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How to Make Better Decisions About Your Career

• Timothy Yen

No, it doesn’t involve a Magic 8-Ball.

Making decisions is hard — especially when you’re trying to make big career decisions. This five-step framework can help you focus on what’s important.

• What are your feelings telling you? Think about the kind of work you’re doing now, or the kind of work you’re planning to do. Brainstorm and jot down ideas of different careers you’re considering. What feelings come up?
• What matters to you? Take a psychological assessment or complete an exercise that will help you identify your values.  Understanding your values will allow you to make choices that align directly with the things you care about.
• What matters to other people? Just as it’s important to get clear on what matters to you, it’s also important to consider how your decision will impact your loved ones. Ask them for their own thoughts, input, and feelings.
• What is the reality of the situation? Be objective and consider the realities surrounding your options, not your assumptions. Otherwise, you might end up having false expectations or feeling disappointed by your choices.
• How do I put the pieces together? Once you’ve answered these four questions, review all the information you’ve just discovered. You should come to your final decision. If you don’t revisit the previous steps.

Picking your college major, choosing the perfect career, trying to decide if you should leave your job and move to a new one — decisions like these can feel daunting. We all spend a huge amount of time at work, and we all want (and deserve) to love what we do. But the path to finding that work isn’t always clear.

• TY Timothy Yen is a clinical psychologist with a doctorate from Azusa Pacific University, practicing in the East Bay area, and leading conferences and retreats around the globe. Between his years in private practice and another eight years as a Mental Health Staff Sergeant in the US Army, he’s empowered hundreds of individuals, families, organizations, and teams to develop authentic relationships and grow into their best selves. He currently resides in Northern California with his wife and son.

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Career Development

The beginner’s guide to effective career planning.

Emma Harris

Developing a good career plan is paramount to your professional success. Whether you’re just  leaving school  or have years of experience, knowing the key steps that will help you find your ideal path is vital.

To make a career plan that matches your aspirations, you need to take it step by step. If you want to learn everything you need to know about career planning read on.

An introduction to career planning

Finding the right career path isn’t something that comes naturally to everyone. There are a lucky few who know from day one what they want to do with their lives and how they’re going to get there. However, for the vast majority, it takes a little more work to plan their career .

Career planning, therefore, is about identifying which profession or industry you’d like to work in and creating an actionable plan to get where you want to be. This involves setting long and short-term goals that will help you get there and establishing the tasks and activities needed to achieve these goals.

By having clear objectives in mind, you will make more informed decisions as you progress through your career.

The importance of career planning

The importance of career planning is reflected in the success of those who chose a path and followed a strategy to reach their end goals. When you go on a journey, you need to find the best route to your destination. The same is true if you are looking to be successful in  finding the right career . Here are some factors to consider when it comes to the importance of career planning:

1. Gaining perspective

2. staying focused.

Often, when we have a goal, we can get easily distracted. Building a career plan that combines your principles and professional objectives will help you keep your eye on the prize.

Other opportunities may likely arise in your pursuit for the ideal profession that could take you in a different direction. Priorities can change, and you may want to adjust your plan. But, if you have a well-developed career plan, you’ll be able to make decisions that will keep you on the right track.

3. Making real progress

The significance of career planning is seen in the progress you make. Any strategy for professional success includes a list of  achievable career goals . These can either be related to the skills you need to learn, experiences you will gain in different areas or courses you will take. This approach allows you to measure and evaluate your progress by following the steps that will help you get closer to your ultimate goal.

4. Improving work performance

5. achieving personal and professional development.

A career is a part of who you are and can therefore impact your personal life, too. This doesn’t mean you will become your job, but rather that your job can also benefit other areas of your life.

As you develop professionally, you will gain soft skills and knowledge that will help you develop on a personal level too. To do so, you must first create a career plan that addresses the gaps you need to fill in. For example, a graduate will need to see what technical skills they are yet to learn before tapping into their field of interest.

Building your career plan

1. start with self-evaluation.

Firstly, you’ll need to take a closer look at yourself. This entails breaking down your interests, skills, experience, studies, certificates, and so on. You will need to create an inventory of yourself before getting started on your plan. This will help you identify your aptitudes, traits, likes, and dislikes and guide you towards the ideal career.

2. Explore your options

The next step in building your career plan should be exploring your main options. With your preliminary self-investigation complete, you can determine your  career interests  to set out the specific occupations you wish to pursue. The right career for you must include aspects that attract, entertain, and are important to you, to keep you engaged throughout your career journey.

By  asking yourself the right questions  and narrowing down your options, you’ll produce a much more concise and well-defined career plan, that incorporates your preferences.

3. Research the field

It is also advisable to look at the job market and collect information on the specific industry. This will help you track  emerging job trends (PDF)  and be aware of any significant changes and developments to better prepare yourself.

4. Prioritise your actions

This is where you should consider the varying aspects of each position, such as timetable, salary, benefits available, and so on. You need to make sure that what you ultimately choose to do still fits in with your priorities so that you can find good  work-life balance .

5. Organise your plan

6. set specific goals.

Once you have researched and compiled all the information necessary, you can break your career plan into achievable steps and goals.

Career planning strategies

While it is essential to personalise your plan, there are a few  effective career planning strategies  that you should keep in mind.

1. Try SMART goal-setting

2. carry out frequent assessments.

You can do this by using SWOT analysis: strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. As you grow and attain further experience, you will be able to understand what new things you have gained and what you are yet to learn and upcoming opportunities and possible risks. Through frequent evaluations, you’ll be able to identify any possible issues within your career plan.

3. Allow some flexibility

4. get advice.

Do not be afraid to ask for help in your pursuit of success. People have very different ways of developing their careers. Seeking advice from a coach or career advisor could open your eyes to something new.

Career planning is an effective way to help graduates and seasoned professionals find a clear path to success. The aim of having a coherent career plan is to aid in professional decision-making and to maintain focus and balance throughout your pursuit.

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Make a Career Plan

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A career plan lists short- and long-term career goals and the actions you can take to achieve them. Career plans can help you make decisions about what classes to take, and identify the extracurricular activities, research, and internships that will make you a strong job candidate. Below are some helpful steps to guide you in creating a career plan customized to your interests and ambitions. Still have questions? We are here to help — set up an appointment  with a Career Advisor to get started or review your plan.

8 Steps to an Effective Career Plan

• Identify Your Career Options.  Develop a refined list of career options by examining your interests, skills, and values through self-assessment . Narrow your career options by reviewing career information, researching companies , and talking to professionals in the field . You can further narrow your list when you take part in experiences such as shadowing, volunteering, and internships.
• Prioritize. It’s not enough to list options. You have to prioritize. What are your top skills? What interests you the most? What’s most important to you? Whether it’s intellectually challenging work, family-friendly benefits, the right location or a big paycheck, it helps to know what matters to you — and what’s a deal-breaker. We provide skills and values assessments — set up an appointment with a Career Advisor to take advantage of this service.
• Make Comparisons.  Compare your most promising career options against your list of prioritized skills, interests and values.
• Consider Other Factors.  You should consider factors beyond personal preferences. What is the current demand for this field? If the demand is low or entry is difficult, are you comfortable with risk? What qualifications are required to enter the field? Will it require additional education or training? How will selecting this option affect you and others in your life? Gather advice from friends, colleagues, and family members. Consider potential outcomes and barriers for each of your final options.
• Make a Choice.  Choose the career paths that are best for you. How many paths you choose depends upon your situation and comfort level. If you’re early in your planning, then identifying multiple options may be best. You may want several paths to increase the number of potential opportunities. Conversely, narrowing to one or two options may better focus your job search or graduate school applications.
• S pecific — Identify your goal clearly and specifically.
• M easureable — Include clear criteria to determine progress and accomplishment.
• A ttainable — The goal should have a 50 percent or greater chance of success.
• R elevant — The goal is important and relevant to you.
• T ime bound — Commit to a specific timeframe.
• Create Your Career Action Plan.  It’s important to be realistic about expectations and timelines. Write down specific action steps to take to achieve your goals and help yourself stay organized. Check them off as you complete them, but feel free to amend your career action plan as needed. Your goals and priorities may change, and that’s perfectly okay.
• Meet with a Career Advisor. Our advisors are here to help you make effective career decisions.  Make an appointment on Handshake to talk about your career options and concerns.

Career Planning Process: 30 Questions to Ask Yourself (Guide)

By Status.net Editorial Team on March 12, 2024 — 9 minutes to read

Career planning is a process designed to help you map out your professional journey. It means assessing where you currently are in your career, determining where you want to be, and planning concrete steps to get there. A key component to effective career planning is self-exploration. Understanding your strengths, weaknesses, values, interests, and skills is paramount because it ensures you set goals that align with your personal vision of success. This alignment brings a clearer purpose and stronger motivation as you navigate through the various stages of your career.

Understanding Yourself and Setting Career Goals

Career planning starts with self-exploration and setting meaningful career goals.

Conducting a Self-Assessment

A thorough self-assessment helps you identify your skills, strengths, and weaknesses: reflect on experiences in your professional life to gauge where you excel and where there’s room for improvement. Some important questions to guide your self-evaluation:

• What tasks do I enjoy doing the most and least?
• What are my top five professional skills?
• Which projects have I felt most fulfilled working on?
• When have I felt the most challenged in my work?
• How do others describe my strengths?
• What feedback have I received in performance reviews?
• What are areas that I’ve been avoiding because I don’t feel confident?
• Which skills do I want to develop, and why?
• How do I handle stressful situations at work?
• In what type of work environment do I thrive?

Defining Your Career Values and Priorities

Your core values significantly impact your job satisfaction and motivation: understanding what matters most to you will guide your career decisions. Consider these questions to determine your career values and priorities:

• What values are non-negotiable in my work life?
• What type of work-life balance am I seeking?
• Which aspects of a job are most important: title, salary, location, company culture?
• What causes or missions do I feel passionate about?
• How does my career support my personal life objectives?
• What type of achievements do I find most rewarding?
• How important is job security to me?
• What level of autonomy do I need in my job to be happy?
• How much am I willing to travel for work?
• Do I prefer collaboration or working independently?

Establishing Short-Term and Long-Term Goals

Setting clear and achievable goals is vital for career progression; create a mix of short-term and long-term goals that align with your self-assessment and values. You can think through these questions to formulate your goals:

• What can I achieve in the next year that will bring me closer to my ideal job?
• What skills do I need to develop in the short term?
• What networking or mentorship opportunities can I seek out?
• How will I measure progress toward my career goals?
• What specific roles am I aiming for in the next five years?
• Which industries or sectors am I interested in moving into?
• What are the steps I need to take to make a significant career change?
• What certifications or qualifications will support my long-term career vision?
• How will my career choices fit into my overall life plan?
• What legacy do I want to leave in my professional field?

Building Your Career Plan

Creating a solid career plan is a proactive way to steer your professional life in the direction you want it to go. It helps you understand what you need to do to reach your career goals. Now let’s break down the steps to build your career plan.

Step 1. Researching Career Paths and Opportunities

You’ll want to start by exploring various career paths that align with your interests and strengths. Look into the industries that fascinate you, and find out what kinds of jobs exist in those fields. Use resources like online job boards, industry publications, and informational interviews to gather insights. For example, if you’re interested in marketing, research roles ranging from social media manager to market research analyst. Make a list of potential career opportunities and note what excites you about each option.

