Career Planning: Career goal setting

Failing to Plan is the same as planning to Fail !!

If we don’t know where you are going, we are likely to wind up somewhere else!!

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One of the toughest issues in making a good career choice and career goal setting is identifying what we want. Even when it seems that we know what you want, we may still have doubts on our career choice.

A career goal helps us focus on what we want to do for a living. When we have a clear goal for our career, we only focus our time and energy to achieve that goal and avoid wasting our time and energy on activities that will take us further away from our goal. 
For instance, if we know our long term goal is to be a world class dress designer or carpenter or musician, a sensible career path would be for us to start working in a shop or under a mentor so we can learn from him or her the basic skills. Without setting a career goal we might be tempted to jump from one job to another without consciously thinking of how it will affect your long term career goal.

Choosing the right career goal requires a lot of soul searching. At the end of the day our career goal should be one that we truly want and not what others want for us. Most importantly we should have a compelling reason why we must achieve this career goal.

 
Usually a career goal is based on our skills, education, experience, interests and job trends.  

Self is MOst important:

Gather information about self (self-assessment)

• Determining talent, skills/Aptitudes, abilities. interest and passion
  

  • Identify Life Purpose 
    

(What is something we would do happily even if we are not getting paid for it?)

• Values (Identify values that drive us).

It is important to recognize driving values of self because they have a lot of influence on what provides the most motivation and gratification in a job. Some of the most common values that drive people are: ( Love, Money, Health and fitness, Fun, Growth, Contribution, Security, Power, Freedom, Recognition in Indian Philosophy Values that drives people are - Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha)

Once we have ascertained our life purpose, skills, passions and  driving values, we can begin to explore the various career options open ahead.

Options

• Explore the occupations in which we are interested
• Research the industries in which we would like to work
• Research the Labour Market and world of work

Get more specific information after narrow down  options by:

• Job Shadowing
• Part time work, internships
  
• Informational interviews
• Seeking guidance

After we have chosen a career, think of all the steps that we need to take to get us closer to our goal. Determine what skills we need to develop further and what other resources are required to accomplish our career goal.

Match

During this phase of the process, we will have to:

• Identify and Evaluate possible occupations
• Explore alternatives
• Choose both a short term and a long term option

We will accomplish our goal faster if  we write down  career action plan. 
Career action plan Must be in written.

Action

 
Have to take steps in order to achieve our goal, for example:

• Working on a job search strategy
• Writing and refining resume
• Researching about companies
• Preparing for job requirements and interviews
• Working on our core competencies
• Honing our skills Continuously
• Becoming a life long learner

To keep track of our long term career goals we have to keep setting new short term career goals. Start with Baby Steps. If our long-term career goal is to become a dress designer or an entrepreneur than some of the short-term goals to consider should be building strong communication skills and being proficient in a specific computer program to acquire marketing skills, trade specific skill basic cutting and designing and learning some software related.

The best method to realize our goal is to take action. Even a small step at the beginning is a good start.

Create a vision so powerful, so desirable, so compelling that it draws all our energy and motivation to it. 

Arise, Awake and Stop not till the Goal is Reached. 

PS: “Career planning is a lifelong process, which includes choosing an occupation, getting a job, growing in job, possibly changing careers (if we are on wrong track), and eventually retiring.”