We spend around a third of our lives working so it makes sense to aspire to a job you enjoy, but that can take some effort and planning.
There is a saying “do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life”. Which can seem like an unattainable fantasy if you feel out of control in your career, or if you have found yourself doing a dead-end job that you are not enjoying.
Don’t despair if that’s the case for you, it’s always possible to get your career back on track.
Why do you need a career plan?
Without a plan you risk making short term decisions that may not take you where you want to go in the long term.
It’s tempting to jump from one role to another in search of better pay or conditions but without a plan you might find the roles you are taking on are leading you to a dead end rather than down your preferred career path.
Career planning is about moving your mindset beyond the short-term and helping you stay focused and motivated. The classic question in a job interview is where you see yourself in five years’ time. If you don’t have an answer for that, maybe it’s time to do some career planning?
Putting a plan in place
Start by thinking about how you want your career to develop, and what the ideal role would look like for you. It can be hard to decide what you want to do so just start by thinking about your hobbies, what you enjoy doing and what you liked and didn’t like about previous roles. If you can’t pin down a particular role, just think about different fields you are interested in as a start then you can narrow the focus.
Then it’s time to think about the practicalities of how you’ll get there. Identify how your existing skills could contribute to landing your dream role as well as the knowledge and skills you’ll need to work on and develop.
Don’t do it alone
If you are interested in a particular field, work on developing contacts in that area and ask others how they got into it. You could also ask someone you admire if they would be prepared to mentor you to support your efforts.
Don’t be afraid to get professional help. The jobs market is constantly changing with new jobs invented all the time, and pre-requisites for roles constantly changing, and that can be challenging to navigate. Professional career counselling has come a long way from having a chat to the guidance counsellor at school and can help you consider options you might not even be aware of.
A journey is made up of steps
The final step is to break your plan into actionable steps. Think about what you will need to do to achieve each of those steps. This may involve taking courses, going back to full-time study or doing some self-education.
In your career journey, sometimes you have to go back a step to move forward. That might involve taking on an interim role or a job that may feel like a step down just to get some necessary experience and set you on the right path.
The other trick is knowing when you’ve hit a dead end and when to say goodbye to a role that’s not progressing you in the direction you want to go. The average person will change jobs 16 times in a lifetime so while you don’t want to move around too much as it can make you look unreliable, it’s Ok to leave a role that’s not working for you.1
And finally, keep in mind that career planning is an ongoing process, so it works best when you revisit your goals on a regular basis.
The most important thing is to know that you are in control of your career, so take ownership of the journey to be successful at whatever you choose to do.
Current as at Apr 2024
1 https://study.uq.edu.au/stories/how-many-career-changes-lifetime
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