Career planning is a step–wise process which enables an individual to focus on where he or she wants to be in life professionally.

In this article, we shall explore the meaning of career planning and its process. It will be of help and useful for individuals on how to plan their career and the necessary steps to take when planning it.

What is Career Planning?

Career Planning is the process of making decisions about what you want to do with your life and how you will accomplish it. It is the process of discovering educational, training, and professional opportunities that suit your interests, passions, and goals.

It is a continuous self–evaluation planning process, done by a person to have a strong career path that aligns with one’s goals, aspirations, and kills.

Career Planning should align with a goal, it requires the acquisition of basic as well as special skills needed to perform on a job.

Importance of Career Planning

Good career planning helps a person to grow in life in their professional career, which also helps them to grow personally. If there is no career planning, the career of an individual would be controlled by external factors and circumstances.

A great career plan early can lead to better planning of skills and education required to achieve career goals. A job may or may not align with one’s career objectives if proper career planning is not done.

A job may be directly opposite to one’s path because the required skills or educational qualifications are missing due to the lack of an initial plan.

But one can re-plan a career later as well, if the current occupation doesn’t align with the goals or if goals have changed.

Career Planning Process

Career Planning process is an important aspect as it guides individuals on the basic steps to take when planning his or her career. Some of the basic steps are:

1. Self-Assessment

There is a need to understand your needs, strengths, personality, skills, talents, passions, and interests to make informed academic and career decisions.

Interests are the things that you are passionate about. Even if you weren’t paid to do them, you’d want to spend time (and maybe money) learning more about them. Skills are what you excel at.

They can be natural talents, or they may be areas of competency that you have developed over time. These are the traits that you can rely on when you need to get something done.

2. Determine the Basic Steps

There is not one right path to your dream job, but there may be certain steps that are non-negotiable. For example, if you want to become a lawyer, you won’t get there without studying law.

What are the non-negotiable short-term goals for your role, and how do you get there from where you are? Will you need to go back to school or switch fields?

3. Research Your Dream Job

Another step in the process is to understand the career options, companies available, growth options, careers, etc. which are aligned with the self–assessment done already.

Be bold with your goal–setting at this stage in the process. Do a job search, read the job description, and pay close attention to the skills and responsibilities of the positions. Do you have the academic and necessary qualifications for the job?

4. Set Career Objectives

Another step in the career planning process is to set both long-term and short-term career goals for oneself and to have a clear career path.

Set the goals and highlight the steps or actionable plans on how to achieve the set goals. The set goals should have a timeframe within which to achieve them. A goal without time bound may be difficult to achieve.

5. Learn and Improve Skills

Another important step in the process is to keep acquiring new skills and relevant knowledge to be in line with the career objectives and with the organization or industry requirements.

Many times there may be clear gaps in the objectives, aspirations, and skills. To fill those gaps, there is a need for proper planning to acquire and learn those skills so that a career plan can be properly executed.

Acquiring the right skills and knowledge also makes one to be relevant and suitable for the job that aligns with the set objectives and career goals.

6. Preparation of CV/Resume

Having a presentable and well-written CV/Resume is another crucial step in career planning. The resume should highlight the skills, qualifications, and objectives that align with the career planning of an individual.

7. Job/Work Search

The next step is to short-list the companies where an individual is seeking a job and start applying.

8. Revise Career Goals

The last step in the career planning process is to continuously evaluate the career goals and again do a self-assessment to build a strong career path.

Your Career determines your happiness. It is worth taking the time to do a little career planning and set a course for a successful, happy life. Get started today.