Many people often hope that things fall into place on their own, however, achieving career goals don’t usually happen by luck. Whether you are looking for the best marketing recruitment agencies or top teacher training courses, it is imperative that you create a plan for your future no matter if you’re only studying or currently working.
Personal development planning has already been covered, so we will now take a look at career planning.
Career plans – What are they?
This is a specific and applicable strategy that helps you to figure out your interests and skillsets so that you can create career goals. It will help you to determine what actions you need to take so that you can achieve your career goals.
This is an ongoing process and will include constantly reviewing:
- Career goals
- The experience and skills you have
- Interests
- Most important priorities
- The actions you intend on taking.
Why Do You Need to do Career Planning?
It will also help you to make your passion into a reality as well as ensure your career goals are completed via aims and real action. Minimally, it will ensure you know how to answer questions on your career goals if you have another interview.
By understanding your particular situation, you will be able to figure out any gaps you may have in your current skill set, experience or knowledge that may be keeping you from advancing in your career.
Who Should Do Career Planning?
Everyone should make a career plan.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve been working for a while, if you’re graduating, still studying or even if you want a promotion or intend to change your career completely. By creating a career plan it will help you to take and keep taking the actions required to achieve your goals.
It is important to note that career plans are helpful for much more than huge career changes. These plans can greatly help you to develop more skills and gain more knowledge in various areas.
How to Develop Your Own Career Plan
First, you should start by looking at your different options. The first place to start is to decide on the most suitable career for yourself. You should look at your particular strengths and interests when prioritising your choices. You should also pay attention to the working hours, location and resulting commute time, culture of the company, salary etc.
Next, you should make a list of your skills. By writing down your skills as well as your experience, it will help you to figure out the best career path. It will also help you to assess whether you’re suitably qualified for your dream job. By seeing the skills and knowledge that you don’t have, this will help you to figure out the best types of training to undergo.
Create goals and necessary actions. After you’ve settled on a specific career path, the next thing you’ll need to do is set goals which will help you determine your next actions. You should set big, small, short and long term goals.
Have a time frame. Setting time frames or deadlines for your goals will help you to keep on track and stay motivated. You can either set particular dates or a particular month to get things done. This will definitely make your goals more realistic and achievable and ensure you keep working on them.
Check back. After you’ve created your career plan, you need to continue reviewing it to ensure you’re keeping track. This will help you to monitor your progress as well as make any necessary changes according to circumstances.
Career Plan Structure
There are numerous ways to create and structure a career plan. Your structure would depend on the importance of various activities and goals as well as how specific you are.
With that said, make sure that your career plan is very simple to read, understand and follow.
