The word career is composed of progress and actions taken by a person throughout a lifetime, especially those related to that person's occupations combined referring to all types of employment ranging from semi-skilled through skilled, and semi-professional to professional jobs. The term career has commonly been restricted to the employment commitment to a single trade skill, profession or business firm for the entire working life of a candidate. A career is often composed of the jobs held, titles earned and work accomplished over a long period of time, rather than just referring to one position on which the person is currently working or may have been working from past sometime.
The Objective of Career Planning
Career planning is challenging as well as a continuous lifelong process. Planning your career can start right from your high school and may go on even after your children have passed their high school, that is the reason it is called a lifelong continuous process there is no age limit to this process. Anyone ranging from school students, college students, college graduates, and working professionals looking for career growth or career change can undergo this process. It consists of a combination of activities and actions that you take to achieve your ambition or your career goals and this process may help you develop the skills required to achieve various short-term and long-term objectives. Basically, the career planning is aimed at making the right decision at the right time so that there is no wastage of precious time of a candidate, which may be effectively utilized to gain new career heights, instead of wasting time looking for a right path.
Some of the most sort after Career Options are:
Tips for Career Planning
- Career is Linked to Knowledge: Both the career and knowledge move parallel to each other, as your knowledge goes on increasing, your career will simultaneously reach new heights. Just like the career knowledge is also a lifelong process, there is no age to start or stop the learning process. The world is constantly changing and so is the demand of the customer in the market, and everybody is looking for new ways of doing business to expand their profits. Hence knowledge is the prospect for escalating your career. If you want a good career in the future, you should add regular updates to your skills and knowledge.
- Realize your work Capability: You may begin the process by self-assessment and figure out where you are present, where you want to be in future and how you’re going to get there and by what course of time. Idea behind is to know your capability as well as your skills and interest. Once you have thought about where you are at now and where you want to be, you can work on getting to know your skills, interests, and values and analyze a career for yourself. Guidance from a Career Counselor may prove to be helpful who can help you understand which career field will be best suitable for you based on your assessment test results and your aptitude as well as IQ tests.
- The Art of Listening: A lot can be learned from the experience of the other people. A good listener is always successful and never lets the opportunity to learn from other people get wasted. Listening patiently to your parents, siblings, cousins, co-workers, and superiors may help a lot in knowing various career prospects in different areas. Asking about issues that interest you and listening to what they say can be very helpful. They’ll tell you about how things work, and what you could have done better as most people will love to be your free tutor, everyone likes to give advice to others. Talk to industry experts if you know any, who are already working in the relevant field. The more you talk to related experienced industry people, the better is your research work for making a career decision. Ask them about their likes and dislikes about that career so you could figure out various pros and cons of the industry.
- Identify your Job Prospect: Before you start planning your future career, be sure you have identified your dream job. Once you have completed your research work, narrow down your options make a list of relevant options, and decide on the career choice. By this stage, you should have an idea of what you need to do next for achieving your goals. Your dream job should be a combination of your interest, skills and your education. Try to explore the option that does not have anything that you dislike or not enjoy doing or you have a problem doing. While narrowing different prospects keep in mind:
- If the job matches your skills and interest?
- Advantages and disadvantages of the job, if any?
- Do you really fit into the job?
- Would you be happy doing the job?
- Pay scale?
- How you would apply and what relevant qualification you need?
- Picking up the Right Direction: You cannot build a career without proper knowledge and skill. Figure out the courses you need to roll in to be eligible for the job you are interested in, type of training you need and experience required if any. Search for the best institution providing education in the related courses and enrol in as soon you are eligible for the same. You can build your future career using a lot of different tools taking a full-time graduation or master may always not be the only option. Look out for alternatives also and choose the best out of it. Doing short time courses with certification tests might add valuable weight to your CV, after all, it is the practical knowledge that matters most in your job. And don't forget: Your current job is often the most valuable source for building new skills, and your experience is always something that would count in your CV.
- Analyze the Available Options: Make a list of all the options available and study them thoroughly to find out the best suitable path to success. Remember there is no shortcut for success, but even working without any reason would also not help in any way. There may be a different option available, formulate that and go for best suited. For e.g. a student who wants to become an engineer may have an option of opting either for a bachelor degree in engineering after 12th standard with PCM. There is also an option of going for diploma after 10th and after completing diploma may gain a direct entry to engineering 2nd year through Lateral Engineering Entrance Test (LEET). In this way there are various options available for the same course and a student may opt for anyone depending upon his calibre and interest. If there is no clear preference or choice available, that is ok leave your research work for a while then go back and do some more research with a fresh mind.
- Preparing Yourself: Develop an action plan to get your dream job and take the necessary steps to achieve your goal. If required, pursue training if required or higher studies for that particular profession. Develop a strategy, create a resume, and prepare for your job interview and research about the different question being asked for the job, and be well prepared with the answers. One should not wait for the opportunity to arrive, instead just go on looking for it. You may be in an interview for your dream job anytime, so keep your resume updated, your documents well within reach and all your skills brushed up. Remember formals are the first impression and try to go for an interview in sober formals. Use all that you have learned about, and put in all your skills, interests and values together with the information you have gathered about the world of work to create your plan and give your best impression.
- Planning for a Second Career: There are people who are not satisfied with their job or didn’t get a fair chance to study well and want to change their career. Poor job satisfaction is the main reason for a person looking for a second career option. If a person is thinking about this, then he should not waste time thinking about it but should be really prompt in making the decision. For a person thinking of a second career option:
- The decision should be made as early as possible that you want to make a change. The longer you postpone making a change, the more difficult it becomes to find out a new career option.
- Search about current employment trends. Look out for the jobs that have high growth potential and also fit your personality and qualification and that you find it interesting as well. Do consider the fact that how a new career would affect your family and your financial status. Some careers require a lot of travelling or time away from home so you need to keep all these things in mind.
- Save money to allow for any time that you will remain unemployed, you cannot find a new job on the same day you decide to change. Financial matters need to be considered well in advance. Arrange health insurance through your spouse or a private insurance company or any other possible source; also try to have a backup plan in case the things may get worse.
- Take the necessary steps to further your education or get the training required, such as applying to schools and seeking financial aid, because if you are planning on a new career option it would definitely need in some new qualifications or training.
Advantages of Career Planning
Career planning helps to select a secure path. For example, if a person wants to become an engineer, they have to possess a Bachelor's degree in BE or BTech, before that there is also a need to research about all the necessary tuition required and eligibility required. Preplanning can help achieve educational targets effectively and also helps to evaluate personality. In short, career planning is necessary to guide us towards a proper and safer future. Without proper planning, a student may find himself lost - it will also be difficult for him to find the job that he wants in the future. Career planning motivates and drives to accomplish the task and give a proper vision of what needs to be done.
A well-planned career helps us to achieve goals and dreams easily, though there may not be any replacement for the hard work well planning can make things sorted. As time passes by, we grow and our needs also change with the changing time. In order to keep pace with the future, we need to plan well ahead which would help a lot. Career planning helps us to make many adjustments and make us aware of many facts along the way as we keep learning throughout our lives. Successful people are those who have adopted proper career planning and also followed the research work that they did relate to their career. Mentors and guides also play a pivotal role in career planning. Career planning is an important aspect of our lives, but we should not put too much pressure on ourselves, as that would probably discourage us from making any real, profitable choices. Hence need is to have an effective career plan to give a clear idea of what path one needs to follow for a successful career.
