Building a Foundation for Focus and Direction
Career planning is a skill and process that can be applied throughout your work-life to advance your career aspirations. Earlier in this website, we defined career planning as a structured process for understanding your skills and interests, setting career goals and devising strategies to achieve them. It's a framework that adds focus to your job search, but it also gives you a broader work-life perspective that can lead to a more satisfying career.
There are other aspects of career planning, including career development, which can accelerate advancement toward your ultimate career goal. Think of career development as a process for managing the developmental aspects of your career. It includes skills development where you identify any gaps in your current skillset, and then learn or develop those skills. It also includes a sharing component where you share or "market" your newly honed skills to existing or new employers. Effective career management ensures others know about you and the value you bring to an organization.
Career development is important because having the right career-focused skills facilitates your ability to successfully execute your career plans. As you can probably imagine, this is an iterative process. Work environments, technology, market variables, and personal interests are constantly changing. Effective career planning and development enable you to capitalize on opportunities that might not otherwise be available to you.
Because career planning has short- and long-term aspects, the most effective career plan will include both. It’s an on-going process that can include a variety of intermediate steps.
We'll start by discussing individual career management with a focus on career planning. Career development and organizational culture considerations will be covered a little later. We've grouped career planning processes into six key steps, as represented in the following graphic.
In this context, getting to know yourself requires that you ask yourself a lot of introspective questions. Think about your interests, values, skills, preferences, and lifestyle. For example, are you happy with your current career path? What are the key characteristics of your ideal lifestyle? How would you define your preferred work/life balance?
Take a close look at your most recent job and career path in terms of your likes and dislikes. Does your current path meet your needs? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What kind of organizational or management culture fits best with your personality? Are there things about your work experience, education/training, skills, talents, and abilities that you wish were different? How would you define your dream job?
Answers to these and similar questions will help you identify your career planning starting point.
As you begin the career planning process, you should also look beyond your current job for transferable skills and knowledge. It's easy to get wrapped up in one's recent job titles and responsibilities and not see other career options. Most jobs share some common skill or knowledge requirements that could easily be applied to a variety of jobs in different career paths. As a point of reference, it's not uncommon to read about a CEO in one industry who takes a CEO position in a totally unrelated industry. The CEO is hired for their management skills, which are readily transferrable from job-to-job.
At the end of the Knowing Yourself step, you will have a clearer idea of your what's important to you, what personal factors would contribute to a gratifying career, and what you have to offer an organization. You can use this information to build upon subsequent steps in the career planning process.
This step will help you understand your options and give you an idea of what you need to do next. You may find that you want to continue on your current path, but you may also discover that new options have far greater appeal.
An important part of this step is understanding where you are today in terms of skills, education, work experience, etc., and the relative fit with your career aspirations. It will help you hone in on the qualifications you need to move to the next step. Job postings, job ads, informational interviews, job descriptions and the like can help you better understand required qualifications.
It can also be helpful to identify career and employment trends. Doing so will help you prepare for future career changes and developments. You can then develop a plan to get an additional qualifications or certifications that may be needed to move toward your desired career.
Quite often, people think about their careers in terms of "climbing a career ladder." They tend to define career success as getting promoted or hired into higher-level positions. This view of career success is narrow and outdated. Many of today's organizations are less hierarchical and "individual contributors" are increasingly valued for their contributions to organizational success.
Your career options assessment should recognize that there are several paths one can take that can lead to a satisfying career. For example:
In this step, you'll be exploring occupations and learning areas that interest you the most. Once you have identified some occupational preferences, you can research the specific skills and qualifications required for those occupations. You may find that some options are not a good fit, while others may inspire a totally new and exciting career path. To help, you'll find links to a variety of industry and job information websites under the Tools/Links menu.
Here are a few questions that will help guide you.
At the end of this step you will have a much better feel for your career options.
Making a decision on what you want to do can be more challenging than it appears on the surface. You may find that achieving your career goals will require that you take multiple steps; some of which may be governed by financial, educational, experience, and related concerns. These “predecessor” needs may be significant enough to warrant their own independent plans.
Some decisions may be easy and straight forward. However; the decision-making process could mean making a commitment that requires devoting significant time and resources to achieve your desired career aspirations.
The decision-making process involves comparing your options so you can narrow down your choices to a manageable number. You can then focus on options that suit you best at this point in time, keeping in mind that this is an iterative process. It helps to think of career planning as a regular process; especially during the earlier years of your career.
Here are a few questions that will help you through the decision-making process.
