CAREER PLANNINGESSENTIALS

A Career Workbook for Professionals

Welcome to one of the most important steps you will take in planning your career. A career is an important aspect that most people work hard to develop. It is so important that it becomes a part of our identity. Yet most people do not develop their careers according a plan that is systematic and referrable.
By carefully following the plan suggested in this workbook you will be well on the way toward effectively planning your career.

Careers are a major part of our lives, so much so that we often identify ourselves by the work we perform. Our careers are our personal businesses. In fact, all of us who have careers are in our own business.


Looking at our career from the position of it being our business is a mind-set that places us on a professional level with other companies. The mind-set is that we are self employed, and when we work for a company or corporation we are contracting ourselves to that company or corporation. The papers we sign upon joining a company is the contract. The terms of work, expectations of each party, the amount to be paid by the contractor and options to cancel the contract were all agreed upon. Money was paid thus, completing the contracting process.

When we are in our own business, our career, then it makes good business sense to have a strategic business plan. This is the case with most successful companies. We call it our Strategic Career Plan. That is what this workbook is about; helping our coaching clients to plan their careers using a business plan model.

HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED
This workbook is intended to facilitate participants to effectively plan their careers. The workbook is arranged in six parts.

Parts 1 through 4 challenges participants to explore their personal and work backgrounds. By doing so the foundation for actual career planning is established.

Some of this work is difficult and time consuming and it asks us to look into ourselves to find truth of our purpose in life. This may be difficult since self examination is often a threatening exercise. It tends to uncover aspects about our lives and careers that we may be unwilling to address.

Part 5 comprises the actual career planning process. Participants will find all Parts to be closely related since career planning depends on the work in Parts 1 through 4 addressing personal and work data. Some participants will also recognize a familiar format; the strategic business plan.

Participants will also find pages throughout the book that provide Information You Can Use.
Appendix 1 guides job seekers in their quest to change jobs within the career they have chosen. Appendix 2 aids participants in an overall assessment of their careers and personal lives.

Career Development is about control and planning. It is about knowing where you have been in your career, where you are now and where you want your career to be in the future.

Career Development is about knowing yourself - your personal history, your place in time and in the scheme of things, your knowledge, abilities and skills, and most of all, your future. Careers begin, grow, plateau, transition, and terminate.

Career Development is also about change, both within an organization and outside. People and organizations that cannot effectively deal with change are not likely to be around long.

Careers succeed or fail according to your personal definitions of success and failure. Not the definitions of others.

This planning workbook will aid you in establishing your career future. To instruct you in a career planning process it will draw upon skills you already possess and it will ask you to question your past decisions.
As a result of this workbook you will be able to:

  • Assess your career and yourself
  • Develop immediate, realistic, and attainable career goals
  • Determine long-range career and life objectives
  • Design a personal strategic career plan
  • Create a schedule for implementation of career plans
  • Evaluate and seek mentors and advocates





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