Career Planning: Taking the Time to Plan Right From ivillage.com by JoyLynn Reed
In today’s world everything happens instantly. Our fastest computers are operating at 1.6 gigahertz. We eat food that is cooked in seconds. And we expect our careers to move just as fast. Yet new opportunities can still take weeks or months. If you’re not very established or changing careers, the move will probably take twice as long as you predict.
So how do you go about planning and strategizing for your career? Start with this bit of advice.
Separate forging a career from earning money.
There are times when you need to take the better paying job or you have to take the first job you are offered so you can pay the bills. But taking a job for the money when you really wanted to build a career move could leave you frustrated.With planning, you can spot jobs that will get you where you want to go. In the long run, you want to be making good money in your preferred field. That might take months or even years. Don’t get discouraged even if you have to fine-tune goals as you learn more as the job market changes.
No matter how easy it seems, most successful people have worked long and hard.
Sometimes you see someone at the top and chalk it up to luck. It is true that part of success is being in the right place at the right time. But planning and being savvy about the opportunities that come your way are what most great careers are built on.For example, I know a guy who is a high-tech stock-option millionaire. To his new co-workers, his wealth comes from his being at the company at the right time. The company’s decision to give stock option bonuses was lucky for him. What they don’t consider, though, is that his options were awarded because he spent 7 years working 10 or more hours a day. He recognized a good opportunity to join the company and further his career. That was planning.
So how do you put this to work for your own career?
- Spend time planning your career but don’t plan so rigidly that you aren’t open to interesting options you hadn’t considered.
- Career planning is not like party planning. It doesn’t just happen and then it’s over. You have to keep doing it.
You should aim to do one career-building task every week. A career-builder can be furthering your skills, increasing your professional network, learning more about your industry, or talking to someone else about your future possibilities. Sometimes your weekly career-builder is also something you need to do for your job. For example, suppose your manager asks you to give a presentation to another department describing how your department trained staff members to work in teams. You can use this opportunity to learn how to use a presentation software (like Power Point) to enhance your presentation skills. Not only will your presentation be professional and polished, you will also know a new program that you can add to your resume under software skills.
- Ask people in your preferred career about how they got where they are. If you hear enough of these stories, you’ll discover what you need to do and how to position yourself.
For example, when I was a graduate student hoping for an academic career, I talked to a lot of professors about how they finished graduate school and became university faculty members. From their stories, I learned many steps I could take as well as what kinds of pitfalls to avoid. I learned how to finish my dissertation in a reasonable amount of time, how to interview for jobs, how to avoid political problems as a new assistant professor, and how to prioritize the many different tasks my new career would require of me.
- Aim to make money at your career but take time planning your moves. If you can afford it, taking a position that will help you develop a skill for your career is better than an unrelated job that pays well. But you can translate skills in a lot of ways.
- Spend time looking for paid opportunities to learn transferable skills. For example, I never intended to turn teaching aerobics into a career. But it gave me great leadership and teaching skills. That experience was a big help when I started my college teaching career.
- Shape your career, don’t let it shape you. Decide what you want your career to be and make your opportunities match that. Sometimes, you have to take the role employers give you. But you can also make roles for yourself by acquiring projects, and those help you further your career. If you want to be a writer but are working as a bookkeeper, you could become department newsletter editor. Even if the job takes a few more hours a week, creating, editing, and writing a department newsletter puts you closer to your long-term career goal. What does all of this mean? Positioning yourself in your career will happen a step at a time with planning. The keys are time and planning.
“Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, NOTABLE QUOTABLE
These three alone lead life to sovereign power.”– Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Oenone,” 1842
NRI to the Rescue!
Our three main articles this month may not seem to have a common link, but if you look closely, they do — NRI can help you at every stage of your job search.While the symptoms of job burnout on page two are meant to be comical, there is nothing funny about feeling a lack of enthusiasm about your job. When you feel the first signs of burnout coming on, that is the time to contact NRI.
Our cover story talks about making the right career moves. We have all heard that it is easier to find a job when you already have a job. Use the job you are working now, be it a permanent or temporary position, to improve your skills to help steer you towards where you want to be in your career. No job is so awful that you cannot look around and find a lesson or inspiration for future use.
When you have an idea of where you want to go, or you need some help formulating your ideas into a plan or direction, give your NRI Recruiter a call. Remember that our trained and practiced Staffing Specialists have the knowledge and objectivity to help you.
Once you have a direction, the next step is easy — interviewing. Never forget the basics and you will go far. Look for articles on interviewing and job searches in upcoming issues of JobLink.
Basic Preparation for an Interview
From ivillage.comInterviewing involves a good measure of self-persuasion and preparation. Confident, prepared interviewees have persuaded themselves they have excellent skills and experience and unique knowledge to offer. You must prepare. There are no short cuts. You should be able to identify these features in yourself:
You must be able to articulate these key points in the interview. An inability to express yourself clearly can be more harmful to your chances than a lack of experience. A good way to ensure that you will express yourself well is by “scripting” your answers to key interview questions. With a friend or co-worker, prepare and review your answers to both basic and tough questions. Remember: Everyone can use interview practice. Even the most extroverted, self-confident and verbal candidate needs help in thinking through and rehearsing the answers to interview questions.
- Transferable skills
- Key accomplishments
- Management style
- Unique selling points
- Personal and professional strengths
Additional Interview Tips:
- List five adjectives that describe you and then list five adjectives that would describe the ideal candidate for the position. How well do the lists match? Where are the gaps?
- Read the company’s annual report, and take note of the adjectives used to describe the leadership and the employees. Is the culture one in which you will be happy and do your best work? For the interview, prepare brief anecdotes about your work that illustrate the qualities the company values.
- Rehearse until you can easily answer questions with clarity and crispness. The more you practice your answers, the more your confidence will grow.
Top 10 Signs You Are Suffering from Job Burnout
Are You Suffering From These Over-the-Top Symptoms?
- You’re so tired you now answer the phone, “Hell; may I help you?”
- Your friends call to ask how you’ve been, and you scream, “Get off my back!”
- Your garbage can is your “in” box.
- You wake up to discover your bed is on fire, but go back to sleep because you just don’t care.
- You start scheduling conference calls with your kids.
- Visions of the upcoming weekend help you make it through Monday.
- You sleep more at work than at home.
- You leave for a party and instinctively bring your briefcase.
- Your Day-Timer exploded a week ago.
- You think about how relaxing it would be if you were in jail right now.
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