10 Tips for Successful Career Planning

Career planning is an activity that should be done several times, and is a rewarding and positive experience.

Here are 10 tips to help you achieve successful career planning.

1. Make Career Planning an Annual Event
Find a day or week once a year (more often if you’re planning a major career change) and schedule a retreat for yourself. Block out all distractions and truly focus on your career and what you want out of your life; doing this will make you feel more secure in your career choice and direction.

2. Map your Patch Since Last Career Planning
Take time to review and reflect on your current and past paths, this will help you plan for the future. Examine the following questions: Are you happy with your path? Could you have don’t things better? What might you have done differently? What can you do differently in your future?

3. Reflect on Your Likes and Dislikes, Needs and Wants
Change is a huge factor in life; everyone changes, as do our likes and dislikes. Make a two-column list of your major likes and dislikes. Then use this list to examine your current job and career path. If your job and career fall mostly in the like column you know you’re still on the right path.

4. Examine Your Pastimes and Hobbies
Examine your non-work activities when career planning. Many times your hobbies and leisurely pursuits can give you great insight into future career paths.

5. Make Note of Your Past Accomplishments
Making note of your past accomplishments is not only useful for building your resume, but also for career planning. Sometimes reviewing your past accomplishments will reveal forgotten successes. A career shift so that you can be in a job that allows you to accomplish the types of things that make you most happy and proud is truly rewarding.

6. Look Beyond Your Current Job for Transferable Skills
Some people get so wrapped up in their job titles that they don’t see any other career possibilities for themselves. Every job requires a certain set of skills, and it’s much better to categorize yourself in terms of these skill sets than focusing just on job titles.

7. Review Career and Job Trends
Having information about career trends is vital to long-term career planning success. A career path that is expanding today could easily shrink tomorrow.

8. Set Career and Job Goals
Develop a roadmap for your job and career success. A major component of career planning is setting short-term and long-term career and job goals.

9. Explore New Education/Training Opportunities
Information leads to power and success. Never pass up chances to learn and grow more as a person and as a worker; part of career planning is going beyond passive acceptance of training opportunities and finding new ones that will help enhance or further your career.

10. Research Further Career/Job Advancement Opportunities
Where will you be in a year? In five years? A key component to developing multiple scenarios of that future is researching career paths. Look within your current employer and current career field and don’t be afraid to look beyond to other possible careers.

Source: http://local.quintcareers.com

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