Career Planning: Part I - step-by-step guides, general advice

CareerCatalyst > Career Ref. Center > Career Planning: I. General Advice [II] [III]

I. General Advice
Articles
Step-by-Step Guides

II. Self-Assessment
Articles
Interactive Tools & Tests: Skills, Values, Interests & Aptitudes, Personality
Pencil & Paper Exercises

III. Career Exploration
Job Profiles & Employment Trends
Salary Information
Industry Research: Industry Profiles & Forecasts, Other Industry Resources
U.S. Labor Markets
Informational Interviews

Articles

• Goal setting
You must have a job goal to conduct an effective job-search campaign. You cannot set out on a quest for employment looking for just anything. If you do, you will waste a lot of effort. Employers will quickly recognize that you do not know what you want.

• Likes and dislikes: Hidden keys to your happiness
This exercise can help you get a clear direction if you're confused about your career path.

• How to create a career blueprint
Use this chart to compare and contrast every potential opportunity and job
offer, both inside and outside your present employer. If you use this grid carefully, difficult choices will be easier, and your next job offer could easily be 95% perfect.

• Career planning and testing FAQs

• Picture the ideal first month on your next job
A superb exercise for exploring, clarifying, and getting a sharper focus on your future.

• Characteristics to help you find the work of your dreams
It takes time and perseverance to find the work and life of your dreams. Here
are some characteristics to cultivate that will support you.

• Pursuing your dream job
How to do "cautious dream pursuing."

• Searching for that perfect job? Get the (right) picture
If you're dreaming of a new career, you need to envision one that will mesh with your ideal lifestyle.

• 26 questions to ask yourself as you consider chosen career paths
Don't jump into another career search until you've given these 26 questions some thought and consideration. Through this process of self-discovery, you will examine, evaluate, and discuss the many parts that comprise the total "you."

• Winning in a world without jobs
It is fairly obvious to most people that job security is a thing of the past. Yet, many people still cling to this idea and hope it will persist for them. What are the new rules for creating a financially rewarding and fulfilling career and lifestyle?

• No direction in life
You'll find that when you give yourself permission to make temporary,
mini-decisions about your career, rather than ones which focus on the long-term, those stuck gears will begin to move.

• Career goals
Career decision making is a dynamic and ongoing process where your knowledge of self, your values, interests, temperament, financial needs, physical work requirements or limitations, etc., the effects of past experiences, new information, and changes in your life situation and environment all intertwine.

• Career planning: 10 practical steps for those too busy to plan
This excerpt from The Illusion of Inclusion, Myths & Misconceptions Every Working Woman Needs to Know presents a layman's approach to career
planning particularly geared to busy women.

• Create a written career plan
Do you have a current career plan? If you do have a career plan, does it exist as a concise, written document that contains clearly delineated steps you will take this year and in subsequent years to help you achieve your career goals? If you are like most people, your answer to at least one of the above questions is "no."

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• Make three career wishes
The fantasy of instant gratification doesn't come true too often in the real world. Still, the fable can be much closer to reality than you might think. If you make three wishes about something over which you have influence, like your career, they likely will come into existence one day.

• The top 10 steps for choosing a career
Career choices may well be more difficult today than at any time in history, for three reasons: there is infinitely more to choose from; career definitions are more fluid and changing; and the levels of expectation are rising. Here are ten steps that will help ensure that your choices are good ones.

• The top 10 reasons to have a career you love

• Choosing a new career path
Follow Jane's example to find a job you'll love.

• Love your job? Those who do examine why
The responsibility for finding the perfect fit and the most meaningful career doesn't rest with the schools, the corporations or with consultants. The responsibility rests with you.

• Evaluating the job offer: Know what you want before the interview
In order to assure making the right choices, it's important to know what you want on both a professional and personal level before even going to the interview.

• Childhood dreams come back to save us
When we are at that place in life ourselves, where restlessness grows apace, it is to our childhood we must go, in memory, and search to find again what once was very plain to us, and now has grown obscure: our passion in life.

• Use introspection to set a new career path
Even if you’ve been in the same job for 20 years, there are aspects of your personality that can be the source of appealing work alternatives and motivate you to change. These are your possible selves -- paths contemplated but not taken.

• Is your job your calling?
Two Harvard Business School psychologists offer advice on career choices that provide success and satisfaction.

• Are you deciding on purpose?
Fast Company magazine speaks with Richard Leider about his "laws" for making career decisions "on purpose".

• What can you do?
Today's employers are more inclined to say 'show me' than 'tell me' about skills.

• How to decide what to do with your life
These 14 steps in the career-choice process can help guide you toward the final goal of deciding exactly what you will do with your life, or at least as much of your life as you want to decide about now.

• Are you a match for your next employer?
Want to enhance the chances for success on your new job? Want your next move to accelerate your career growth? Here's a way to assure "corpatability."

• Going to work for a start-up
Executive recruiter Erik Cederblom compares going to a start-up to sitting at a poker table. There are risks and there are rewards. Whether or not you have the intestinal fortitude to keep playing your hand in hopes of the big return is what makes some people start-up material and others more suited for established companies.

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Step-by-Step Guides

• The 10-Step Career Planning Guide
Cutting-edge, interactive Web guide that will help you through 10 steps of the career planning process. First five steps help you to look inward, discovering information about yourself. Last five steps help you to discover information about the world around you and to relate this information to what you have learned about yourself.

• Career Planning/Competency Model
Designed to encourage individuals to explore and gather information which enables them to synthesize, gain competencies, make decisions, set goals and take action. Geared toward students, but potentially useful to any job hunter

• Career Development Manual
Develop goals and strategies to make your dreams come true. The Career
Development Manual has been prepared to guide you through the necessary steps, whether you are looking for your 1st job or your 21st.

• Does your life have a map?
Planning increases the efficiency and the effectiveness of your life -- it's like having a blueprint for success. Follow these steps to help you develop your plan.

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[Career Planning Part II: Self-Assessment, Part III: Career Exploration]

CareerCatalyst > Career Ref. Center > Career Planning: I. General Advice

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