Career Planning & Development

The job search, career planning and career development process share inseparable qualities and, as such, should by your willful intent, be one and the same. The “job” should embody as many as possible of the elements in which you gain your greatest satisfaction. The “job” should develop and exercise skillsets that build on future career-oriented positions.

If upon completion of these exercises, your career objectives appear to you to be sketchy or loosely defined, don’t be concerned. Use the information you do have to continue your career planning. We encourage you to stretch a bit beyond your “comfort zone” in the interest of personal career planning and development. Remember always that this is your career management & development plan. Don’t worry about impressing others as you pursue the following exercise.

In the initial career planning stages, we ask you to start with the end in mind…what are your passions and priorities that transcend the basic short-term “now” requirements of simply bringing home a paycheck.

At this initial juncture, don’t concern yourself with the intermediate steps or the practical realities of each. Although valid concerns, those will be addressed in the later exercise.

We ask you to ask yourself, in an ideal world:

q What would I do for a living?

q Where do I want to do it, throughout the country or world?

q What are my financial goals?

q In what business structure or work environment do I derive my greatest satisfaction (and contribution)?

This is a multi-faceted question that may consider:

q Business Function

q Manufacturing

q Distribution

q Service

q Specific Industry(s)

q Public or Privately held

q Reporting Structure (i.e. flat, matrix, multi-tiered)

q Company Positioning within its life-cycle

Career Planning Worksheet Example