There you are, living your sweet life without wondering about tomorrow. While living in the moment might be the best way to lead a happy life, not having any career plan is not a good move. Having a career plan will ensure that you are moving on the right track. The course of your track might differ from time to time. As long as the goal is set, you can change the path towards success in any way you may want to.
Not having a definite career plan will only make you confused in your future life. The worst thing you can ever face is realizing that your journey does not lead you to the career you opt for. So to stop you from making the same mistake, I am going to share some practical ways of planning your career.
Examine what is important to you
Create a list of your passions, talents, values, elements of your lifestyle and employment environment.
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Your areas of interest need not be work-related – everything is relevant. You should evaluate your career from all aspects of your life. The key is to address and examine how your decisions fit into all phases of your life.
Here are a few questions you must ask yourself:
- What am I passionate about?
- Where do my talents lie or what I am good at?
- What kind of environment is suitable for me to work well?
Evaluate your likes and dislikes
It is not easy to pinpoint the exact things that you liked or disliked precisely. Analyze your past work experiences to determine what you like and do not like in each work setting. Make sure you evaluate them based on your managers, peers, responsibilities, work culture, and environment.
Find out what you want from your job
Before pondering over the idea of how to plan your career, you must brainstorm on your ideal job. Next, you must consider thinking how your future should look like. Find out the definition of career success for you. Ask yourself, “Where am I now, and where do I want to see myself in the future?”
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Maintain an up-to-date resume
Your resume should be updated on all the career opportunities, experiences you have gathered, and acquired skills. You must be ready to pounce when opportunities present themselves. Keeping an up-to-date resume improves the chances of getting the job you want to have.
It must include all the qualifications, internships you have attended throughout your life. It should also include the time duration of all experiences. Use resume builder if you want to create a professional resume.
Be a tech-savvy
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Push yourself to build your current technical skills even though new developments are not related to your current job. If you do not try becoming tech-savvy, you might get behind everything before you can head off in a new direction in the future. Being tech-savvy means getting familiar with wearable technology, coding, virtual whiteboards, and AI. If you are involved in a highly technical field of work, you must stay current and become proactive.
Develop your skills
You must learn transferable skills that all employees seek if you want to continue your professional development. Your job opportunities will develop with improving skills like communication, stress management, leadership, and innovation. Developing a broad range of skills, competencies, and abilities will help you secure a new job and open doors to various opportunities to work in new industries.
List and analyze your past accomplishments
List out your current and past accomplishments that can have a significant impact on your next steps. Then, assessing your career opportunities and mapping out your accomplishments will help you target jobs that will give you the scope to excel.
Set career goals
Write down the list of goals, and make sure you list it with someone else. It will help you create a sense of accountability. Review the goals once in a while and adjust them when you are developing new goals. Each time you are sitting down for a career planning session, make sure you break down the list and review it.
Leverage and learn from others
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You must build your relationship with leaders within and outside your organization. When you come across better opportunities, your network will be better. These people will help you gain opportunities when your position looks uncertain. You will also have the chance to learn new strategies, skills, and technologies that will shape your career and help you move on to the career in the direction you want. Conduct informal meetings with managers and colleagues to discover other possible career options.
Get out of your comfort zone
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Sometimes you need to get out of your way to prove yourself in the organization. One of the best ways to advance your career is by identifying a problem within the organization, propose a solution and implement it; you will increase your visibility in the organization and expand your skills in the process.
Be flexible in accepting the unexpected
It is important to understand that plans are not set in stone; You must be flexible enough to change them whenever it seems necessary to you. It takes a great amount of effort and time to plan and identify your goals. Therefore, changing your focus might seem irrelevant, especially after you have focused your energy on going after what you want.
WRAPPING UP,
Along with positive development and opportunities, the future can also bring disruption and uncertainty. Planning and reviewing your career will prepare you to face all the obstacles in your career. While making your career plan, be open to experience something new adventurous even though it does not match with the destination you had in mind.
AUTHOR BIO: Clara Smith is a professional career counsellor in one of the prestigious colleges in the UK. She is also associated with Allessaywriter.com, where she is a professional essay writer.