Step 2. Educational Requirements and Skill Development

After you’ve identified potential career paths, investigate the education and skills they require. This could mean a specific degree, certification, or a set of technical abilities. If a career as a web developer interests you, you would typically need knowledge in coding languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Research if any training programs, online courses, or degree programs can help you obtain these qualifications, and note down any that fit your career plan.

Step 3. Creating a Career Development Plan with Milestones

A career development plan is your action plan, detailing the steps you’ll take to achieve your career goals. Start by setting clear, measurable milestones; for instance, completing a project management certification by the end of the year. Your plan should include long-term goals like attaining a leadership position within five years, and the short-term goals or milestones that will help you get there. Keep your action items specific and time-bound, checking off each milestone as you achieve it, to maintain motivation and momentum in your career progression.

Career Planning Template

To create a career planning template, start by mapping out your goals, both short-term and long-term. Include a section for skills, qualifications, and experiences you’ll need to achieve these goals; dedicate space to track progress and milestones.

CAREER PLANNING TEMPLATE

Personal Information: – Name: – Date:

Career Vision Statement: – Write a brief statement about your overall career vision and where you see yourself in the long term.

Long-Term Career Goals: – Goal 1: – Target Completion Date: – Required Skills/Qualifications: – Action Steps: – Goal 2: – Target Completion Date: – Required Skills/Qualifications: – Action Steps: – [Add more goals as needed]

Short-Term Career Objectives: – Objective 1: – Target Completion Date: – Required Skills/Qualifications: – Action Steps: – Objective 2: – Target Completion Date: – Required Skills/Qualifications: – Action Steps: – [Add more objectives as needed]

Skills and Qualifications: – Current Skills: – Skill 1: – Skill 2: – [Add more skills as needed] – Skills to Develop: – Skill 1: – Resources/Actions to Develop: – Skill 2: – Resources/Actions to Develop: – [Add more skills as needed] – Qualifications: – Current: – Needed:

Professional Experience: – Current Role: – Responsibilities: – Achievements: – Past Roles: – [List past roles and key achievements]

Education and Training: – Highest Level of Education: – Institution: – Degree/Certification: – Additional Training/Certifications:

Progress Tracking: – Milestones: – Milestone 1: – Target Date: – Status: – Milestone 2: – Target Date: – Status: – [Add more milestones as needed]

Networking Plan: – Professional Organizations to Join: – Events/Conferences to Attend: – Individuals to Connect With: – Name: – Organization/Role: – Contact Information: – Reason for Connecting:

Personal Development: – Books to Read: – Workshops/Seminars to Attend: – Online Courses to Complete:

Review and Adjustments: – Quarterly Review Dates: – Q1: – Q2: – Q3: – Q4: – Notes on Adjustments Made:

Expanding Professional Networks and Experiences

Networking strategies and events.

Networking isn’t just about exchanging business cards; it’s about creating meaningful connections that can support your career development. When you attend networking events, prepare an elevator pitch that summarizes your skills and goals. For example, if you’re in marketing, you might want to connect with someone at a company you admire during a local chamber of commerce meet-up. Make your intentions clear, whether you’re seeking industry insights or job leads. Follow up with new contacts via LinkedIn or email to maintain the relationship.

Gaining Experience through Internships and Job Shadowing

Internships and job shadowing provide you with hands-on experience, which is important for understanding the nuances of your desired industry. You could start with a summer internship at a tech startup to learn about software development cycles, or you could spend a day shadowing a finance professional to see how they navigate market trends. These experiences can enrich your resume and give you a clearer idea of the kind of roles that would fit your skills and interests.

Leveraging Mentors and Professional Organizations

Mentors can play a significant role in your career by offering guidance, support, and potentially ushering you into their own professional networks. Identify a mentor by reaching out to a seasoned professional within your field whose career path you admire. Engage with them by asking thoughtful questions about their experiences and challenges. Additionally, joining professional organizations related to your field can help you stay informed about industry trends and opportunities for further training or certifications, such as being a member of the American Marketing Association if you’re in marketing. These organizations often have local chapters and events that are perfect for meeting like-minded professionals.

Maintaining Career Development and Work-Life Balance

• Maintaining a balance between career advancement and personal life sometimes means understanding your needs as an employee and when to step back for reflection. You often hear that work-life balance is the key to satisfaction, and this is where your employer and you can work together to achieve it.
• Regular check-ins with your manager can play a comprehensive role in this. These meetings allow you to discuss your professional growth, and also show your employer your dedication to both your role and personal well-being. Likewise, engaging with a career coach can offer personalized strategies to help you juggle responsibilities while progressing in your job.
• Work-life balance does not look the same for everyone, and it’s important to acknowledge your unique situation. Perhaps flexible work hours or the option to work remotely could greatly benefit you; don’t hesitate to suggest this to your employer. They are usually open to discussing retention strategies, which can include employee development opportunities that don’t infringe on your personal time.
• Reflection is an integral part of keeping your career and personal life in harmony. Taking time to evaluate what’s working and what’s not helps you to adjust your approach. Remember, support from friends, family, or a professional network is invaluable. They can offer perspectives or solutions you might not have considered, further promoting a healthy work-life balance.

Exploring different career options is part of the process, too. With a world that’s constantly changing, new opportunities may emerge that weren’t available or apparent when you first created your development plan. Always keep an eye on the horizon and be ready to adapt your pathway if it leads to better prospects.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you write a career plan example.

A career plan example typically outlines your aspirations, strengths, and the steps you’ll take to reach your career objectives. For instance, if your goal is to become a marketing manager, your plan could detail educational pursuits, relevant job experiences, and networking strategies.

What are the seven steps involved in planning a career?

• Self-assessment: understand your strengths, weaknesses, interests, and values.
• Career exploration: research fields and positions that resonate with your self-assessment.
• Setting goals: decide on short-term and long-term career objectives.
• Education and training: identify what qualifications you need.
• Strategy development: create a step-by-step plan to reach your goals.
• Execution: start working on your plan, applying for jobs, or furthering your education.
• Regular review and adjustment: periodically assess your progress and make changes as needed.

Can you describe the four key components of a career planning process?

The four key components are:

• Self-Assessment: You review what you’re good at and what you enjoy doing.
• Opportunity Research: You investigate industries and opportunities that fit your skills and interests.
• Decision Making: You compare options and choose a career path.
• Action Planning: You develop concrete steps to follow to achieve your chosen career path.

What guidelines should students follow when designing career planning templates?

Students should begin with clear, actionable goals and set realistic timelines. It’s important to include opportunities for skill development and identify needed resources. Reflective sections where students can note experiences and lessons learned add value to the template.

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What is career planning?

Do you have to be at a certain age to plan your career, how do you start career planning, 7 steps to organized career planning, some additional tips to help build your career plan.

Whether you’re fresh out of college or you’ve been in the field for some time, everyone can benefit from career planning. Plus, if you’re a manager or leading a team, helping your employees do their own career planning can boost engagement and retention. 

Deciding what kind of work you want to do and where you want to do it is the essence of career planning. This step-by-step guide will help you with the rest.

Career planning is the process of making decisions about what you want to do with your life and how you’ll accomplish it.  It isn’t just a “one-and-done” activity, It should be an ongoing process that you revisit, especially when you, or the world, have changed. 

Career planning may look different for different people. However, a great place to start is to consider your values and skills. With that foundation, you can start exploring what kind of career field , job, or role aligns with what you want. Career planning can involve assessment tests, professional coaching , educational programs, and occupational training .

There is no “right” age or time to start planning your career. Ideally, when you reach the end of high school, you’ll have some idea of what you want to do. But it’s okay if that’s not the case. College, vocational school, and entry-level positions can all provide valuable experience. You can pad your resume and network as you narrow down your career choices .

If you’re a few years out of school, career planning is an opportunity to reflect on the highlights and challenges of your career to date. Looking at what you’ve already done and what you’d like to do more of is a great place to start.

Why career planning is important for businesses

Businesses should care about career planning, too. If you help employees take steps forward in their careers, you’ll improve employee engagement and retention. You can even help prevent burnout and boost job satisfaction because workers will have bigger goals to focus on beyond their day-to-day. 

Organizations that ignore career planning will limit employees’ professional development — which means they’re likely to look for opportunities elsewhere. If you create a formal process that helps your team plan their careers, they’ll know you care about their growth. In return, they’ll be loyal, and you’ll see the benefit of them growing their careers over time. 

What employers should know about career planning 

So how can you help your employees with career planning? Here are a few ideas to get you started. 

1. Provide opportunities to explore career options 

Employers should recognize that their employees’ interests and goals can change over time. If you want to help employees plan their careers, provide opportunities like job shadowing across departments. 

For example, if your employee works in marketing but is interested in data analytics, you might give them the opportunity to shadow an analyst for a day. They can see if they’d enjoy that career path   — and then, you could provide the training they need to make the shift . This way, you’ll retain your employee and help them find a job they love. 

2. Help facilitate networking across departments

Help employees learn more about advancement opportunities within your company by encouraging and facilitating cross-departmental conversations. Maybe they’ll have coffee with a senior manager, and it will motivate them to work towards that job title themselves. 

Or, maybe they’ll meet someone in marketing, and find a passion for graphic design they didn’t know they had. Either way, it will benefit their career planning and give them more reasons to stay at your company. 

3. Give employees opportunities to upskill 

Let’s say your employee has developed a career plan and knows they need to learn a specific skill to reach their next milestone. You can help them by providing funding for employee development or creating talent development programs . You can also set up learning pathways that will help them upskill , whether that’s through online courses or mentorship and coaching programs . 

As an employer, your goal should be to give your employees all the tools they need for career planning. Help them explore their career options and learn the skills they need to keep growing. They’ll be grateful, and both your business and your employees will benefit.

How managers can support employee career planning

Helping your team plan their careers is important for keeping them engaged and leading them towards success at your company. So if you’re a manager , how can you specifically help your employees with the career planning process? 

Here’s how managers can help their direct reports with career planning: 

• Schedule a monthly or quarterly dedicated 1-1 meeting with each of your team members to specifically discuss career planning
• If there are skills they want to learn or alternative career options they want to explore, follow up and help connect them with the resources they need 
• Remind them to take advantage of existing professional development opportunities at your company 
• Offer career advice from your own background to help your team members develop their career plans and think about what next steps to take

Now, are you ready to start doing your own career planning? When you sit down to put together a plan, there are four main areas you’ll want to think about: your interests, your skills, your values, and your preferences.

1. Consider your interests

Interests are the things that you are passionate about. Even if you weren’t paid to do them, you’d want to spend time (and maybe money) learning more about them. Clues about our interests can often be found in our hobbies or in our choice of college major. Scan your bookshelf , email subscriptions, and even your apps. Do you notice a theme? 

2. Evaluate your skills

Skills are what you excel at. They can be natural talents, or they may be areas of competency that you’ve developed over time. These are the traits that you can rely on when you need to get something done. 

3. Understand your values 

Values are the ways in which you want to make a difference. For example, let’s say you want to become a lawyer. Do you want to be a prosecutor, a public defender, general counsel, or specialize in intellectual property? Do you want to work in criminal justice or environmental law? The same job title may find you at very different companies.

