiden requirement is to identify what matters most and least to you in your career. You will encounter major problems when your line of action is not in harmony with various imperatives that make you feel exultant and contented. You simply cannot afford to be guided by impulse or at the behest of anybody who happens to be more vocal than others. If you do so, you will be all set for times that will be ambiguous and unrewarding.

You should be also clear about what inspires you. Any ambiguity with regard to the link between stimuli and inspiration should be dispelled. It should be understood that contentment and discontentment are two distinct phenomena, irrespective of each other. Had they not been so, you would have never got to like or dislike you job simultaneously.  

Factors that result in discontentment at work can be broadly classified into two categories – feeling-generating and import generating. The former comprises, inter alia, organisational approaches, superintending systems, congenial working conditions, salary structure and prestige. If all these conditions are fulfilled, you are unlikely to be discontented with your job. It will be a different thing that you may not truly like your job, but you will not detest it totally. On the other hand, import-generating factors are exciting assignments, appreciation for jobs well done, accountability and individual progress. They are highly dynamic by themselves and make you believe that your efforts and exertions are indeed telling; you get inspired by the inherent settings of the work per se.  

The above two factors explain the reason why people gifted with particular flairs and who harbour the best intentions get to be disenchanted after making a career choice. If your choice is prompted by feeling-generating factors, you are more likely to suffer disenchantment and demoralisation. They are important considerations alright, but do not necessarily increase your oomph levels or give wings to your passions. Issues related to the relevance of work, prospects for growth, getting recognition and shouldering enhanced responsibilities are equally important to derive happiness.

The truth behind being happy with your career lies in discovering one and then devoting yourself to it. You will have to fall in love with it. After all, the [H1] most horrible days of those who enjoy what they do are better than the best days of those who do not.

---

 [H1]

Climacteric facets of career management

Career management is a lifetime process that entails putting in and devoting your wherewithal to attain your career objectives. It is not just a singular event but a continuing process that is self-monitored and involves selecting and setting personal objectives and formulating strategies towards their achievement. With things changing at a rapid pace, career management is an inevitability of the present times.

While we may be aware of something about career management and its importance, what it exactly is and how it can be affected is something about which most people are ignorant about. As in financial management, in a career too, a methodical investment undertaken consistently generates good returns. While the approaches and manoeuvres are subject to change, career management actually centres on two prime resources that are used to oversee and deal with various facets of your career in your working life. These resources are:

· Incessant learning: With the advent of technology in all spheres of work, our daily routine and workplace schedule revolves around it like never before. The very process of operations and working methodology have been drastically transformed by computerisation and automation. And this process of alteration is an ongoing one and moving at a very rapid pace; it is likely to not double or treble, but   decuple in the next few decades. What will be the consequences and implications of such changes? Technological inventions and developments will for certain make the economy undulate very rapidly. The likelihood of a number of businesses being rendered antiquated and antediluvian cannot be discounted as also some being propelled into renown and publicity. The manner in which we become accustomed to these continuing modernisations and improvements will evidently be contingent on how we go about to update our current skills and knowhow. Therefore, it is essential that you keep the fire of learning always kindled in you. Remember that the entire world is like a laboratory to the inquiring mind and education consists mainly of what you unlearn. The very purpose of learning is advancement; and our minds can continue growing as we continue to live. You will thus be required to take necessary steps to keep altering your investments related to wherewithal, efforts and time so that you are not caught napping. In this context, the words of Henry Ford, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young” are very relevant. Therefore, you have to strive to develop abilities to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge so that you can apply them to your work.

· Bonds & connections: The current economy is one of intelligence, knowledge, overhauls and good turns. In the light of the foregoing, the most crucial asset is your contacts. It is your bonds and linkages that you enjoy with your peers, clients, rivals that help you to do your daily tasks. In the future, your networking will be the very source of acquisition of information related to the progression of businesses. Your network will also comprise people outside the sphere of activity of your work and who would be related to your leisure pursuits, members of your family and the society as a whole. Your relationships on your professional and individual planes are bound to outrun particular organisations, arenas, industries and people. If that is going to be the actuality, the manner in which we interrelate, react and bond in all our relationships will have a tremendous effect on our present functioning and future prospects. It should not be forgotten that by staying aloof and in isolation, nothing significant can be achieved. In any case, it is networking alone that uncovers nearly three-quarters of all job opportunities. Considering the foregoing, the importance of staying bonded as also being aware of the efforts that go in to forge affable relationships needs no emphasis. And the silver lining is that all these skills can be developed.

Incessant learning and administration of people-to-people connections are the framework of a successful career management effort. In addition, the formulation of a career vision and career line of action are also necessary to steer knowledgeable career investment decisions and establish career objectives. The career vision, needless to state, should be all-encompassing with inbuilt attributes of flexibility; however, it should be adequately explicit to facilitate appropriate action. The career vision that we formulate should be in harmony with our exclusive personality and penchants so that available options are able to provide us opportunities to make useful contributions at work and resultantly give job contentment over an extended period of time. To that extent, one will have to shed rigidity and maintain competitive edge.

To have a successful career, you cannot invest your entire life in a single hope. You have to plan for it and then superintend it. You should not be plagued with qualms and hesitations because a mind that is troubled by doubt cannot focus towards success. Career management entails indulging in some advance worrying in the form of deliberations and planning in advance. But that worrying is in your interests.