Career Planning 101 - Part 1
How many people do you think actively plan their careers? Before you answer think about your own career and how much planning went into it. Can you honestly say that you are where you are because of proactive planning? The chances are that you are like the majority of people in that you did very little active planning into where you are now with your career. Despite a huge industry in ‘Personal Development’ and ‘Self Help’ books it is a sad fact that the careers of most people just happen. Why is this? In my experience most people don’t really plan any aspect of their lives. They might plan the fun things, holidays, trips to the movies and buying ‘nice’ possessions, but tend to avoid planning the big things like their careers and their finances. How often have you read that 95% of all South Africans will not have enough money to retire on? Is it due to lack of money or is it due to not planning ahead? It’s a lot more fun to buy that plasma television now and worry about retiring later. The same is true when it comes to career planning. I interview a lot of people each year and very few of them can honestly tell me that they are in the job they are as part of a long term plan. Even well qualified people often lose focus when they actually get their qualification. I’ve met many chartered accountants who have ended up in relatively well paid, but essentially dead end jobs because they didn’t plan. If you read any book or article about successful people and what separates them from the rest of the population one of the constant qualities that sets them apart is the ability and discipline to plan most aspects of their lives. Their plans might not always work and they may alter and re-think them, but in all cases they are working towards a plan of some description. So take a moment to reflect on your career and the amount of planning that went into it. If you are unhappy in your current job isn’t it time you did some planning?