4. Determine your preferences 

Finally, imagine your dream day at work. Is your ideal work environment a big-city skyscraper, or a sunny cafe in Cancun? Does your work keep you busy, or do you have plenty of time to spend with friends and family? Are you earning a lot of money, or just enough? These preferences will help you decide which career path will best suit you and the work-life balance you desire.

Determining long-term goals for your career can feel overwhelming. Once you have an action plan, though, it can accelerate your growth and streamline your efforts. It’s worth taking the time to commit your ideas to paper (or somewhere where you can see them).

So where do you begin with career planning? Follow these 7 steps: 

• Self-evaluation 
• Research your dream job 
• Determine the basic steps
• Identify organizations that align with your values
• Look at job openings on the ground level 
• Take the right next step 
• Tell everyone you know 

Now let’s dive a little deeper into each of these.

• Self-evaluation  Self-assessment is the first step of the career planning process. You can try a personality assessment or aptitude test, like BetterUp’s Whole Person Assessment . You may also find a core values assessment to be worthwhile in exploring how to integrate your values and your career. Talking to a coach or a career counselor is also a great way to gain insight into your strengths and where you might thrive. Be sure to take enough time for self-exploration in this first step, or you may find yourself unhappy with your career decisions later on.

Be bold with your goal-setting at this stage in the process. In a perfect world, what would you do for a living? Do a job search on Linkedin for the title that you want to have . Read the job description, paying close attention to the skills and responsibilities of the position. Who do they report to? How much education do they have? What kind of companies are hiring for that role?

• Determine the basic steps There isn’t one right path to your dream job , but there may be certain steps that are non-negotiable. For example, if you want to become a doctor, you won’t get there without going to medical school. What are the non-negotiable short-term goals for your role, and how do you get there from where you are? Will you need to go back to school or switch fields?
• Identify organizations that align with your values While you’re researching open roles, look at the companies that are posting the jobs. Are they companies that you could see yourself working for? For some people, the type of company might be more important to them than their own title or role. For others, the industry or the organization’s mission might be more important. Ask yourself what matters to you and why.
• Look at job openings on the ground level  Once you’ve got an idea of what role and which companies you’re working towards, look at other roles in the same department. If, for example, you want to become Director of IT, look at the other open positions — especially any that may report to the director. What’s the easiest rung on the ladder for you to grab? It might be an entry-level position on the help desk — or it might be a coordinator or other mid-level role.
• Take the next right step Identify which short-term goals get you closer to the job that you want. If it represents a career change, you may want to start by applying to training or graduate school. If it’s just the next step in a field you’re already in, you may just have to start sending out your resume. If you love the company you’re with but you’re ready for a new role , discuss your goals with your manager. They can help you create a career development plan and start taking on new responsibilities.
• Tell everyone you know The final step of the career planning process is to recruit as much help as possible. Tell your manager, coach, and everyone at brunch that you’re looking to move ahead. Many people love to help others, especially if it means they get to give advice or showcase their connections. Networking and showing your commitment to growth is a critical part of your career planning.

Once you’ve set your sights on that snazzy new job title, you’ll probably be excited to start making it a reality. The 7 steps in career planning outlined here will give you an excellent foundation. However, there are a few other things you can do to help you take the next step. Here are a few career planning ideas: 

• Volunteer. Finding paid work in your field may be challenging, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get experience. Offer to volunteer part-time for an organization that aligns with your goals. 
• Talk to your college. Universities, honor societies, and professional schools usually have some sort of alumni network. Reach out to them or to the organization’s career center. They may even offer financial aid or help with career exploration.
• Apply for internships. Look for opportunities to work with companies and people you admire. Even short-term internships can provide valuable experience for your next job interview. Plus, you’ll be the first to hear about new full-time openings.
• Build your skills. Try enrolling in online courses and certification programs that align with your career goals. Showing that you’re committed to mastering new skills can help you stand out when you’re ready to apply.
• Review your resume . If it’s been a while since you were in the job market, you may want to take a look at your resume and cover letter templates. Update them with your latest accomplishments, certifications, and position. 
• Build your professional network. Spend time attending conferences and networking events. Join the right professional associations for your field and look at their job boards. Spruce up your LinkedIn profile and, if you’re feeling bold, connect with individuals in the roles and industries you’re interested in and ask for informational interviews.

Get started today

The average person spends nearly 25% of their time at work. The relationships and experiences we have in our workplaces are more important than nearly any other. To a large extent, your career determines your happiness. It’s worth taking the time to do a little career planning and set a course for a successful, happy life.

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Allaya Cooks-Campbell

With over 15 years of content experience, Allaya Cooks Campbell has written for outlets such as ScaryMommy, HRzone, and HuffPost. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and is a certified yoga instructor as well as a certified Integrative Wellness & Life Coach. Allaya is passionate about whole-person wellness, yoga, and mental health.

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Internship and Career Center

Career planning: a lifelong process.

This six-step model is designed to help you make career decisions not only as you begin your career search but also throughout your lifelong career path.

Self Exploration

Get Started

• Find an internship with Handshake
• Visit California CareerZone to explore potential careers.
• Visit O*NET to consider or plan career options and more.
• Meet with an ICC advisor .
• Attend an ICC workshop .
• Undergraduate and graduate students can also take career courses to learn how to make informed career decisions

Work Research

• Visit the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for job titles, education requirements and salary ranges.
• Conduct Informational Interview where you ask professionals working in the field you are interested in about their job, education requirements, day-to-day tasks, work environment and learn what they like and maybe even dislike about their job.
• Try job shadowing and gain practical knowledge about what it takes to work in your field of interest.

Experiential Education

• Find an internship with Handshake .
• Develop an internship on your own or with the help of an ICC advisor .
• Build skills outside of the classroom by volunteering or completing a service learning project .
• Work part-time .
• Study abroad or find an international internship .

Decision Making

• Make an appointment with an ICC advisor to discuss your plans, the research you've done on options, internships opportunities you are interested in exploring and to share your thoughts and plans.
• Identify where you are now and where you want to be.
• Think about what you've learned so far in the process and what you liked or disliked about your experience.
• Evaluate your internship or volunteer experiences and reflect on what happened.
• Look at the pros and cons.
• Develop an action plan with tangible next steps identified.

Job Search Skills

• Visit the ICC to meet with an advisor .
• Attend a workshop .
• Write a tailored cover letter and resume . Have them reviewed.
• Attend an internship and career fair to find a job and network with employers .
• Interview with employers looking for UC Davis students.
• Use Handshake to look for and apply for jobs, submit resumes and cover letters and to schedule interviews with employers.

Career Management

Some tips for successful on the-job performance:

• Be realistic about your expectations, both of the job and yourself.
• Remember, promotions are earned through diligence, initiative and hard work.
• Be conscientious and punctual with your work schedule.
• Act and talk professionally. Respect your co-workers.
• Maintain a high ethical standard in all you say and do!
• Be a team player. Recognize others’ accomplishments as well as your own.
• Establish mentor relationship with senior staff or someone in a related position who can support you.
• Participate in committees and professional associations, if appropriate.

Above all, learn, develop new skills and enjoy your experience!

12.2 Your Map to Success: The Career Planning Cycle

Questions to Consider:

• What steps should I take to learn about my best opportunities?
• What can I do to prepare for my career while in college?
• What experiences and resources can help me in my search?

The Career Planning Cycle helps us apply some concrete steps to figuring out where we might fit into the work world. If you follow the steps, you will learn about who you truly are, and can be, as a working professional. You will discover important knowledge about the work world. You will gain more information to help you make solid career decisions. You will get experience that will increase your qualifications. You will be more prepared to reach your professional goals. And the good news is that colleges and universities are set up nicely to help you utilize this process.

Learn About Yourself

To understand what type of work suits us and to be able to convey that to others to get hired, we must become experts in knowing who we are. Gaining self-knowledge is a lifelong process, and college is the perfect time to gain and adapt this fundamental information. Following are some of the types of information that we should have about ourselves:

• Interests: Things that we like and want to know more about. These often take the form of ideas, information, knowledge, and topics.
• Skills/Aptitudes : Things that we either do well or can do well. These can be natural or learned and are usually skills—things we can demonstrate in some way. Some of our skills are “hard” skills, which are specific to jobs and/or tasks. Others are “soft” skills, which are personality traits and/or interpersonal skills that accompany us from position to position.
• Values: Things that we believe in. Frequently, these are conditions and principles.
• Personality: Things that combine to make each of us distinctive. Often, this shows in the way we present ourselves to the world. Aspects of personality are customarily described as qualities, features, thoughts, and behaviors.

In addition to knowing the things we can and like to do, we must also know how well we do them. What are our strengths? When employers hire us, they hire us to do something, to contribute to their organization in some way. We get paid for what we know, what we can do, and how well or deeply we can demonstrate these things. Think of these as your Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs). As working people, we can each think of ourselves as carrying a “tool kit.” In our tool kit are the KSAs that we bring to each job. As we gain experience, we learn how best to use our tools. We gain more tools and use some more often than others, but all the tools we gather during our career stay with us in some form.

Consider the top KSAs you currently have in your tool kit. Consider at least one in each category that you would like to develop while you’re in college.

Because you’re expected to spend your time in college focusing on what you learn in your classes, it might seem like a lot of extra work to also develop your career identity. Actually, the ideal time to learn about who you are as a worker and a professional is while you are so focused on learning and personal development, which lends itself to growth in all forms. College helps us acquire and develop our KSAs daily through our coursework and experiences. What might be some ways you can purposefully and consciously learn about yourself? How might you get more information about who you are? And how might you learn about what that means for your career? Awareness of the need to develop your career identity and your vocational worth is the first step. Next, undertaking a process that is mindful and systematic can help guide you through. This process will help you look at yourself and the work world in a different way. You will do some of this in this course. Then, during your studies, some of your professors and advisors may integrate career development into the curriculum, either formally or informally. Perhaps most significantly, the career center at your school is an essential place for you to visit. They have advisors, counselors, and coaches who are formally trained in facilitating the career development process.

Often, career assessment is of great assistance in increasing your self-knowledge. It is most often designed to help you gain insight more objectively. You may want to think of assessment as pulling information out of you and helping you put it together in a way that applies to your career. There are two main types of assessments: formal assessments and informal assessments.

Formal Assessments

Formal assessments are typically referred to as “career tests.” There are thousands available, and many are found randomly on the Internet. While many of these can be fun, “free” and easily available instruments are usually not credible. It is important to use assessments that are developed to be reliable and valid. Look to your career center for their recommendations; their staff has often spent a good deal of time selecting instruments that they believe work best for students.

Here are some commonly used and useful assessments that you may run across:

• Interest Assessments: Strong Interest Inventory, Self-Directed Search, Campbell Interest and Skill Survey, Harrington-O’Shea Career Decision-Making System
• Personality Measures: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, CliftonStrengths (formerly StrengthsQuest), Big Five Inventory, Keirsey Temperament Sorter, TypeFocus, DiSC
• Career Planning Software: SIGI 3, FOCUS 2

Get Connected

If you would like to do some formal assessment on your own, either in addition to what you can get on campus or if you don’t believe you have reliable access to career planning, this site developed by the U.S. Department of Labor has some career exploration materials that you may find helpful.

