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Step by Step, Easy Does it…

Career planning involves many steps that help us gather information about ourselves, the different options available, matching up our interests and then taking action.

Step One: The Self

In order to formulate the best goals and career path to think towards, it must first come from yourself. You must assess the following things about yourself to begin the career planning process:

• Skills (What skills have I picked up thus far? Do any come naturally to me?)
• Knowledge (What have I learned? What knowledge can I share with others?)
• Values (Your belief system, what do you value in life?)
• Boundaries (What are you not willing to give up, what constraints might you have?)
• Interests (What do you choose to involve yourself with in your spare time?)

To go more in depth, something which you may want to do for those long term career goals, here are some more aspects to assess about yourself.

• Roles (what roles do you typically play in group dynamics? In your own authority?)
• Realities (what do you have set in your life right now?)
• Responsibilities

Step Two: Self Development

Now that you've assessed yourself, what have you found? Are there any skills you currently have, but you know they could get stronger with more schooling, or mentorship? Identify aspects of what you've already assessed that you would like to develop or increase. Maybe this means that you have a strong interest in World Religions, however you don't know too much about the culture in Japan. Or maybe you see that you have fairly good cooking skills, but you haven't found your true niche of interest in culinary efforts at this point.

Step Three: Research

Now that you have a record of your interests, you should have a decent idea of what interests can connect to careers. Explore the occupations that you think you may have interest in. Research about the industry this occupation is a part of. Does it seem like the kind of job you'd enjoy? Hope does the labour market look? Is there room for expansion? Is there an outburst of need as far as jobs go?

Step Four: Form an Action Plan

From this research you can begin to formulate an action plan as to how to achieve that career. Set small goals, little stepping stones that will lead to milestones. These stepping stones may be ones to say get your foot in the door, or start the networking process. The action plan doesn't need to be too detailed, but you should have some sort of a road map as to what you would like to pursue.
For example, one of your stepping stones may some of the following:

• Consult a Temp (temporary work) Agency, go over with them what you want in a job
• Seek part time work or internships
• Find a mentor, someone within your field that you can get tips from, as well as they can help you find the right path to where they are
• Volunteer opportunities, do not discount alternative ways that you can meet others
• Continue to research
• Ask others for advice, or who they may know that can help you network
  
  

Step Five: Formulate Goals and Matches

Evaluate the jobs and opportunities you've pursued so far. How are they looking? Are there other alternatives to look into? From this, fashion out your short term and long term goals. Based on the self-assessment, things that you are willing to improve and develop about yourself as well as what you are working on right now.

Step Six: Action!

Putting your goals into a plan of action that will help you keep track of your progress and what you are achieving daily. Developing these steps will take time and the amount of goals and steps you take to get to them will get more detailed as you go along. Here are some examples of action that you may want to add into your career plan:

• Education and Training (research into what you need, what further development you might be interested in)
• Strategy for job searching (may be sparked from your self-assessment into what is important to you, using these to discover the best job possible for you)
• Company information searches
• Resume and Cover Letter Writing
• Preparation for Interviews and Meetings

All of these actions lead to another goal or milestone to keep in mind. Action is what puts it all together, so by taking the planning and applying it to reality and starting to actually complete and work at these things will make your career planning an active process.

References

Rosenberg McKay, Dawn. "Career Planning Process." About.com Career Planning.

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