Beginning with the mass redundancies of the 1990s employers began to lose their belief that they were responsible for their employee’s development and begun to encourage their employees to take responsibility in their own career. Fast forward to the ‘noughties’ and it is now imperative that employees plan and control their own career movement and do not rely on their employers to do so for them.

Considering your career plan

Strategic overview

Firstly you are never too late to start! When you are commencing your planning you need to decide what your strategic plan is for your career. For example, where do you want to be in the next 5 years? Will you be a generalist or a specialist in your chosen profession? What are the trends in your marketplace/industry? What skills do you have and what skills do you need? Do you wish to stay employed or start your own business?

Looking at your career

First of all you should analyse whether you are in the correct career path for you or whether you wish to change Industries. To make this assessment it is important to do as much research as possible. Will the job that you are looking for pay you the salary that you wish and support the lifestyle that you want? Does it play to your strengths and your competencies? For example if you are creative by nature than a role that requires strict adherence to rules may not suit you.

The type of person that you are will have a major impact in career choice and progression as well. Extroverts will be drawn to different roles than introverts and will also have a different game plan. Assessing whether your career is progressing the way that you wish is also useful especially if you take into account whether your own behaviours have hindered or helped you. Often people are disappointed that their career hasn’t developed in the way that they would have liked and it is because they are considered by their managers as bad promotional prospects.

By assessing past performance reviews you will be able to see whether there are any consistent trends or key development needs that you need to address before making your next move. This applies whether your next move is promotional, lateral, within or external to the company. You will also need to decide to treat your career as something which you need to manage as ultimately the only one affected by the success or otherwise of your good career management is you!

If you consider yourself as the manager of your career, what are the things that need to happen to ensure that you achieve your goals? Your assessment of your work performance would have raised a few questions including those listed below:

• How competent are you?

• What are your strengths and weaknesses?

• What are your interests?

• What are the company’s goals for you?

• Are you suited to what you are currently doing?

• What are your skill gaps?

By linking the answers to these and other relevant questions with your assessment of your chosen marketplace it will be easier to plan your next steps. If your most dominant need is training or qualifications then your first port of call will be your employer. Perhaps they can sponsor you in developing your professional competence, or by providing you with the opportunity to attend relevant training courses. Your employer may arrange for you to be coached or mentored by external experts or may ask you to participate in ‘job shadowing’. If you can identify an employee that you admire and consider to be good at their job you may approach them directly and ask them to be your informal mentor. This can be very beneficial as it can severely reduce your learning curve.

If your employer will not help then do consider funding your own education and development.

You may have identified your need as more experience or behavioural. If your employer is unable to provide you with more experience then look at the competencies required for the role that you desire and see if you can develop them externally to your current role. This could be from clubs, voluntary work or hobbies. An internal mentor or coach may help with any behaviour deficiencies you may have.

Another thing to consider when planning your career is how you will network to achieve your goals. Many opportunities for development as well as new jobs can be uncovered via networking with the right people. A significant proportion of job hunters for example, use the international website LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) to register their CV and job profile. They also use LinkedIn to connect to individuals from other industries and companies – it is also being used substantially by recruitment agencies to find the right candidates for the vacancies they are sourcing.

There are many online networks and places to connect with socially – be aware however that many employers are using the information to make employment decisions. There have unfortunately, been a few cases where undesirable behaviour on sites like Facebook has led to disciplinaries or decisions not to recruit.

There has never been a better time to take control and be responsible for your own career progression, providing you put a plan in place to help you navigate the path to success. And with the plethora of tools available to aid you in your journey, the future is certainly a bright one. Good luck!