CAREER PLANNING
The process is more than a throw of the dice
In the past, pundits concluded that career planning and developing is a lifelong process. But even after decades of study and analysis, we’re still trying to wrap our heads around the process, according to The Freedonia Group (online at www.freedoniagroup.com), a business research and marketing company. That’s not hard to understand when you realize how unpredictable life is.
Freedonia defined career as “a person’s progress within an occupation or series of occupations.” If it was only that simple. More than a job or vocation, it also encompasses progress through life, growth and development in both the vocational and the avocational aspects.
Many people have been under the impression that you’re best suited for just one occupation. But actually several may be good choices. The tough part is identifying those occupations in which you have a high probability for success.
As a college student, you may realize that regardless of your specific career goals — whether accounting, theater arts or environmental sciences, for example — general skills will be required. These skills include the ability to read, write, compute, think critically and communicate effectively. Mostly, these skills are developed and sharpened in general education courses. These skills, along with effective career planning techniques, and the ability to cope with ambiguity in a changing environment, will enable you to overcome obstacles throughout your work life, according to Freedonia Group researchers.
This is not as simple and formulaic as it sounds. Deciding on a career for many is a stressful, even traumatic decision. And many perceive career decisionmaking to be complex, even mysterious, because it tends to concentrate on the outcome and overlook the critical planning process.
Logical and successful career decisions are based on current and accurate information. Today, career information is abundant and easily accessible. While this is exciting and potentially helpful, it can also be overwhelming, career researchers say. Nevertheless, one major fact emerges from the mass of data and literature available, analysts from the above mentioned company point out: Effective career planning is a dynamic process that involves the total person. It stresses the importance of knowing about your unique attributes, specific career fields and life priorities. Many never fully understand how pervasive career planning can be. Its tentacles reach out to embrace practically every facet of life.
At its core, “career planning is an individual activity that occurs throughout a person’s working lifetime,” Freedonia specialists state. The career that you enter will influence your entire lifestyle, selfconcept, income, prestige, choice of friends and where you live. In essence, career planning is a subcomponent of life planning, influenced by many of the same factors. The difference is that it spotlights work tasks and work environments.
The exciting part about career planning at almost any stage is that it is ongoing, but not necessarily sequential or chronological, career counselors stress. Instead, the process is fluid — you move to the next step only when ready to do so, and it is not uncommon to move back and forth between steps at any given time. The career-planning process is also cyclic. There is the option to take any career path you think you are qualified to pursue.
You can stop and start careers at will and whenever you think it beneficial.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that many career builders will make three to four major changes in their careers over a 35- to 45year work life. While everyone has unique aspirations, goals and limitations and follow the same process, “career planning outcomes must be individualized,” Freedonia specialists say.
Ultimately your goal should be to arrive at your own decisions, set your own goals, and actively plan for the career in your future.
Check out three of the important components of the career-planning process:.
• Self-assessment. The key to self-assessment is self-understanding, a process that, ideally, should go on throughout your life. It involves knowing your skills, goals and interests, and most important, your motivations. What fires your adrenaline so you can’t wait to get to work each day?
• Values. Often difficult to understand, a value is a vague global concept. Typically, it’s something that is important to you or that has worth, such as marriage, family, education or religion. Yet what has little value to one person may have great value to another. Values often permeate every aspect of life. And as they’re repeatedly acted on, they often become the basis or foundation of our lives. Job satisfaction, for instance, often hinges on your work being consistent with your values. As values are acted on repeatedly, they become the basis for our lives. For instance, someone who values service to others may become a therapist or social worker. As you evolve, values mature and develop. Examples of work-related values are creativity, autonomy, adventure and change.
• Interests. What kind of work do you enjoy? What sports do you enjoy watching or playing? What sort of people do you enjoy being with? Simply, your interests spark our imaginations and give you pleasure.
All of the above help peopl find and define themselves and discover who they really are so they can get as much satisfaction out of work life as possible.