At the end of this step you will have narrowed down your options and have a better idea of what you need to do next to help you achieve your goals.
Going through the career planning process will add clarity and focus to the path ahead. It will help guide you by creating a roadmap of the options available and the steps needed to get to your chosen destination.
Once you’ve made a decision about your chosen career path, it is wise to set realistic goals to make your targeted career a reality. You are likely to have more than one goal; some being short-term, and others being longer-term.
Setting
goals is a process of integrating your self-assessment and career awareness information into a career goal that reflects
a vision of your preferred career path. Having a clear vision of the end-state you're trying to achieve is a key factor
in accomplishing any goals you set. Being able to clearly articulate your career vision will help you focus your efforts
on important components of your career plan.
When developing your goals, it is helpful to make them S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Bound). This entails:
Some people prefer to use a S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goal setting process which includes two additional steps by requiring Evaluate and Readjust factors. Each concept workable; it's a matter of personal choice.
Using either the SMART or SMARTER goal format, write clearly defined statements defining career goals you can work towards. Keep them short so they are easy to remember. You also want to keep the process fairly easy and straight-forward since overly burdensome processes tend to be put off or abandoned altogether.
If you struggle identifying a specific job or career path you want to target, write your goals in more general terms. It's okay to start at this level since this is an iterative process. You'll eventually get clarity as time progresses and you gain additional knowledge about what it takes to accomplish your career goals. Fairly quickly, you'll find your career goals getting much more specific.
Having a plan will be meaningless if you don’t follow through on the actions required to implement it. More often than not, achieving career goals takes a lot of time and hard work. This is where commitment and focus can serve you well. This can be especially so if your career plan points you in a new direction that will ultimately result in a more rewarding career.
This step of the career planning process is where you put all the previous steps together to produce a set of requirements and tasks designed to achieve your career goals. A career action plan is a road map that takes you from point A (as is) to point B (to be).
Taking action is sometimes easier said than done. There can be unpredictable obstacles and events that challenge the most patient of people. In addition, even the most thoughtfully constructed career plan or goals can change. Circumstances change, unexpected opportunities present themselves, interests take a different direction, etc. Regardless, having a well-thought-out career plan facilitates action and success.
Be specific in outlining the steps to achieve your short- and long-term career goals. Include in your plan how you will go about utilizing available resources, building and maintaining a professional network, and accessing support (friends, co-workers, mentors, etc.). Your plan doesn't have to be long or complicated, but it must be crystal clear to you so you can maintain your focus.
As you move forward, plan on spending the bulk of your time on your most important career-related activities. These are activities that have the greatest impact on achieving your career goals. If you try to focus on too many things, you will likely lose some of your momentum and feel frustrated by suboptimal progress.
It's common for career mobility to take more time than expected. There are lots of uncontrollable factors; especially in complex organizations. Keep your focus and maintain your momentum. You want to be ready when "opportunity knocks."
Along the way, you're likely to encounter a few obstacles. Some will be external, others internal. That's why it's an iterative process. Work to overcome the obstacles, adjust your plan, and keep moving forward.
While this website has a primary focus of helping people find a job, many of the tools and resources serve a career planning purpose. They are designed to help you understand your strengths, and then portray your background and skills in the most positive light. A good example and place start is to complete the Environmental Inventory and Skills Inventory Forms found under the Forms menu.
You’ll also find some very useful tools and resources for Company Research, Entrepreneurial Resources, and other career related resources under the Tools/Links and News menus. Many of these resources will help guide you in developing a personal marketing plan and taking action on your career plans.
It probably goes without saying that plans are seldom static. Job markets, economic conditions, unexpected opportunities, personal interests, and many more things will change over time. By continuously fine-tuning your career and personal development plans, you will be able to manage the changes in your life and the world of work.
In addition, your career vision will most likely change as you gain experience and knowledge. Unpredictable events and workplace changes may cause you to change career directions. It's a good idea to periodically review your career plan and make any adjustments that you feel are warranted.
Finally, as you go through various stages of career management (career development), you'll learn lots of new things about yourself, your preferences, and career options. Many of these learning opportunities will become catalysts for change.
I’m reminded of a story about two people having a discussion about career choices. One person told their friend that they had always wanted to go to law school, but it was out of the question now. After all, it takes three years to get through law school, and by then, they would be 45 years old. With a smile, the friend asked, “If you don’t go to law school, how old will you be in three years?” Of course, it begs the question, would you rather be 45-years old with a law degree, or 45-years old without a law degree? The question helps keep career planning in perspective.
Career Planning and Development
Key Points