Informal Assessments

Often, asking questions and seeking answers can help get us information that we need. When we start working consciously on learning more about any subject, things that we never before considered may become apparent. Happily, this applies to self-knowledge as well. Some things that you can do outside of career testing to learn more about yourself can include:

Self-Reflection:

• Notice when you do something that you enjoy or that you did particularly well. What did that feel like? What about it made you feel positive? Is it something that you’d like to do again? What was the impact that you made through our actions?
• Most people are the “go to” person for something. What do you find that people come to you for? Are you good with advice? Do you tend to be a good listener, observing first and then speaking your mind? Do people appreciate your repair skills? Are you good with numbers? What role do you play in a group?
• If you like to write or record your thoughts, consider creating a career journal that you update regularly, whether it’s weekly or by semester. If writing your own thoughts is difficult, seek out guided activities that help prompt you to reflect.
• Many colleges have a career planning course that is designed to specifically lead you through the career decision-making process. Even if you are decided on your major, these courses can help you refine and plan best for your field.

Enlist Others:

• Ask people who know you to tell you what they think your strengths are. This information can come from friends, classmates, professors, advisors, family members, coaches, mentors, and others. What kinds of things have they observed you doing well? What personal qualities do you have that they value? You are not asking them to tell you what career you should be in; rather, you are looking to learn more about yourself.
• Find a mentor—such as a professor, an alumnus, an advisor, or a community leader—who shares a value with you and from whom you think you could learn new things. Perhaps they can share new ways of doing something or help you form attitudes and perceptions that you believe would be helpful.
• Get involved with one or more activities on campus that will let you use skills outside of the classroom. You will be able to learn more about how you work with a group and try new things that will add to your skill set.
• Attend activities on and off campus that will help you meet people (often alumni) who work in the professional world. Hearing their career stories will help you learn about where you might want to be. Are there qualities that you share with them that show you may be on a similar path to success? Can you envision yourself where they are?
• No one assessment can tell you exactly what career is right for you; the answers to your career questions are not in a test. The reality of career planning is that it is a discovery process that uses many methods over time to strengthen our career knowledge and belief in ourselves.

Choose one of the suggestions from the list, above, and follow through on it. Keep a log or journal of your experience with the activity and note how this might help you think about your future after college.

Explore Jobs and Careers

Many students seem to believe that the most important decision they will make in college is to choose their major. While this is an important decision, even more important is to determine the type of knowledge you would like to have, understand what you value, and learn how you can apply this in the workplace after you graduate. For example, if you know you like to help people, this is a value. If you also know that you’re interested in math and/or finances, you might study to be an accountant. To combine both of these, you would gain as much knowledge as you can about financial systems and personal financial habits so that you can provide greater support and better help to your clients.

The four factors of self-knowledge (interests, skills/aptitudes, values, and personality), which manifest in your KSAs, are also the factors on which employers evaluate your suitability for their positions. They consider what you can bring to their organization that is at once in line with their organization’s standards and something they need but don’t have in their existing workforce.

Along with this, each job has KSAs that define it. You may think about finding a job/career as looking like the figure below.

The importance of finding the right fit cannot be overstated. Many people don’t realize that the KSAs of the person and the requirements of the job have to match in order to get hired in a given field. What is even more important, though, is that when a particular job fits your four factors of self-knowledge and maximizes your KSAs, you are most likely to be satisfied with your work! The “fit” works to help you not only get the job, but also enjoy the job.

So if you work to learn about yourself, what do you need to know about jobs, and how do you go about learning it? In our diagram, if you need to have self-knowledge to determine the YOU factors, then to determine the JOB factors, you need to have workplace knowledge . This involves understanding what employers in the workplace and specific jobs require. Aspects of workplace knowledge include:

• Labor Market Information: Economic conditions, including supply and demand of jobs; types of industries in a geographic area or market; regional sociopolitical conditions and/or geographic attributes.
• Industry Details: Industry characteristics; trends and opportunities for both industry and employers; standards and expectations.
• Work Roles: Characteristics and duties of specific jobs and work roles; knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the work; training and education required; certifications or licenses; compensation; promotion and career path; hiring process.

This “research” may sound a little dry and uninteresting at first, but consider it as a look into your future. If you are excited about what you are learning and what your career prospects are, learning about the places where you may put all of your hard work into practice should also be very exciting! Most professionals spend many hours not only performing their work but also physically being located at work. For something that is such a large part of your life, it will help you to know what you are getting into as you get closer to realizing your goals.

How Do We Gain Workplace Knowledge?

• Learn the “textbook” definitions of what is involved in the jobs you are considering. In Chapter 4 , you used the Occupational Outlook Handbook to learn more about the requirements for occupations. Its sister site , will help show you more specific job titles.
• Read online information that is relevant to the professions you are interested in. Good sources for this include professional associations. Just “googling” information is risky. Look for professional and credible information. The Occupational Outlook Handbook has links to many of these sources. Your career center can also guide you.
• Whether you are just choosing your major or are already in a major and want to know what options it offers in terms of future work, look for this specific information. Your department may have this information; your campus career center definitely will. One very good site is What Can I Do With This Major?
• Join professional clubs on campus. Many of these organizations have guest speakers who come to meetings and talk about what their jobs are like. Often, they also sponsor field trips to different companies and organizations.
• As mentioned earlier, attend campus networking events and programs such as job fairs and recruiting information sessions so that you can talk to people who actually do the work and get their insights.

Something to keep in mind as you make choices about your major and career is that the training is not the job. What you learn in your college courses is often foundational information; it provides basic knowledge that you need for more complex concepts and tasks. For example, a second-year student who is premed has the interests and qualities that may make her a good physician, but she is struggling to pass basic chemistry. She starts to think that medical school is no longer an appropriate goal because she doesn’t enjoy chemistry. Does it make sense to abandon a suitable career path because of one 15-week course? In some ways, yes. In the case of medical school, the education is so long and intensive that if the student can’t persevere through one introductory course, she may not have the determination to complete the training. On the other hand, if you are truly dedicated to your path, don’t let one difficult course deter you.

The example above describes Shantelle. They weren’t quite sure which major to choose, and they were feeling pressure because the window for making their decision was closing. They considered their values and strengths—they love helping people and have always wanted to pursue work in medical training. As described above, Shantelle struggled in general chemistry this semester and found that they actually didn’t enjoy it at all. They’ve heard nightmare stories about organic chemistry being even harder. Simultaneously, Shantelle is taking Intro to Psychology, something they thought would be an easier course but that they enjoy even though it’s challenging. Much to their surprise, they found the scientific applications of theory in the various types of mental illness utterly fascinating. But given that their life dream was to be a physician, Shantelle was reluctant to give up on medicine because of one measly chemistry course. With the help of an advisor, Shantelle decided to postpone choosing a major for one more semester and take a course in clinical psychology. Since there are so many science courses required for premed studies, Shantelle also agreed to take another science course. Their advisor helped Shantelle realize that it was likely not a wise choice to make such an important decision based on one course experience.

Focus Your Path

When you know yourself and know what to expect from a workplace and a job, you have information to begin to make decisions. As we’ve discussed throughout this book, you’re not attending college solely to get a job. But this is likely one of your goals, and your time in school offers a tremendous opportunity to both prepare for your career (or careers ) and make yourself more attractive to organizations where you want to work. Successfully learning the content of your classes and earning good grades are among the most important. Beyond these priorities, you’ll learn the most about yourself and your potential career path if you engage in activities that will help you make decisions. Simply sitting back and thinking about the decision doesn’t always help you take action.

Take Advantage of Every Resource You Can While in School

Your college has a wealth of departments, programs, and people dedicated to your success. The more you work to discover and engage with these groups, the more successfully you’ll establish networks of support and build skills and knowledge for your career.

Make plans to drop by your career services or a related office early in your time in school. There, you’ll learn about events you can attend, and you’ll get to know some of the people there who can help you. The department may offer the formal assessments discussed earlier in this chapter, including aptitude testing, which can help you discover some of your areas of strength and give you insight into some high-potential career destinations. Career services may also have skills/interest inventories. These can help you match your attributes and ambitions with potential careers and suggest additional resources to explore.

Your college is also likely to have a resource that goes far beyond the campus itself: the alumni association. College alumni often maintain a relationship with the school and with their fellow graduates. Just by attending the same college, you have something in common with them. You chose the same place, maybe for similar reasons, and you might be having similar experiences. Often, alumni are eager to help current students by offering their professional insights and making career connections. You can find out about alumni events on your campus website, at the career center, and in the alumni department. These events can be fun and beneficial to attend, especially those involving networking opportunities. Note that specific departments or campus organizations may have their own alumni groups, whether formal or informal. Try to find former students who majored in your field or who have a job similar to the one you’d like one day. Remember, members of alumni organizations make a choice to be involved; they want to be there. It’s very likely they’ll be interested in offering you some help, mentoring, or even introductions to the right people.

Alumni may often attend events at your college, such as visiting guest speakers, art show openings, homecoming, or sporting events. You can find and talk with them there (under the right circumstances) and enjoy the event at the same time.

Networking is such a critical part of professional life that nearly every city or region has organizations and events devoted to it. Meetups are occasions for people with shared interests, skills, and professions to gather together and talk about their experiences and insights. The events might involve a brief talk or demonstration, a discussion or question-and-answer period, and then plenty of time for mingling. You can likely find these events with a quick search. But before you go, carefully review the guidelines and limits on who can attend. Some meetups may not be open to students or others not formally employed in a field; they may also be held in bars or involve alcohol, preventing those under 21 from attending. Don’t be offended by these barriers—the meetup organizers have specific goals and members to consider—but if you find one you can attend, try it out.

You can also network with people right at your college. Many of your college faculty likely have (or had) other roles and positions. A computer science professor may have worked for a tech company before moving into academia. Accounting faculty, especially certified public accountants, might take on tax work every spring. Nursing faculty likely maintain a role with a hospital or other medical office. Learn from them what the job is like and how you can better prepare for it. And don’t forget to talk to adjunct instructors; they may have an entirely separate career on top of their teaching role that gives them access to a network of potential mentors and employers.

Finally, you’ll likely encounter graduate students or preprofessional students, some of whom may be in the workforce or have work experience. While they themselves are still working on their education, they may have insights, connections, and ideas regarding your career.

Try Things Out

In the first two steps of the Career Planning Cycle, you gather information. You may have some ideas about jobs and careers that you may like, but you also may wonder if you will really like them. How will you know? How can you be more certain? Take an interest or a skill, and try it out in an experience. By putting it to work for you in any one of a number of different environments, you can get practice and learn more about who you are and just how much you can do. It’s a great idea to try out a new skill or career field before you commit to it fully. You might find out that the field isn’t right for you, but you also may find that you are heading in the right direction and want to keep pursuing it. Experiences help you become more qualified for positions. One exciting aspect of college is that there is a huge variety of learning experiences and activities in which to get involved. The following are some ways that you can try things out and get experience.

Community Involvement, Volunteering, and Clubs

You’re in college to develop yourself as an individual. You’ll gain personally satisfying and enriching experience by becoming more involved with your college or general community. Organizations, clubs, and charities often rely on college students because of their motivation, knowledge, and increasing maturity. The work can increase your skills and abilities, providing valuable experience that will lead to positive results.

