Stages of Career Planning
In todays' labour market it is more realistic to think of your career as a series of jobs and employment rather than a single occupation that will remain unchanged until you retire. Most people will have 6-10 different careers in their lifetime. Career planning, therefore, is essential in order to keep up with these changes.
This type of planning involves seeking information about yourself, looking at career alternatives and making a decision and developing an action plan. Career planning is a lifelong process of matching your current and future needs and priorities with the options available to you and re-evaluating your plans as necessary.
The career planning process is not necessarily a one directional process. You may need to work back and forth through the stages.
Stage 1 - Obtaining Information About Yourself
In order to make wise career choices, you need to look at your interests, skills, abilities, values and work preferences. By figuring out what you like doing, what you do well, and what motivates you, you'll have a much better chance of finding a career that you enjoy and best suits you. Self awareness gives you the power to change and adapt with today's ever changing labour market. A couple of sites to help you can be found on the back page of this newsletter.
Stage 2 - Identifying Your Career Alternatives
After you have obtained information about yourself, you then need to look at your career alternatives. Gaining insight on the tasks, wages, education, training and outlook for different types of work and occupations will make it easier for you to figure out which career you should pursue. One of your objectives is to determine if you are looking for employment, considering self employment or furthering your education.
Stage 3 - Decision Making & Action Planning
After you have explored your career alternatives and completed your research, you will need to make a decision and develop an action plan. Visit your local employment centre for assistance wiht this task. Employment counsellors are able to help you with putting together a resume and cover letter, go through the steps to becoming self employed, and/or recommend specific job search sitesfor you. Only by planning and taking action can you acheive your work objectives. As the saying goes - "Failure to plan is a plan for failure".
