“What you plan today will lay the foundation stone for a better future,” this line would have been told too many of you at different stages of your life. Well, it’s not cliché rather; adhering to this rule will help you build a strong future for yourself. We have always heard a lot of preaching but what actually needs to be done on ground level remains hidden. Here we will be unveiling few career planning tips which will help you shape your career and strategize your next move.
An important point to note here is that career planning is not an activity that should be done once in a while rather; it’s a process which needs to be followed every day. If you still haven’t kick-started your first step towards career planning, then it’s not late, you can begin it today.
Many of us dread career planning activity primarily because of lack of knowledge or guidance, but you don’t need to dread, it should be liberating and fulfilling. Your career planning activity should help you achieve your current goals and start preparing plans to achieve next set of goals.
The following steps will help you gain an edge over others before entering your professional world or even if you are working somewhere:
- First, you need to classify between job and career, the job will fetch you money to pay bills and earn living but a career is a long-term vision wherein you keep on improving with each passing day. Even when you end up landing in a perfect company with a perfect job profile, do not settle for it; rather persistently make effort to improve in your career every day so, you need to make an effort to improve your job every day. You can start applying for jobs at online job portals.
- The second step is to recognize your skills; you need to know your areas of strength so that you can focus on a career which makes use of your skills. This will help you focus on your work and grow positively.
- Setting goals, the most important factor that will help you shape your career is when you have goals to achieve. Setting goals helps you focus and not divert from your career path. An important point to note here is that setting short-term and long-term goals are an important aspect of career planning. Apart from setting goals irrespective whether they are the long term short term, you need to analyse and review it each day so that you are able to your way towards achieving it; at the same time, it helps you see if you are making an effort in the right direction.
- Work on your networking skills, getting connected with a network of professionals over social media and other platform helps you understand how they present themselves. You can also start your own blog. If possible attend the networking events in your city; this is a great way to network with professionals.
- Share your ideas, it doesn’t matter whether you an entry level employee or have few years of experience, it’s important that you confidently present your ideas and opinion. This helps you gain confidence and at the same time, it will help you make a mark in the eyes of the management.
- Take initiative, if you really wish to plan your career in a positive direction then it’s important that you are an initiator and problem solver and for this, you need to be a keen observer of what is happening around you.
During the process of career planning, it’s important that it should be a continuous activity. You should review that you have achieved till now or want to achieve and whether you are working in the direction of making it happen. Never give up on your dream and it’s never too late to start.
Planning is far more important than actually doing the work. It holds true in all spheres of life, be it profession, daily tasks or one’s educational career. The students who plan their career well ahead of their higher education are proven to be more successful than the ones who think after they have taken a step. Planning includes setting one’s goals, increase network, sharing ideas and most importantly identifying your weaknesses in communication and infers ways to improve it. One such communication skill can be your essay writing skill, for which help can be taken from the authentic and reliable online sources, like a brand new kind of admission essay writing service on ThePensters.com.