Planning Your Career - A CV Centre Guide

Planning your Career

It is becoming increasingly popular in the current, highly competitive workplace to have a career plan in place not only to make the job hunting process much easier but also to guarantee that you only put yourself forward for the jobs that match your specific skills, attributes and experiences. Therefore, to facilitate career planning, it is important that you identify exactly what these are whilst remembering that you also need to factor in what your weaknesses are; an honest assessment will ensure the accuracy of your career plan. In addition, it is important to consider your personality type as you may find in the future that certain jobs are just not suited to your particular nature.

Although many people are driven by the desire to earn more money, the most successful career planners are those who focus more on how far they want to progress in their chosen career rather than what they want their salary to be. Once you have an idea of what your ultimate career aim is, you can then establish a network of contacts with people who have already achieved this so that you can ascertain from them how they got to where they are today.

When considering your career future, you need to establish exactly what you want and what you do not want from a job. There may be certain environments that you feel you are not suited to but there will also be other motivating factors such as a desire for improved working conditions or different working hours.

Most job-hunters find it useful to research the type of job that they want so that they can get a good idea of the specific criteria required for the position and also get an understanding of the nature of the role. You may find that your dream job is one that is actually beyond your reach for whatever reason meaning that you have to reassess your career plan to make sure that it is realistic. However, there is nothing wrong with healthy ambition so if you feel that, with a little training, you may well be able to achieve your dream job, still tailor your career plan towards this. Just remember that a job that you are not suitable for can result in you being unhappy at work.

The most effective career plans are those which allow for possible changes, either to your career choices or your personal skills set, so it is useful to produce a plan that is flexible but still focused. However, once you have established your career motivations and your personal attributes, and ascertained your suitability for particular jobs, you should find that your dream job is within your reach.

There is no point going to the time and trouble of preparing a career plan if you then completely ignore it! Your job hunt should be proactive and should start with you making sure that you have a CV prepared that is in total alignment with your career plan. You can then start responding to specific job adverts that appeal to you or sending it to particular companies that you would like to work for. Any responses you get from this can then be used to make changes to your career plan if necessary. Once you have your career plan in place, you can look back at it regularly to ensure that you are remaining focused on the targets and objectives you set for yourself.