Participate in clubs and volunteer in areas that appeal to your interests and passions. It’s just as important that you enjoy them and make a difference as it is to increase career potential through networking and skill-building. But of course, it’s great to do both.

Once you join a club or related organization, take the time to learn about their leadership opportunities. Most campus clubs have some type of management structure—treasurer, vice president, president, and so on. You may “move up the ranks” naturally, or you may need to apply or even run for election. Some organizations, such as a campus newspaper, radio station, or dance team, have skill-based semiprofessional or roles such as advertising manager, sound engineer, or choreographer. These opportunities may not always be available to you as freshmen, but you can take on shorter-term roles to build your skills and make a bigger impact. Managing a fundraiser, planning an event, or temporarily taking on a role while someone else is busy are all ways to engage further.

Volunteering can be an important way to access a profession and get a sense for whether you will enjoy it or not, even before you do an internship. And in certain arenas, such as politics, it might be the only readily accessible approach, especially if you have no prior experience. In all of these cases, you can build important skills and increase your experience working with people in your chosen field. Spend time reflecting on and recording your experiences so that you’re better prepared to talk about them and utilize what you learned.

Internships and Related Experiences

Many employers value experience as much as they do education. Internships and similar fieldwork allow you to use what you’ve learned and, sometimes more importantly, see how things work “in the real world.” These experiences drive you to communicate with others in your field and help you understand the day-to-day challenges and opportunities of people working in similar areas. Even if the internship is not at a company or organization directly in your field of study, you’ll focus on gaining transferable skills that you can apply later on.

Speaking to career or academic counselors and planning your major will help you learn about internship requirements and recommendations. You’ll find out how, where, and when to apply, the level of commitment required, and any limitations or guidelines your college indicates. If you’re going to receive credit for your internship or fieldwork, it must be directly related to your field of study.

When you intern, you are usually treated like you work there full-time. It’s not just learning about the job; it’s doing the job, often similarly to an entry-level employee. The level of commitment may vary by the type of internship and may be negotiable based on your schedule. Be very clear about what’s required and what you can handle given your other commitments, because you want to leave a very good impression. (Internship managers are your top resource for employment references and letters of recommendation.)

Note that while internships and similar positions may seem to involve low-level work, you maintain your rights and should be treated properly. Getting coffee, organizing shelves, and copying papers are often part of the work. Your internship should be structured with duties, responsibilities, and goals for learning that are mutually agreed upon by both you and the internship site, as well as approved by an internship supervisor from your college or university. This will help ensure a positive and productive experience for both you and your internship sponsor.

Students who take internships generally report them to be worthwhile experiences. In a survey of students taken by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, approximately 75 percent of students responding to the survey said their professionalism/work ethic, teamwork/collaboration, and oral/written communication skills were “very” to “extremely” improved by their internship/coop experience, and 66 percent said the same of their critical thinking/problem-solving skills. 3

Go to Internships.com and enter a specific keyword and location in the fields on the homepage, such as “airline” and “Bend, OR.” How many opportunities came back? How many piqued your interest?

Now, try to choose a broader, less specific keyword. For example, instead of “airline,” try “aviation” on the second search. If the first keyword was “physical therapy,” you might try “health care” for a broader search in the same field. Did you receive more opportunities the second time? Do you see ones that aren’t exactly in your field but that still seem interesting?

On sites like these, you can play with the options and filters to find a wide array of internship possibilities in related fields. In the example above, a future physical therapist who took an internship in another area of health care would certainly still learn a lot.

There are many and varied types of experiential learning opportunities that can help you learn more about different career opportunities. These are fully discussed in Chapter 4 . The table below provides a brief overview.

Productive Downtime

Throughout this book, we’ve discussed all the work required for a successful and productive college experience. And in this chapter, we’ve outlined a wide range of extracurricular activities that are likely necessary to achieve your career goals. But as we’ve also made clear, balance and rest are critical for success and well-being. Everyone needs time off.

So, when you have a school break, relax. Spend time with the people who motivate and help you—family and friends—or take a trip if that’s possible. If you work during school and school breaks, the decrease in your school responsibilities should help recharge your batteries.

Another way you might spend your time off from school is to find an employment and/or experiential opportunity, especially during a longer time off. Winter break may afford a weeklong volunteer opportunity or a brief externship. Summer break is particularly helpful for formal internships and other experiences.

If you do seek a summer internship or related activity, be aware that they can be very competitive. With many college students off for the summer, they may be targeting the same opportunities as you are. Work with your academic or career advisors to start the process early and put yourself in the best position to get an internship. Consider all of the application components, including essays, portfolio items, and letters of recommendation; all of these may take time to generate. If possible, pursue multiple opportunities to increase your chances. Just be clear on the application policies, and be sure to inform them if you take another position.

Summer jobs, whether related to your field or not, may also be hard to come by without prior planning. If you go away to school and need a job at home over the summer, be sure to connect with the potential employer early. Get them the application, resume, and any certifications or recommendations with plenty of time for them to process and contact you for clarification or follow-up. Employers who regularly employ college students will likely be comfortable working via email or by phone, but ask if an in-person interview is necessary, and see if you can schedule it during a spring break or as soon as you get back from school. Even if you don’t go away to school, plan and connect early. You wouldn’t want all the other students to come home and take your opportunity when you’ve been there all along.

While you're not focused on your schoolwork, or even after you graduate, you can keep learning. Beyond the different types of degrees and certificates discussed in the Academic Pathways chapter, you'll be more prepared and more attractive to a potential employer if you demonstrate a continued thirst and effort to gain knowledge and "remain current." Find the leaders in your field and read their articles or books (your future employers may be familiar with them). Or consider more formal summer courses, short-courses, or online learning opportunities. Each profession has its own resources. For example, in the software and computing field, Thinkful offers courses and mentoring for students and professionals.

Transferable Skills

Whether or not your internship or other experiences are directly connected to your career, you should focus as much as possible on building and improving transferable skills . These are abilities and knowledge that are useful across an array of industries, job types, and roles. They can be transferred—hence the name—from where you learned them to another career or area of study.

Examples of transferable skills include communication, personnel management/leadership, teamwork, computation/quantitative literacy, information technology, research/analysis, foreign language, and so on. If you search for lists of transferable skills, you’ll see that some sites only include compilations of a few very broad areas, such as communication, while others provide longer and more specific lists, such as breaking down communication into writing, verbal, and listening skills. Employers believe that transferable skills are critical to the success of their recent college graduate new hires. The top four career competencies that employers want are critical thinking/problem solving, teamwork/collaboration, professionalism/work ethic, and oral/written communication. 4 If you remember the statistics noted above, students said that all four of these skills were significantly improved through their internship experiences.

These are considered skills because they are not simply traits or personality elements; they are abilities and intelligences you can develop and improve. Even if you’re a great writer before starting an internship, you may need to learn how to write in a more professional manner—becoming more succinct, learning the executive summary, conforming to templates, and so on. Once you establish that skill, you can not only mention it on a resume or interview, but also discuss the process by which you improved, demonstrating your adaptability and eagerness to learn.

Not everyone can land an internship or perform fieldwork. Perhaps you need to work nearly full-time while in school. If so, focus on developing transferable skills in that environment. Take on new challenges in areas where you don’t have experience. For example, if you work in retail, ask your manager if you can help with inventory or bookkeeping (building quantitative literacy skills). If you’re a waiter, help the catering manager plan a party or order food (building organizational skills). Remember, extending yourself in this way is not simply a means to enhance your resume. By taking on these new challenges, you’ll see a side of the business you hadn’t before and learn things that you can apply in other situations.

Whether or not it’s required as a part of your internship or other experience, be sure to reflect on your time there—what you did, what you learned, where you excelled, where you didn’t excel. Maintaining a journal of some sort will enable you to share your experiences and employ your transferable skills in your college courses and other activities. Jot down some anecdotes, events, and tasks you performed. Any materials or documents you produced can go into your portfolio, and the record of your experience will serve you well while searching for a job. Consider that it is customary to be asked during a job interview to share a personal strength and a weakness. Sharing a strength is often more expected and, thus, easier to plan for. While it may seem reasonable to say that your weakness is that you’re always late, it’s better to provide a weakness within the context of work experience. For example, if you have had a part-time job where one of your colleagues was always slacking off and putting the load on others, you may have felt frustrated and even expressed your anger. Rather than view this as a negative, consider the positive benefit and craft this into a solid answer to the likely interview question. For example, “I have found that I’m rather impatient with colleagues who take shortcuts to a solution and don’t really apply themselves. My weakness is impatience. However, rather than call it out in a negative way, I share my observation as constructive feedback and let it go. My colleague can take it or leave it, but I’m not carrying it with me.” If you wrote about this experience around the time that it occurred, it will be easier to shape into a thoughtful response later. Continuing to work on your transferable skills will allow you to improve them and make a better impression on faculty, advisors, and potential employers.

What to Do to Get Ready

Being prepared to find a job means putting evidence of your KSAs together in a way that employers will understand. It is one thing to say you can do something; it is another to show that you can. The following are things that you will want to compile as a part of your college career.

Resumes and Profiles: The College Version

You may already have a resume or a similar profile (such as LinkedIn), or you may be thinking about developing one. Usually, these resources are not required for early college studies, but you may need them for internships, work-study, or other opportunities. When it comes to an online profile, something that is a public resource, be very considerate and intentional when developing it.

A resume is a summary of your education, experience, and other accomplishments. It is not simply a list of what you’ve done; it’s a showcase that presents the best you have to offer for a specific role. While most resumes have a relatively similar look and feel, there are some variations in the approach. Especially when developing your first résumé or applying in a new area, you should seek help from resources such as career counselors and others with knowledge of the field. Websites can be very helpful, but be sure to run your résume by others to make sure it fits the format and contains no mistakes.

A resume is a one-page summary (two, if you are a more experienced person) that generally includes the following information:

• Name and contact information
• Objective and/or summary
• While in college, you may list coursework closely related to the job to which you’re applying.
• Work or work-related experience—usually in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent and working backward. (Some resumes are organized by subject/skills rather than chronologically. 5 )
• Career-related/academic awards or similar accomplishments
• Specific work-related skills

While you’re in college, especially if you went into college directly after high school, you may not have formal degrees or significant work experience to share. That’s okay. Tailor the résumé to the position for which you’re applying, and include high school academic, extracurricular, and community-based experience. These show your ability to make a positive contribution and are a good indicator of your work ethic. Later on in this chapter, we’ll discuss internships and other programs through which you can gain experience, all of which can be listed on your resume. Again, professionals and counselors can help you with this.

If you have significant experience outside of college, you should include it if it’s relatively recent, relates to the position, and/or includes transferable skills (discussed above) that can be used in the role for which you’re applying. Military service or similar experience should nearly always be included. If you had a long career with one company quite some time ago, you can summarize that in one resume entry, indicating the total years worked and the final role achieved. These are judgment calls, and again you can seek guidance from experts.

