Develop A Career Action Plan

Develop a Career Action Plan

Change is a fact of life in the workplace. Many traditional standards of security are disappearing. The best insurance you can have is trust in yourself, knowledge of your talents and the ability to tackle new situations with a positive attitude.

Make a Plan

Do you know where your career is headed?

Do you know where you want to be in your professional life one year from now? In five years?

Do you have plans to get there?

If you answered "no" to any of these questions, you may benefit from developing a career action plan a long-range vision of how you want to spend your professional life. A career action plan is a picture of how and where you want to work. In it, you define your career goals and map ways to meet them.

Define Your Career Goals

Career goals are different for everyone. Yours may include:

• Reaching a certain job level.
• Getting promoted.
• Having greater responsibility.
• Learning a new job skill.
• Completing a project in a specific length of time.
• Develop a Leadership Attitude
• Learn how to learn.
• Develop new technical and social skills.
• Associate with people who are learning new things.
• Challenge yourself to act in new ways.
• Learn to act before you have all the information.
• Develop new competencies.
• Be flexible.

Take Action

Once you've defined your career goals, you can begin to put them into action. Write down the steps you need to take to achieve them in the next year. As you determine your career action steps, define them in specific terms and set deadlines for taking action.

Here is an exercise to help you define your career goals:

Everyone brings different skills to the workplace. List the 10 skills you enjoy using most at work.

1. _____________________________________
2. _____________________________________
3. _____________________________________
4. _____________________________________
5. _____________________________________
6. _____________________________________
7. _____________________________________
8. _____________________________________
9. _____________________________________
10. _____________________________________

CLARIFY YOUR VALUES.
Most of us work for a paycheck. But we also have personal values that determine the kind of work we choose. List the five occupational values that mean the most to you. Your values may include: creativity, challenge, variety, travel or security.

1. _____________________________________
2. _____________________________________
3. _____________________________________
4. _____________________________________
5. _____________________________________

EVALUATE YOUR PRESENT POSITION.

Does your current job utilize your talents and support your professional values? Is there opportunity for growth in your present position?
MAKE PLANS FOR FUTURE GROWTH.

Assuming your current occupation is a good fit, where would you like to be five years from now? How can you learn about other positions that will use your talents and fit your values?

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