A career plan is a list of your career, and the actions you need to take to to achieve them. Career plans will help you to become a strong job candidate.
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Steps to an effective career plan
1️⃣ Identify your options
Develop your career options list by exploring your interests, skills and values through self-assessment. Narrow your focus by browsing job information, looking for relevant companies that interest you and whether they have open job applications. You can narrow the list even further by taking part in experiences such as tracking, volunteering, and internships.
2️⃣ Prioritize
It is not enough to list options and potential actions. You have to set priorities. Set up your importance hierarchy. What are your most important skills? What are you most interested in? What is most important to you?
3️⃣ Make comparisons
Compare the most promising career options (choose the best job offers) with a list of priority skills, interests and values. If you already know what is most important to you, you need to determine what job, development path, will best match your hierarchy.
4️⃣ Consider other factors
Search deeper. Take into consideration not only personal preferences, but also the needs of the labor market. Check what qualifications are necessary to perform the selected job. Think about whether you have all of them or maybe there is something else you need to work on. Perhaps you need courses or training to get required skills. Will your choices affect you and those around you? Gather information from friends, colleagues, teachers and family members. Consider the potential outcomes and barriers for each final option.
5️⃣ Set “SMART” Goals
Now that you’ve identified your career options, develop an action plan to implement this decision. Identify specific, time-bound goals and steps to accomplish your plan. Set short-term goals (to be achieved in one year or less) and long-term goals (to be achieved in one to five years).
Specific — Identify your goal clearly and specifically.
Measurable — Include clear criteria to determine progress and accomplishment.
Attainable — The goal should have a 50 percent or greater chance of success.
Relevant — The goal is important and relevant to you.
Time bound — Commit to a specific timeframe.
6️⃣ Create Your Career Action Plan
It’s important to be realistic about expectations and timelines. Write down specific action steps to take to achieve your goals and help yourself stay organized. Check them off as you complete them, but feel free to amend your career action plan as needed. Your goals and priorities may change, and that’s perfectly okay.
7️⃣ Find a company which interests you
Search for a company that fits your plan. Look on the Internet, if something interests you, write down the names of companies. This will be a clue for your Career Advisor, which path you should follow and how best to help you in your choice.
You have done it all?
8️⃣ Meet with a Career Advisor
If you created your career plan, you have mapped out your skills and experience. You set the hierarchy of priorities and collected the most necessary information, come and meet our Career Advisors. We will help you to improve what you prepared, highlight what else needs to be done.
