Charting
Your Career Path
By
Connie Covey
Our
careers encompass almost every aspect of life.
It is not just the time we put, often 40 hours
a week for 50 weeks a year. Your career also
affects your psychological, physical, social,
and economical well being. Because of its impact
on all these areas, it is worth taking time
out to evaluate your career. There are three
key aspects to this process: 1) career planning,
2) career development and 3) career management.
Career
Planning
The
career planning phase is important because it
provides you with a road map that will help
you get the most out of our career. If you do
not know where you are or where you want to
be, how will you know how to get there? Establishing
a strong sense of focus, purpose, and intention
is the goal of career planning.
This
phase will not tell you everything about your
career, but it will help you learn about the
foundational building blocks upon which you
can build your career. Once you understand these
building blocks, you can begin crafting your
plan toward a more meaningful career.
First,
explore what makes you unique. This will help
you answer the question of "Where am I
now?"
-
Explore your past accomplishments
-
Explore
your skills, such as technical skills, self-management
skills, and transferable skills
-
Identify
your interests, including social, artistic,
investigative, realistic, conventional, and
enterprising
-
Identify
your values by writing them out on a sheet
of paper then compare each one against the
other and pick your top three values
Identifying
your values is perhaps the most important part
of the process because it will help you identify
the things you ought to be saying yes to and
what sort of things you would say no to.
Career
Development:
Now
that you have answered the question of where
you are and have established the foundation
of your uniqueness, it is time to answer the
question, "Where do you want to go?"
This question is best addressed in the career
development phase. This is the phase where you
will consider the action steps that will take
you from where you are to where you want to
be.
You
may need to consider educational components,
skill training, experience in a particular industry
or field of work. During this phase you will
need to examine various strategies in order
to obtain the development component you require.
Give yourself permission to be creative in your
approach to problem-solving-sometimes the solution
is not always the obvious answer.
Be
honest and clear with yourself during the decision
making process to select the appropriate action
steps that will take you forward. From there
you may wish to identify potential areas of
weakness. It is not possible to change something
you do not know exists, so be honest with yourself
and ask yourself what behaviors need to be changed
to reach your goal. Along the way do not forget
to explore how you can strengthen your successful
behaviors that will enhance your effectiveness
in your career.
Career
Management
Now
it's time to move your career in a direction
that reflects your careful career planning and
development strategies. Career management is
an on-going, repetitive process where you will
refer back to your career plan and embark upon
further development as the need arises over
time. As you manage your career, contemplate
the following:
It is five years from now - the year 2010.
You are a competent, highly respected (insert
your job title here), working at your dream
job.
-
-
Who are your customers? What are they
like?
-
What is your office or work space like?
-
A typical day in this job will find you…
-
As you go through this typical day, you
feel…
Coming back from lunch today, you find two
messages. One is from a former customer. When
you return the call, you find that this person
wants to tell you about the latest events
in his life. He is so happy, and thanks you
profusely for helping him in the past.
-
What is the customer so grateful to you
for?
The second message is from a current customer
who wants to meet with you this afternoon
to discuss (insert the nature of your business
here).
-
-
What does she want to discuss with you?
There is a knock on your door - this customer
has arrived.
-
"What do the two of you discuss?
All of your planning and development these
last five years have brought you to where
you are.
As the customer leaves, she says: "Thanks
so much! You really helped me."
-
"What happened that resulted in
this mutual satisfaction and in anticipation
of your next time together?
To help guide you through this process, there
are many excellent resources available ranging
from books and coaches to career development
counselors. Enjoy the journey as you work
toward reaching your career goals.
Connie Covey, B. Admin., PMP
Career Development Coach
Covey Performance Group Inc.
tel: (403) 730-4720
email: ccovey@telus.net
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