Why you need to plan for career success

It is a rare creature that lands the perfect job and climbs the career ladder, without any preparation or planning.  Ironically we plan for success for our employers, but don’t plan for our own success.  We engage in meetings to see if we can enhance processes at work, we might be involved in complex projects and we ensure that they are completed on time and on budget, or we ‘bust our guts’ and prioritise and plan, so tasks are completed every day.  Yet very few people actually engage in planning for their own career success.

Finding the right opportunities, getting a company or agency to invite you in for an interview, and competing with so many other candidates for the same job can be a daunting task.  I mean if you are working full time, how to even get the energy to find open positions, let alone staying motivated after rejection, or spending time prioritising job search activities, such as increasing your networking, improving your resume, writing complex and tedious selection criteria and contacting recruitment managers (or rather chasing up recruitment managers).

The key to all of this is developing your own job search and career program.  You need to think of your career in a different way. Shaping your career is something that is an ongoing activity.  It is not about updating a resume when a new job arises, or networking only when you are shown the exit door or your current position becomes untenable to you.  It is something you work on as an ongoing activity and the best time to work on it is when you are fruitfully employed.

So start career planning and break the whole process down into a series of simple steps, so you will know exactly where and how to find that dream job and ensure career success.

The key components to your plan should be as follows:

Program goal

Set a goal, as this will help you focus on what you want to achieve.  Make sure the goal you set is realistic, but will stretch you beyond your comfort zone, so you are moving upwards, or into a position that is more suited to you as an individual.  Once your goal is set, then try your best to meet it and reward yourself for your efforts, not just the results.

Job search approaches

Set your strategies in regards to what you will be actively doing everyday while looking for a job.  If your focus is on government jobs, then your approach and activities will be on searching job listings and developing strong claims to selection criteria.  If your focus is the private sector, then you need to select your various approaches, such as networking and referral building, contacting potential employers, informational interviewing, contacting recruiters, through to searching specialised job listings.

Daily and weekly actions

Make a list of daily actions that need to be completed and make these realistic and stick to the plan.  You could even set yourself a 30-day plan, or develop a worksheet.  Daily and weekly actions could include:

• Research industries, job or employers for 3 hours every week
• Network online for 1 hour a week
• Call industry contacts for 1 hour a week
• Contact 1 new industry organisation each week
• Review resume and revise and update
• Write to a person at a target company every day
• Touch base with a contact officer at an agency to gather more information
• Send resume and cover letter to 2 recruiters each week
• Follow up with recruiters weekly
• Spend 2 hours per week, searching specialised job listings
• Develop your LinkedIn profile
• Develop an online profile through a web portfolio, writing articles, making presentations, and developing a blog.

Identify areas that need improvement

Identify those areas that are hindering your career progression and remedy them.  For example:

• Improve your resume and responses to selection criteria
• Enhance your interview skills
• Learn how to network effectively both online and offline
• Enrol in new courses, to enhance skills and knowledge

Attitude is everything

No plan will succeed, unless you have the right attitude and understand that rejection is part of the journey to success.  You also have to ask yourself whether you are resisting the process and avoiding setting a career goal or plan, due to some past negative experiences.  Are you afraid of failing?  Succeeding?  Looking silly?  Being rejected?  What is it that is preventing you from planning and achieving your dream career?

All the planning and goal setting will not succeed, unless you discover what attitude is holding you back.  Make a conscious choice to change what is stopping you and then develop your goal and implement your plan.