Digital Profiles

An online profile is a nearly standard component of professional job seeking and networking. LinkedIn is a networking website used by people from nearly every profession. It combines elements of résumés and portfolios with social media. Users can view, connect, communicate, post events and articles, comment, and recommend others. Employers can recruit, post jobs, and process applications. Alternatives include Jobcase, AngelList, Hired, and Nexxt. These varying sites work in similar ways, with some unique features or practices.

Some professions or industries have specific LinkedIn groups or subnetworks. Other professions or industries may have their own networking sites, to be used instead of or in addition to LinkedIn. Industry, for example, is a networking site specifically for culinary and hospitality workers.

As a college student, it might be a great idea to have a LinkedIn or related profile. It can help you make connections in a prospective field, and provide access to publications and posts on topics that interest you. Before you join and develop a public professional profile, however, keep the following in mind:

• Be professional. Write up your profile information, any summary, and job/education experience separately, check for spelling and other errors, and have someone review before posting. Be sure to be completely honest and accurate.
• Your profile isn’t a contest. As a college student, you may only have two or three items to include on your profile. That’s okay. Overly long LinkedIn profiles—like overly long resumes—aren’t effective anyway, and a college student’s can be brief.
• Add relevant experience and information as you attain it. Post internships, summer jobs, awards, or work-study experiences as you attain them. Don’t list every club or organization you’re in if it doesn’t pertain to the professional field, but include some, especially if you become head of a club or hold a competitive position, such as president or member of a performance group or sports team.
• Don’t “overconnect.” As you meet and work with people relevant to your career, it is appropriate to connect with them through LinkedIn by adding a personal note on the invite message. But don’t send connection invites to people with whom you have no relationship, or to too many people overall. Even alumni from your own school might be reluctant to connect with you unless you know them relatively well.
• Professional networking is not the same as social media. While LinkedIn has a very strong social media component, users are often annoyed by too much nonprofessional sharing (such as vacation/child pictures); aggressive commenting or arguing via comments is also frowned upon. As a student, you probably shouldn’t be commenting or posting too much at all. Use LinkedIn as a place to observe and learn. And in terms of your profile itself, keep it professional, not personal.
• LinkedIn is not a replacement for a real resume.

There’s no need to rush to build and post an online professional profile—certainly not in your freshman year. But when the time is right, it can be a useful resource for you and future employers.

Social Media and Online Activity Never Go Away

While thinking about LinkedIn and other networks, it’s a good time to remember that future employers, educational institutions, internship coordinators, and anyone else who may hire or develop a relationship with you can see most of what you’ve posted or done online. Companies are well within their rights to dig through your social media pages, and those of your friends or groups you’re part of, to learn about you. Tasteless posts, inappropriate memes, harassment, pictures or videos of high-risk behavior, and even aggressive and mean comments are all problematic. They may convince a potential employer that you’re not right for their organization. Be careful of who and what you retweet, like, and share. It’s all traceable, and it can all have consequences.

For other activities on social media, such as strong political views, activism, or opinions on controversial topics, you should use your judgment. Most strong organizations will not be dissuaded from working with you because you’re passionate about something within the realm of civility, but any posts or descriptions that seem insensitive to groups of people can be taken as a reason not to hire you. While you have freedom of speech with regard to the government, that freedom does not extend to private companies’ decisions on whether to hire you. Even public institutions, such as universities and government agencies, can reject you for unlawful activity (including threats or harassment) revealed online; they can also reject you if you frequently post opinions that conflict with the expectations of both your employer and the people/organizations they serve.

With those cautions in mind, it’s important to remember that anything on your social media or professional network profiles related to federally protected aspects of your identity—race, national origin, color, disability, veteran status, parental/pregnancy status, religion, gender, age, or genetic information (including family medical history)—cannot be held against you in hiring decisions.

Building Your Portfolio

Future employers or educational institutions may want to see the work you’ve done during school. Also, you may need to recall projects or papers you wrote to remember details about your studies. Your portfolio can be one of your most important resources.

Portfolio components vary according to field. Business students should save projects, simulations, case studies, and any mock companies or competitions they worked on. Occupational therapy students may have patient thank-you letters, summaries of volunteer activity, and completed patient paperwork (identities removed). Education majors will likely have lesson plans, student teaching materials, sample projects they created, and papers or research related to their specialization.

Other items to include a portfolio:

• Evidence of any workshops or special classes you attended. Include a certificate, registration letter, or something else indicating you attended/completed it.
• Evidence of volunteer work, including a write-up of your experience and how it impacted you.
• Related experience and work products from your time prior to college.
• Materials associated with career-related talks, performances, debates, or competitions that you delivered or took part in.
• Products, projects, or experiences developed in internships, fieldwork, clinicals, or other experiences (see below).
• Evidence of “universal” workplace skills such as computer abilities or communication, or specialized abilities such as computation/number crunching.

A portfolio is neither a scrapbook nor an Instagram story. No need to fill it with pictures of your college experience unless those pictures directly relate to your career. If you’re studying theology and ran a religious camp, include a picture. If you’re studying theology and worked in a food store, leave it out.

Certain disciplines, such as graphic design, music, computer science, and other technologies, may have more specific portfolio requirements and desired styles. You’ll likely learn about that in the course of your studies, but be sure to proactively inquire about these needs or seek examples. Early in your college career, you should be most focused on gathering components for your portfolio, not formalizing it for display or sharing.

Preparing to Network

Throughout this chapter, we have discussed how important relationships are to your career development. It can sometimes be a little intimidating to meet new people in the professional environment. But with preparation and understanding, these encounters can be not only helpful, but also rewarding. Here are some ideas to consider when meeting new people who can be helpful to your career:

• Be yourself. You’re your own best asset. If you’re comfortable with who you are and where you come from, others will be, too.
• Remember, you’re in college and they know it. Don’t try to impress everyone with what you know ; alumni or faculty know more. Instead, talk about what you’re learning —your favorite class, the project you’re most proud of, or even the ones by which you’ve been most challenged.
• Be polite, not too casual. If your goal is to become a professional, look and sound the part.
• Think of some questions ahead of time. Don’t aim for difficult questions or anything too personal, but asking people how they got into their career, with whom they studied in college, what their job is like, and similar questions will both start conversations and provide you with meaningful insight.
• Don’t stress. Remember, if alumni, even highly successful ones, are speaking to you, it’s usually because they want to. An encounter over finger food or a brief meetup in the Rad Tech department office isn’t going to make or break your job prospects.
• If appropriate and timely, ask if you can keep in touch. Be prepared with a polished email address and phone number. For example, if your current address is “[email protected],” consider creating a second account that’s more professional.
• Say thank you. No need to go on and on, but thank them for any advice they give or simply for taking the time to talk with you

While you’re in college, don’t try to impress everyone with what you know . Instead, talk about what you’re learning .

Making Your Case through the Words of Others: Letters of Recommendation

Whether you go on to graduate school or directly into the workforce (or both at the same time), decision makers will want to learn more about you. Your grades, interviews, test scores, and other performance data will tell them a lot. But sometimes they’ll want to hear from others.

Letters of recommendation are often a standard component of convincing people you’re the right person to join their organization. Some positions or institutions require a certain quantity of letters and may have specific guidance on who should write them. Other companies will accept them as additional evidence that you’re a great candidate. Either way, gathering such letters or having a few people whom you can ask for them will put you in a better position. Note that internships, especially competitive ones, may also require letters of recommendation.

Whom to ask for a letter? They’re usually written by instructors, department chairs, club advisors, managers, coaches, and others with whom you’ve had a good relationship. Maybe it’s someone who taught two or three of your courses, or someone you helped in a volunteer or work-study capacity.

Just by taking the time to write the letter, a faculty member is sending a message: “The person about whom I’m writing impressed me.” So the first step is to make a good impression on the person you’re asking to write a letter. You may do this in many ways. Getting a good grade in the class is important, but a faculty member may be more impressed by your perseverance, improvement over time, or creativity in meeting challenges.

How to ask? Be straightforward and direct. The appeal is best made in person, but be prepared for the person you’re asking to ask for some time to make the decision. People who get frequent requests may have a policy or even a form to fill out. They may ask you to provide more information about yourself so that they can write an original letter. If they do so, be thorough but prompt—you don’t want to keep them waiting. And if you have a deadline, tell them.

When to ask? If you encounter a faculty member early in your college career who you think would be the best person to write a letter for you, ask them what they think toward the end of your course or soon after. They may feel it’s too early or not specific enough to simply hand you a general letter at that time. If so, ask if you can come back when you are applying to internships, jobs, or grad schools.

If you wait until you’re applying or you’re about to graduate, you may have a more specific subject or reason for a letter. Be sure to tell the writer where you’re applying and what type of career you’re going into, so they can tailor the recommendation to that area.

Thank-you notes. They wrote you a letter, so you should write them one in return. A brief and personal thank-you note is appropriate and necessary.

Steps to Success

“Things change—circumstances change. Learn to adapt. Adjust your efforts and yourself to what is presented to you so you can respond accordingly. Never see change as a threat—do not get intimidated by it. Change can be an opportunity to learn, to grow, to evolve, and to become a better person.” ―Rodolfo Costa 6

Preparing for Change and Being Open to Opportunities

Earlier in this text, we discussed managing change, adapting to the unexpected, and handling setbacks. These are critical skills that, while difficult during the process, ultimately build a better—and more employable—you. While you can’t prepare for every obstacle or surprise, you can be certain that you’ll encounter them.

You may go through all of college, and even high school, with one job in mind. You may apply early to a specific program, successfully complete all the requirements, and set yourself on a certain career path. And then something may change.

As described above, changes in your interests or goals are a natural part of developing your career; they’re nothing to be ashamed of. Most college students change majors several times. Even once they graduate, many people find themselves enjoying careers they didn’t envision. Ask the people around you, and many will share stories about how they took a meandering or circuitous path to their profession. Some people end up in jobs or companies that they didn’t know existed when they started school.

What’s most important is that you build on your successes and failures, consider all your experiences, and pursue your purpose and overarching personal goals. For example, if you want to become a police officer but cannot complete all of the degree requirements on time, taking a job as a security officer or even an unrelated job in the meantime might lead to a great deal of satisfaction and set you on a different path. If, after that, you still want to pursue law enforcement, you can build it into your plan—managing your priorities, gaining the required experience and credentials, and applying for jobs closer to your chosen career.

This early in your college experience, you shouldn’t be too worried about how to conduct job interviews or explain employment gaps or changing directions. However, you may need or want to explain the thinking behind your future plans to academic advisors, internship managers, your peers, and your family. You should feel free to do so openly, but you’ll probably be better prepared if you revisit some of the ideas discussed earlier in this chapter. Consider how a shift in your plans, whether slight or significant, reflects who you are now and who you hope to be in the future. Knowing yourself as an emerging and new professional by discovering and developing your interests, skills, values, personality, and strengths is something that everyone should do on an ongoing basis throughout their lives. Explore job opportunities or career paths available to people in your new major or discipline area. Think about whether you need to handle any financial impacts, such as paying for additional education or delaying employment.

Employers, for their part, are often unfazed by changes or even mistakes. Remember, when they ask about your greatest weakness or failure, they want to hear something genuine. Just like the alumni you meet or the faculty you’re asking for recommendations, interviewers may be more impressed by how and what you’ve learned rather than how you followed a preplanned path. Remember, most jobs are a continuous thread of situations to think through, information to analyze, and problems to solve. Your ability to solve your own problems, and reflect and discuss them later, will show that you’re ready to do the same for an employer.

