Welcome to Career Planning Ideas and Guide
Career Planning Sites Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
You may also listen to this article by using the following controls.
Career Planning: Are you following a planned career path or simply a series of jobs?
from: John GrothCareer planning: Are you following a planned career path or simply a series of jobs?
Successfully managing your own career is critical for your financial and personal well being. Yet it is rarely pursued on a strategic or informed basis. Career planning, particularly in the technology field, is more and more the responsibility of the individual. Particularly, since most people today end up working for many employers. The overall basis for more successful career management includes developing career plans that are applicable at different stages in your career.
Although living in the information age, there is few comprehensive career information and planning resources available online. Exploring career versus job information is more readily available once you have focused on a career path, such as technology or even further, within a specific industry. Career training in college consists largely on how to interview and write a resume. There seems to be limited formal training programs available about career choices.
When employed the employer generally provides training, successive jobs, and a defined career ladder to the degree that it unites with the organization's needs and objectives. Career coaches mainly work via large employers and focus on building leadership skills, not generally on developing career plans. Outplacement counselors generally help people focus on job searches rather than career plans. Recruiters are looking to fill job positions with top candidates for employers who are their clients and normally do not provide career planning services for individuals.
We can generally fit career planning as having three major phases: early stage from ages 16 to 33; middle, from 34 to 52; and later, beyond 53. Many times, early career choices are highly influenced by parents, relatives, teachers or close friends. The choices of technical schools, colleges or graduate schools, as well as majors, begin to focus interests for career paths.
It is important, in the early stages of a career planning, to carefully make choices, as initial decisions can have a major impact on longer term career success and ultimately, happiness.
Mid-stage career planning and effort usually reflects the initial experiences and jobs one has had with his or her early career. It generally is an extension of that experience. At this stage, there may be a thread of a career track, but job moves and knowledge growth during this phase that are not well planned or executed can result in important limits to career-growth.
Late-stage career planning frequently results from the need to find the right position in one's career after an early retirement or a reduction in force. Career choices at this stage generally reflect more entrepreneurial, part time, or flexible working arrangements. This is when traditional employment limitations as well as long developed interests come more into focus.
Career planning at each stage of a person’s working career can best be analyzed by considering the following:
(1) Take stock of your career. Define your career and objectives at regular intervals preferably at least once a year. Do it in writing. (2) Research and identify possible career options that could meet those career objectives. (3) Evaluate your skills, personality, training and experience. Develop a plan so you can pursue your career objectives. (4) Make a decision as to which career options are the best. Build a plan in the near, medium and long term to reach your career objectives. (5) Be flexible as you monitor your progress. Refine the plan, challenge yourself.
It's critical for you to invest in career planning during each stage of a successful career for short-, medium- and long-term achievement. Ask yourself, are you following a well defined career roadmap or simply working a succession of jobs? If you said yes to the latter, it’s never to late to get started.
Career Planning Sites News
Single Mom Help Network Introduces New Section Providing Career Help for ... - Houston Chronicle
Single Mom Help Network Introduces New Section Providing Career Help for ... Houston Chronicle Single Mother Career Help – A website for help with things like choosing a career, career counseling and planning out professional life and things like working from home. Single Mother Parenting Help – It is another one of the network of sites which ... |
As the Class of 2012 Leaves Campus Life, Apartments.com and CareerBuilder ... - MarketWatch (press release)
As the Class of 2012 Leaves Campus Life, Apartments.com and CareerBuilder ... MarketWatch (press release) While more than half of employers (54 percent) surveyed by CareerBuilder reported they plan to hire recent college grads in 2012, up from 46 percent last year, the competition for jobs is still stiff in this recovering economy. |
85-year-old travels to disaster sites bringing mental health expertise, humor ... - Knoxville News Sentinel
85-year-old travels to disaster sites bringing mental health expertise, humor ... Knoxville News Sentinel Eastham, 85, has volunteered in disaster mental health at Red Cross since 1995, visiting disaster sites throughout the country. When disaster strikes, Knoxville's chapter of the American Red Cross knows who to call. One of its most dedicated and ... |
Buffalo Grove calendar for May 24 - Buffalo Grove Countryside
Buffalo Grove calendar for May 24 Buffalo Grove Countryside Help for the Unemployed: Harper College's Career Stimulus program free to first-timers. Subsequent sessions $10. Memberships $85 a year; free one-on-one sessions with career coach, free workshops, and materials for, and admission to, an intensive ... |
Obama putting youth to work this summer - Real Aspen
 Real Aspen | Obama putting youth to work this summer Real Aspen “These first experiences building trails, clearing out hazardous fuels, or cleaning up rivers not only equip young people with skills for a new career, but can also awaken a love for the outdoors that lasts a lifetime,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar ... |
SCNHC Region 3 hires Sigmon to develop, encourage tourist traffic - The Tand D.com
SCNHC Region 3 hires Sigmon to develop, encourage tourist traffic The Tand D.com He assisted those areas with the development of interpretive planning of their historical, cultural and natural history sites. Sigmon received an undergraduate degree in education in 1971 and a graduate degree in public history in 1992 at the ... |