Things you need to know before you select your career.

If you stick to work ideas and know where your skills can be best used, just follow these four phases to career selection to create a career development plan. It’s rewarding to spend time

A career plan is a strategy that you develop continuously and guides your learning and progress throughout the life of your work. It consists of four phases and is designed to help you visualize and perform the actions you need to achieve your career goals.

The four phases of a career plan are:

1. Identify your skills and interests
2. Explore career ideas
3. Make a decision
4. Set achievable goals.

Career plans are important for several reasons. A professional development plan helps you identify when you’re ready to seek for new possibilities and acquire new abilities, reducing the danger of making rash decisions.

This model can be used by graduates, students, graduates, and career changers.

Find out more about the process and how to plan your career path.

1. Identify your skills and interests

Choosing a career is a hard decision. Work will occupy a big portion of your life. So to enjoy your work, stay motivated, and reach your potential, you need to choose your career wisely.

First, you need to know yourself. This means assessing your skills and assessing your interests and values.

It is important to understand your skills and scope of knowledge and see if they are suitable for the job you want to do. Awareness of your abilities also helped identify gaps that may need to be filled to achieve your goals.

Make a list of all your transferable and professional skills, with examples when you show them. Honestly assessing your skills, values, and interests helps you narrow down your options in the next step. You can also see where you are ranked in terms of the skills your employer is looking for.

Think about where you are, where you want to be, and how you get there to fulfill your career aspirations. If you are uncertain about your career choices, ask yourself the following questions first.

• What is I like?
• My interest, motivation, and what is the value?
• Did you enjoy the most at university?
• What lifestyle do you desire?
• What do you want from my career?
• What is important to me?

If you have problems identifying your strengths, weaknesses, or personality traits, you can reveal them with a psychometric test.

At the end of this step, you have identified the type of work that suits you, but you do not yet have enough information to decide which work to pursue.

2. Explore career ideas

This is about investigating the employment market and career path you are interested in and narrowing down your options.

Think about what your ideal career sector is and discover key trends by researching local, domestic and global employment markets. This will help you discover more potential career paths and understand which roles are expanding or contracting.

There are three job sectors.

• Individuals, partnerships, and limited liability entities (LLCs)
• Local and national governments, as well as their agencies and chartered organizations, are considered public.
• The not-for-profit sector, often known as the charity and volunteer work sector, is a subset of the not-for-profit industry.

Browsing a job profile can alert you to less prominent career paths where skills and qualifications may help.

Before considering the strengths and weaknesses of each job, make a list of about 5-10 jobs for:

• career development
• employment outlook
• entry requirements
• job description
• related jobs
• salary and conditions
• Training.

You also need to consider which size of the employer is best suited to your personality and work ethic. Are you suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), large enterprises, or self-employed people?

This is the perfect time to consider work experience, internships, work shadowing, and volunteering. They help you gain insight into the areas you are interested in before committing to a particular career path.

3. Make a decision

Now you are equipped to make a decision. Combine what you have learned about yourself with what you have learned about your opportunities and the graduate employment market.

From the list of ideas for your work, determine the role you are most interested in and choose one or two options to rely on if you are unable to pursue your first choice.

Ask yourself the following questions to assist you in making a decision:

• Can I work on a daily basis?
• Is it my favorite?
• Do I have the correct skills?
• Is the company fit my value?
• Are there any places / financial / skill restrictions that I have to take into consideration?
• Is the pay for the position reasonable?

Keep in mind that you are likely to be suitable for multiple careers, and today’s job seekers usually change their career direction multiple times in their work. The key to employability is the ability to adapt and learn new skills.

4. Set achievable goals.

Your career plan should show you how to get to where you want to be, what you need to do, and when, and break it down into short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals. Always check your progress, especially after each short-term goal has been achieved.

You also need to develop a backup career development plan in case circumstances change. Plan some alternative paths to your long-term goals and consider how you can overcome the types of potential problems such as Training requirements at each step.

Your first short-term goal may be to improve your resume and cover letter. Other short-term or medium-term goals are to complete the relevant internship, gain voluntary work experience, or attend job fairs.

If you make an appointment with your university’s career services and feel that expert verification is required, ask your advisor to review your career plan and discuss your career choices.

During COVID19, many college career services moved their activities and event programs online to support students and graduates in the event of a crisis, but with direct appointments when things resumed. You may be able to schedule both virtual appointments.

Finally, keep in mind that career planning is an ongoing process. Review and review your goals throughout your career, and don’t feel limited by the goals you set. The structure of your career plan should help you to articulate a path to try something new.