• 3 2018 Student Survey Report . National Association of Colleges and Employers. https://www.naceweb.org/career-readiness/internships/students-internships-positively-impact-competencies/
• 4 National Association of Colleges and Employers. “The Four Career Competentices Employers Value Most.” 2019. https://www.naceweb.org/career-readiness/competencies/the-four-career-competencies-employers-value-most/
• 5 Writing@CSU. “Organizing Your Resume.” https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/page.cfm?pageid=1517&guideid=77
• 6 Costa, Robert. Advice My Parents Gave Me: Aand Other Lessons I Learned from My Mistakes. 2011.

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Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/college-success/pages/1-introduction

• Authors: Amy Baldwin
• Publisher/website: OpenStax
• Book title: College Success
• Publication date: Mar 27, 2020
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/college-success/pages/1-introduction
• Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/college-success/pages/12-2-your-map-to-success-the-career-planning-cycle

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• Career Planning

The Career Planning Process

4 Steps to Choosing a Career

Dawn Rosenberg McKay is a certified Career Development Facilitator. She has written hundreds of articles on career planning for The Balance.

• Assess You Are Looking For in a Career
• Career Exploration
• Match With a Job
• Create a Career Action Plan

What Else You Should Know About Career Planning

Choosing a career is a big deal. It's about so much more than deciding what to do to make a living. When you think about the amount of time you will spend at work, it will become clear why this decision is such a big deal. Expect to be on the job approximately 71% of every year.

Key Takeaways

• When deciding what to do as your career, there are four key steps you can take to ensure a good fit.
• Learning more about yourself will help to determine what you want and need from a job while exploring different options will let you do trial runs in potential roles and industries.

As you can see, a substantial portion of your life will be spent pursuing your career so you certainly do not want to underestimate the importance of selecting a career that is a good fit for you. In making this personal decision there are a few key things to consider. To increase your chances of finding a satisfying career, it is suggested that you follow the four commonly used steps below:

Step 1. Assess You Are Looking For in a Career

During this first step, you will use a variety of tools to  gather information about yourself . Learn about your:

• Interests : The things you enjoy doing
• Work-Related Values : The ideas and beliefs that are important to you and guide your actions
• Personality Type: Your social traits, motivations, strengths and weaknesses, and attitudes
• Aptitudes: A natural talent or an ability learned through training and education
• Preferred Work Environments: The type of workplaces you prefer. For example, indoors or outdoors, office or factory, and noisy or quiet
• Developmental Needs: Your cognitive abilities have an impact on the type of training or education you can complete and what kind of work you can do
• Realities: Circumstances that may influence your ability to train for an occupation or work in it

You will identify career interests that might be a good fit for you during the self-assessment, but you will need more information before you can make a final decision. Step two will help you do that.

Step 2. Career Exploration

Career exploration focuses on learning about the occupations that seem to be a good fit based on the results of your self-assessment and any other professions that interest you. Use online and print resources to get a job description, learn about specific job duties, and gather labor market information including median salaries and job outlooks. (See also: Employment Skills Listed by Job)

After completing this preliminary research, you can start eliminating professions that don't appeal to you and get more details about those that do. This is an ideal time to conduct informational interviews and arrange job shadowing opportunities. During an informational interview, you will ask people who work in an occupation that interests you questions about their jobs. Job shadowing involves following someone around at work in order to learn more about what they do.

Step 3. Match With a Job

Finally, it's time to make a match. During step three, you will decide which occupation is the best fit for you based on what you learned during steps one and two.

• Identify the occupation in which you are most interested and one or two alternatives on which to fall back if, for any reason, you can't pursue your first choice.
• Give serious thought to how you will prepare to enter your chosen career, the costs associated with education and training, and whether you will face any barriers, which are the realities discussed during step one.
• Go back to step two if you find you need to explore your options further before making a decision. 

Once you have chosen a career, you can go on to step four, which will lead you toward your first job in your new career.

Step 4. Create a Career Action Plan

During this step, you will write a career action plan. It will serve as a guide to reaching your ultimate goal of getting a job in the career you deemed to be a good match during step three.

Identify what long-term and short-term  goals  you will have to reach to get to the ultimate one.

Start investigating appropriate education and training programs, for example, colleges, graduate schools, or apprenticeship programs. Then start preparing for the required entrance examinations or applying for admission.

If you are ready to seek employment, develop a job search strategy. Identify and learn about potential employers. Write your resume and cover letters. Begin to  prepare for job interviews .

It is important to note that the career planning process never ends. At various points in your career, you may seek additional training or designations that can help you continue to pursue your goals. In some cases, your career may take new turns or you may choose to redefine yourself and your goals. Whatever phase you may be at in your career, taking the time to plan will help to keep you focused and on a goal-oriented path.

You can attempt to go through the career planning process on your own, or you can work with a  career development professional  who will help facilitate your journey. Working with a mentor or career development professional can be a great way to better understand the work your chosen career involves and also to learn about new opportunities you may not have been aware of within your industry.

Want to read more content like this?  Sign up  for The Balance’s newsletter for daily insights, analysis, and financial tips, all delivered straight to your inbox every morning!

MIT. " Make A Career Plan ."

Berkeley. " Career Clarity: Career Exploration ."

Career Plans, Career Paths, Career Goals, and Why You Need Them All

Career discovery , career enrichment , career transitions , confidence.

In today’s dynamic and ever-evolving job market, the traditional notion of meticulously planning every step of your career journey and executing it flawlessly is becoming increasingly unrealistic. Instead, a more flexible and adaptive approach is necessary. This article explores the essential elements of career strategy—career goals, career paths, and career plans—and how to strategically navigate them to achieve career success.

Table of Contents

Creating a Career Strategy: Taking Ownership of Your Career

Taking ownership of your career and consciously designing your life starts with creating a comprehensive strategy. This strategy comprises three key components: career goals, career paths, and career plans. Understanding and effectively leveraging these components will help you navigate the complexities of your professional development journey.

What is the Difference Between Career Goals, Career Paths, and Career Plans?

To build a successful career strategy, it’s important to understand the distinctions and interconnections between career goals, career paths, and career plans. Each plays a crucial role in your professional journey but serves different purposes.

Career Goal: Imagine Your Future

A career goal is about describing the strategic playing field for your desired career and the role you want to play within it.

It answers the fundamental question: What do you want to do?

Naming your goal involves identifying the industry or domain you wish to work in and the specific position or function you aim to achieve. Your career goal sets the direction and provides a clear target for your efforts.

Here are a few examples of career goals to get you started:

• Software Developer: If you love coding, gaming, and living in the Pacific Northwest, your career goal might be to secure a position working with a design team at a software games company in Seattle.
• Human Resources at a financial firm: If you like helping organizations get the best out of their workforce in high-pressure environments by working closely with people, and you enjoy the vibrancy of metropolitan life, your career goal might be to lead the HR department of a mid-sized financial company in a big city.
• Social Worker for at-risk youth: If you like working with young people who are trying to figure out how to get on the right track, and you love the idea of contributing to the well-being of your hometown, your career goal might be to work in a local community organization or government agency that focuses on supporting at-risk youth.

Take some time to reflect on your desired career future and clarify what you want.

Career Path Definition

A career path is about developing a sequence of career actions that you believe will get you from where you are to where you want to be in your professional life—your goal.

Your career path acknowledges that there can be multiple ways to reach your long-term goals and involves mapping out possible routes to achieve them. A career path provides a framework for your professional journey.

Here are some examples of career paths based on the goals we’re exploring:

• Software Developer: To become a software developer, your career path might include obtaining a degree in computer science, completing internships, gaining experience through entry-level positions, and continuously improving your coding skills.
• Human Resources at a financial firm: To become an HR director in the financial sector, your career path might include obtaining a degree in human resources or business administration, gaining experience through HR roles, obtaining HR certifications, and moving up to HR management positions.
• Social Worker for at-risk youth: To become a social worker working with at-risk youth, your career path might include obtaining a degree in social work, completing internships or volunteer work with at-risk youth, gaining on-the-job experience through entry-level social work positions, and obtaining necessary licenses and certifications.

Career Plan Definition

A career plan is about how you are going to move to the next step, and subsequent steps, of the path. It involves making strategic choices in your professional development about how to get from where you are to where you want to be.

This part is about taking your long-term career goals and translating them into short-term goals. Making your career plan includes selecting which path to follow out of the potential options and detailing the specific actions you will take to progress.

Your career plan outlines the tactical steps needed to achieve your career path and, ultimately, your career goal.

Here are what career plans might look like for each of our scenarios:

• Software Developer: Your career plan might involve applying for internships at tech companies, enrolling in relevant online courses, networking with professionals in the field, and preparing for technical interviews to secure your first job as a software developer.
• HR Manager at a financial firm: Your career plan might involve gaining hands-on experience in various HR roles, obtaining HR certifications like SHRM-CP or PHR, networking within the financial sector, and applying for HR management positions to build up to the role of HR director.
• Social Worker for at-risk youth: Your career plan might involve completing internships with organizations that work with at-risk youth, obtaining relevant certifications, attending workshops and conferences on social work, networking with professionals in the field, and applying for social worker positions focused on youth services.

The Importance of Ongoing Research and Adaptability

When you create a goal and a path, it’s based on what you know today. However, the information you have could be outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate. This is why your plan has to include ongoing research and adaptation.

Making the most of resources like working with a career coach, conducting online research, and talking to people who work in the career fields that interest you are crucial steps.

Conducting Ongoing Research

• Work with a Career Coach: A career coach can provide personalized guidance and insights based on their expertise and experience, and can help you think about how you can develop and carry out your plan. Learn more about working with a career coach right here.
• Online Research: Use online platforms, forums, and resources to stay updated on industry trends, required skills, potential employers, and job opportunities.
• Networking: Talk to other professionals who are already working in your desired field. Attend industry events, join professional organizations, and seek informational interviews to gain first-hand knowledge.

Your career goal will have helped you create a path and a plan. The plan should help you refine your path, and it might lead to changing your goal if you find out that what you are aiming for isn’t what you thought it was. Stay open minded – maybe your dream career is something you’ve never heard of before!

Strategy: The Foundation of Adaptable Planning

What we’re talking about here ultimately is having a career strategy. Strategy is a framework for guiding your efforts to create outcomes in an uncertain and ever-changing world. It’s about making informed choices, exploring different career paths, and being adaptable.

Developing your career strategy involves several key components, such as setting long-term career goals, identifying clear career objectives, and progressively taking on more responsibility.

By focusing on these elements, you can navigate your career with intention and flexibility.

Picking a Career Playing Field: Determine the Industry or Domain You Want to Explore

Choosing a career field means identifying the broad area or industry where you want to build your career. This decision lays the groundwork for all your subsequent career advancement choices and actions.

Here are some steps you can use to get a better idea of which career path is right for you:

• Research Industries: Look into various industries to understand their dynamics, advancement opportunities, and the types of roles they offer. Explore sectors that align with your interests and values.
• Assess Personal Interests: Reflect on what excites you and what you’re passionate about. Aligning your career with your interests can lead to greater job satisfaction and motivation.
• Evaluate Market Demand: Consider the demand for professionals in your chosen field. Industries with higher demand may offer more opportunities and better job security.
• Consider Long-Term Trends: Think about the future outlook of the industry. Are there emerging trends or technologies that could impact its growth? Position yourself in a field with promising prospects.

