Career Planning: the Measures we need to take to have a Successful Career

Careerplanning can be defined as a goal that you desire to achieve in a selected field or occupation with a well thought out plan to get you there. Planning for any perspective is essential. If you do not plan things the chances for failure are many, but if you do plan then you can adopt a proper line of action that can guide you for your success. A career of an individual is the most important thing in his life as it is course or progress made by an individual in his life. Therefore, if a person fails in getting a suitable career for himself he may be unable to progress in his life.

For getting a suitable career one must plan it. Planning a career is important as it guides you your ultimate destiny. It guides you of a position, which you want to attain in your lifespan. Career planning is a lifelong process, which includes choosing an occupation, getting a job, growing in our job, possibly changing careers, and eventually retiring.  

Career planning incorporates short term and long-term career goals, personal goals and constraints. We need to follow a plan to accomplish our goals for career. For that a process is required to follow which includes four steps, identifying self, Identifying options, matching the options with ourselves, and taking an action accordingly. These are the very basic tools one requires in planning his/ her career. This can give a person a successful career if followed. You can identify your personality by considering your interests, values, roles, skills/ aptitude, preferences, and realities. Once you have realized your needs now you can look for options and availabilities of careers in the market. If any of a position fulfils your criteria of work you can look ahead for it.

Now for forming a successful career plan one must follow a guideline that he himself has to create. The guideline can be successful if it includes the following:

Ø  Making career planning an annual event

Ø  Map your path since last career planning

Ø  Reflect on your likes/ dislikes, needs/ wants

Ø  Examining your hobbies

Ø  Make note of your past accomplishments

Ø  Set career and job goals

Ø  Explore new  training/ education opportunities

Ø  Research further career advancement opportunities

Ø  Finally believe in yourself

We do not plan our career in way that we have to stick to a particular workplace for ages, as it cannot lead a person to career growth. We plan careers for our growth and development, but if we stick to a single workplace then growth is difficult. Therefore, we need to plan our careers this way and we must plan every year so as to monitor our own performance.

Now there are some mistakes that people usually do which ultimately leads towards a failure. We must try not to commit those mistakes in order to be successful. These mistakes include, setting unrealistic goals, looking for a limited scope, depending on others and taking unnecessary risk. These are the mistakes that can lead towards failure. To get a successful career we must avoid by setting unrealistic goals or the goals, which may contradict with our personality or are unable to achieve. We should look in broader range for careers not in limited areas. Depending on others, like putting things off from your shoulder to someone can also be a reason in an unsuccessful career, we should try things ourselves. Apart from that extra risk can also be dangerous like leaving a good job for another of our interest.

A successful career plan is essential for overall success of a career we should try to plan or careers according to our personality and nature. A successful career plan helps improve career progress of an individual so must follow it.