Planning Next Moves for Your Successful Career
Are you ready to move on in your career but not sure how to go about it? It’s possible that you’re demotivated, frustrated and dissatisfied with your current job but you still want to stay in the same company or you might want to move to something else.
Whatever your reason, to give yourself the best chance of success, you need a plan.
Firstly, let’s review what’s happened with your career path so far.
Are you a person who has clear goals and who has always achieved their goals? If this is the case, then analyse what you did in the past and do it again!
Are you a person who has had clear goals but they’ve not really taken you anywhere? It can happen but it’s often because the actions taken weren’t appropriate or that, in fact, there wasn’t much action taken at all!! Goals are great but you have to follow them up with action. Alternatively, it could be that the goals weren’t clear enough or weren’t really right for you – perhaps you were following someone else’s else plan for your life.
Are you a person who ‘goes with the flow’, doesn’t really plan but follows their intuition? Nothing wrong with that if it’s working for you. Is it? Probably not if you’re reading this article.
The key point is not to rush into making a plan before you’ve thought about what works for you and what doesn’t.
What are your next moves?
So you now have an idea of what planning process will suit you and your personality best. But before you can make the plan you have to know where you’re going. Take this 10 point quiz:
What is your ideal job?
Where is it?
How much does it pay?
What hours do you work?
What promotion prospects are there?
What type of company is it?
Do you work on your own or in a team?
How much responsibility do you have?
What skills do you have for this job?
What experience do you have for this job?
Once you have all the answers to these questions, you’ll be ready to plan.
ACTION!
Define the steps you need to take to get from where you are now to where you want to be. Each step needs to be specific and lead to a specific outcome. You need to set it in a time frame so you are working towards a deadline.
The following questions may be useful in defining next steps:
Who do you need to talk to?
What information do you need?
Who can help you get where you want to go?