Vital Aspects Of Planning Your Career

Planning a career may feel like a daunting task. Most people spend forty or more hours per week working, and most would like a career that is a good fit. Determining one's best career choices and planning a career path may seem like a difficult task. However, if you approach your career as a process, you can develop a plan to grow and cultivate your career.

First, keep in mind that most people make a major career shift 8 to 10 times during their adult working lives. This is important to know. If you make a "mistake" and find that your current career path is not what you expected, or is no longer satisfying, you can always make a shift. The other side of this is that doing some careful soul-searching and creating a plan can keep your major shifts to a minimum.

Planning a career is much like planning any other big event. You assess the situation and make plans accordingly. In this instance, assessing yourself is key to developing an effective career plan. Ideally, your career will be one that allows you to grow as a person. As such, you need to know yourself well to choose an appropriate career. This is equally as important for career changers as it is for those just starting out. Many times people facing career change are in this situation because they did not have self-assessment resourced when they entered the workforce.

Self-assessments generally consider four primary areas. These are:

Personality

Your personality can be a great indicator for the types of careers that are a good fit for you. A wide range of personality type indicators are available.

Interests

It should go without saying that if you are interested in your work, you'll be happier in your career. However, too often, this is overlooked and people take the first position that comes along. This can start you on a career path that leads to dissatisfaction.

Values

What is important to you? Do you want your work to contribute to society? What type of working environment is important? What drives you? Your values play an important role in your career satisfaction level. Intrinsic values, those that come from within, are generally more of a motivating factor that extrinsic, or external values. However, people often make career choices based on external values or what they think they "should" value rather than what they do value.

Abilities and Skills

Abilities are generally innate qualities that do not change, but they can be enhanced. For example, some people are naturally good at working with and understanding numbers. Skills are talents that can be learned. Both your abilities and skills have some impact on your career. Some careers require certain abilities, and some skills help you do your job much better, which can lead to greater satisfaction.

Career counsellors and coaches often have access to a range of self-assessment tools. Working with a professional helps you make sense of the results and put all the information together to develop a career plan. Choosing an appropriate career is just the first part. From here, though, you can develop specific goals. Where do you want to go in your career? Most fields have a range of options. Self-assessment information can be an excellent way for you to gain insight into yourself and develop the best career choice and path for you.

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