A Five Minute Guide to Career Planning

Having a career roadmap is important. In fact, for many it’s the difference between moderate success and truly achieving their dreams.

With that said, career planning isn’t easy, especially not when the job landscape changes as often as it does these days. Nonetheless, if you follow the right steps, you can build yourself a practical career guide that will help you plan and achieve your goals.

Goal Setting

When people think about setting their career goals, they usually think in terms of where they want to be ten, twenty, or even thirty years from now. This is a valuable exercise but the further you get into the future, the more your returns diminish.

The truth is, very few people have clear goals for where they want to be three decades into the future, and even fewer are truly able to make those goals a reality. The fact is that people change all the time and even if you think you know where you’ll want to be, there’s no telling whether that’ll still be true once you get there.

That’s why, as a rule, it’s generally best to keep most of your career planning for the next decade. Decide what benefits you think your current job gets you, what job you’d like to move into next, and how that will look on your CV.

We’re not saying you shouldn’t have an end goal but that the path to that end goal is likely to shift and change over time. Instead of planning your exact steps, plan for the skills you’ll need to develop and the experience you’ll need to have.

Talk To The Experts

Believe it or not, here at Career Navig8r, we believe in the power of experience. While the path to your dream job can shift, what won’t shift is the knowledge and mindset that gets you there. That’s why, once you’ve got your next steps in place, you’ll want to find someone who really knows the field inside out and can advise you on making those steps a reality.

A good mentor can teach you how to plan your career. They can tell you which companies you should be applying to, where your CV is lacking, and the types of experience/projects you should be getting right now. They can also help you build your skills and knowledge in a way that’s much harder to do on your own.

Building A Career Roadmap

Goals are great, and a mentor is a first-rate resource but if you really want to take your career seriously, then you’ll need to build a roadmap.

Keep in mind that your roadmap has to be flexible. You’ll want to update it every couple of years to reflect the changing landscape of the job market, but, in essence, it should be a list of job titles you plan to hold along with estimates of your salary expectations.

You might not think salary predictions are too important at this stage – especially not if you’re coming to your career because it’s something you’re passionate about. Nonetheless, even if you don’t care too much about the money, salary expectations are a grounding, measurable metric. They’re a way of determining progress over time.

When researching your roadmap, try to find out about other people’s progression in the field. Make sure to adjust for inflation and try to compare to modern examples as well to get the most accurate results.

Also, try to set aside some time once every month or two to research your career options. Many people stop planning their careers after they start their first job, only regretting it down the line when they miss out on golden opportunities they would have been perfect for.

To avoid that pitfall, make sure to stay connected with your network and always keep an eye out for jobs that require your skillset, even if they’re not the jobs you might expect.

Achieving Your Career Development Goals

It’s one thing to make a plan but it’s another to execute that plan. The reason building your career roadmap is so important is because it keeps you accountable. It lets you honestly determine whether you’re really meeting your own expectations.

That’s not to say you have to stick to it, or that those expectations can’t shift over time. Most people’s career expectations shift over time but, just like a driver who chooses to take a different route, you still need to know how fast you’re going, what road you’re on, and which turning to take at the roundabout up ahead.