Identifying Key Beliefs: Understand What You Believe About Success in That Field, Which Shapes Your Career Goals

Identifying your key beliefs about success in your chosen field helps shape your career goals and sets the direction for your professional journey. This involves:

• Defining Success: Clearly articulate what success looks like to you. Is it climbing the career ladder and achieving a certain job title, having a significant impact, earning a specific income, making a positive impact, or attaining work-life balance?
• Learning from Others: Study the careers of successful individuals in your field. What paths did they take? What skills and attributes contributed to their success?
• Reflecting on Values: Ensure that your career goals align with your personal values and principles. This alignment will help you stay motivated and fulfilled.
• Setting Realistic Expectations: Understand the challenges and requirements of your chosen field. Set achievable goals that push you forward while being realistic about the effort needed.

Considering Choices: Make Strategic Decisions on How to Start and Progress in Your Career Path

Once you’ve identified your career goals and the field you want to explore, it’s time to make strategic decisions about how to start and progress on your career path today. This involves:

• Education and Training : Determine the qualifications and skills required for your desired roles. This might involve pursuing degrees, certifications, or specialized training programs to enhance your personal brand.
• Gaining Experience : Look for opportunities to gain relevant experience. This could include internships, entry-level positions, volunteer work, or freelance projects.
• Building a Network : Establish connections with professionals in your field. Attend networking events, join professional organizations, and seek mentorship to gain insights and opportunities, thereby strengthening your professional network.
• Skill Development : Continuously improve your skill set. Identify the key competencies needed for success in your field and actively work on developing new skills through courses, workshops, and self-study.

Searching for the Next Step: Develop a Plan for Continuously Searching for and Identifying the Next Steps in Your Career Journey

A successful career strategy involves continuously searching for and identifying the next steps in your professional and personal development journey. This process requires an adaptable mindset and a commitment to ongoing learning and growth:

• Regular Self-Assessment: Periodically evaluate your progress and reassess your goals. Are you moving in the right direction? Are there new opportunities or challenges to consider?
• Seeking Feedback: Solicit feedback from mentors, peers, and supervisors. Use their insights to refine your strategy and improve your performance.
• Staying Informed: Keep up with industry news, trends and developments. This knowledge will help you identify emerging opportunities and stay relevant in your field.
• Being Open to Change: Be willing to pivot or adjust your plans as needed. The career landscape is constantly evolving, and flexibility is crucial to navigating it successfully. Seek opportunities for growth and development to stay ahead in your career journey.

Whether you’re looking to change careers, get a new job, or work toward a pay raise or leadership position, having these tools available can help with your goal-setting process and project management of your career.

It’s important to remember that the key to a successful career is not just in meticulous planning, but doing enough thinking about your goals and path in order to create a plan— and then taking action!

The point of creating the plan is to get you out there so you can gain experience and learn what you need to learn to update your thinking. It’s a flexible and adaptive process.

While career goals, career paths, and career plans together provide structure and direction, they should be viewed as dynamic tools that evolve with your experiences and learning.

By embracing a strategy of continuous research and adaptability, you can navigate the ever-changing career landscape effectively and find fulfilling opportunities.

We don’t mean to make light of this process. Working with a career coach is a great place to start if you’re feeling at all overwhelmed. Book a free call today to learn more about our process and see if coaching is right for you.

Additional Resources

Review Ready: Setting and Achieving Performance Goals to Unlock Career Success

What Are Your Professional Goals?

6 Steps to Take Ownership of Your Career

How to Map a Clear Career Plan

4 Benefits of Career Planning

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Navigating career changes: seven steps to reigniting your journey.

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Mark Protus ( Protus Consulting) offers 20+ years of effective learning and leadership solutions driving growth, engagement, and potential.

Are you feeling stuck in your current role and longing for a change? You’re not alone. In one study, 44% of respondents said they were unsatisfied with their career path options, and another study found that more than 50% of people are thinking about changing their careers.

I see many professionals who feel overwhelmed by uncertainty in the job market or frustrated by a lack of career advancement opportunities. Some seek a better work-life balance or higher job satisfaction. Many people want to discover purpose through a meaningful career that fits their passions and contributes to the greater good.

I think this all underscores the importance of having a solid career plan to help you stay focused on your goals and passions. Let’s dive into seven steps you can take to successfully plan your career, discover your strengths and work toward becoming your best self.

1. Self-Assessment

First, you want to understand your skills, interests, values and personality. Knowing yourself more deeply allows you to make informed career choices that truly resonate with who you are. Start by taking personality tests, reflecting on your experiences and identifying what excites you. For example, think about a project you enjoyed; what skills did you use? What aspects did you find most rewarding?

To get started, I recommend personality identification tools like Myers-Briggs, CliftonStrengths or 16Personalities. Reflect on your results and consider how they align with your current or desired career path. And, see if you are learning something new about yourself.

2. Research And Exploration

Now that you have a clearer understanding of yourself, it’s time to explore potential career paths. Use online resources, attend industry events and network with professionals in fields of interest to open your eyes to possibilities you might not have considered. I especially find that informational interviews—talking to people who are already in a role you’re curious about—can provide invaluable insights.

Websites like LinkedIn and Glassdoor are great for researching different careers and companies. To find industry events, you can use platforms like Eventbrite or Meetup. Lastly, LinkedIn is also a great tool to connect with professionals and request interviews to learn more about potential careers.

3. Set Goals

Setting both short-term and long-term goals gives you a road map to follow, ensuring progress and purpose. Define what you want to achieve in the next six months, year and five years. Make these goals SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. For example, if you want to change industries, a short-term goal could be to finish a relevant certification in six months.

Use goal-setting apps like Monday and Trello or even outline your goals with a simple Google Doc. Break down your long-term goals into smaller, manageable tasks and set deadlines for each. Regularly review and adjust your goals as needed.

4. Create An Action Plan

Turn your goals into tangible tasks you can tackle daily or weekly. List out the steps needed to achieve each goal, set deadlines and prioritize tasks. If your goal is to land a new job, your action plan might include updating your resume, applying to five jobs per week and networking with at least three new contacts each month.

Tools like Todoist or Notion can help you create detailed action plans. Prioritize your tasks and set reminders to stay on track. Use job search engines like Indeed or LinkedIn Jobs to find relevant job postings and track your applications.

5. Develop Skills And Gain Experience

As already hinted at, continuous learning is key to staying competitive and achieving your career goals. Focus on skills and experiences that can increase your value and open doors to new opportunities. This could include technical skills, soft skills or industry-specific knowledge.

You can also enroll in courses, attend workshops or seek out volunteer opportunities to build these skills. If you want to be a leader, you can take a leadership development course and volunteer to lead a project at work.

Websites like Coursera, Udemy and LinkedIn Learning offer a wide range of accessible courses to help develop skills. You can also look for volunteer opportunities on platforms like VolunteerMatch or Idealist to gain practical experience.

6. Evaluate And Adjust

Regularly reviewing your progress and making necessary adjustments is crucial to staying on track. Life changes, and so do your goals and circumstances.

Set aside time every few months to reflect on your progress. Are you hitting your milestones? Are your goals still relevant? If not, don’t be afraid to pivot. If you find a new interest that excites you more than your current path, adjust your plan to include this new direction.

Set up calendar reminders to schedule quarterly reviews for yourself. Reflect on your progress using tools like a journal or a reflective app like Day One. Adjust your goals and action plan based on your findings.

7. Stay Motivated And Seek Support

Career planning is a journey, and I know how challenging it can be to stay motivated. Seek support from a network of supporters for encouragement, advice and new perspectives. Celebrate your achievements, no matter how small, and surround yourself with positive influences.

Consider joining professional associations related to your field, and use some of the platforms already mentioned to find mentors and join relevant groups. This network can help you celebrate your milestones and stay motivated.

Career planning involves steps like self-assessment, research and an action plan. By building a network and actively developing skills, you can start a successful career that matches your talents and interests.

Don’t be discouraged if progress seems slow; every bit of effort counts. Keep moving forward, and remember how each step helps bring you closer to your ideal career.

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Career planning and personal development plan: Sample

People who plan their career years in advance and make efforts to make them happen achieve far more than those who do not have a long-term plan and make their career decisions dictated only by immediate benefits. It’s better to be proactive for an individual to assess his interests, strengths, weaknesses and realistically evaluate his options and make relevant plans, rather than being reactive and end up in an employment where the individual’s true potentials are not realised for many different reasons.

This article illustrates my personal career plan in detail in my chosen field of professional interest – marketing, and lists steps I am planning to undertake to progress to my dream job, anticipating possible challenges, analysing alternative progressions and describing preventive actions. The article also describes career planning methodology, marketing field in general and necessary KSAs to be successful in this field.

My personal development plan is provided in the article along with my SMART objectives describing how I am planning to prepare myself for each step which eventually will lead me to my dream job – marketing executive.

Dream Job – Marketing Executive

Marketing executives promote products, services or ideas by developing marketing strategies and campaigns. They are closely involved in public relations, planning, research, product development, participating in events and organising them. This role is fascinating to me because it provides two job elements which I find exciting: meeting and communicating with people, and seeing the immediate and long-term results of your work.

Marketing executives have a wide range of responsibilities and it depends mainly on the sector and the size of the company. The job of a marketing executive includes production of marketing materials, managing the marketing budget, organizing and attending to events, exhibitions etc., evaluating the efficiency of marketing campaigns, conducting market research, and dealing with press and others.

The main skills required for marketing executives are communication skills, interpersonal skills, problem solving, strategic thinking, creativity, attention to detail and others.

Career Planning Methodology

The career planning process proposed by The University of Edinburg Career Services (The career planning process-online, 2014) consists of following parts:

• What I want and what I have to offer? Identify what factors are important to individual, build up a picture of priorities priorities in terms of skills, interests and what motivates the individual, recognise what might hold him back and identify how to fill any gaps in experiences.
• What’s out there? Gathering appropriate information about the nature of different types of work, the range of employment opportunities, and further study or training opportunities.
• Focus on options. Making confident decisions by analysing the research done on individual and his options.
• Making plans. Setting short and long term goals. Being realistic, considering the time available, focusing on the priorities set, breaking down large tasks and reviewing plans regularly.
• Making it happen. Reflecting on the skills and experiences and putting  plans into action.

The Career Planning Model proposed by Queensland University of Technology (What is a career?-online, 2014) has the following format:

Source: Queensland University of Technology web-site

An alternative holistic career planning model proposed by Oregon State University (Career planning process – online, 2014) consists of the following interchangeable steps:

•Becoming self-aware-explore unique qualities – how do I fit with different career types?

•Becoming career-aware-exploring career possibilities – what do people do in different careers? Should I start my own business?

•Integrating awareness information-exploring challenges, making decisions & setting goals – does this mean following my heart or my head, or both?

•Marketing -preparing to obtain work – can I pull it all together to convince an employer I’m the right person for the job?

•Workplace Success-exploring methods for success – how can I start out on the right foot?

•Balanced lifestyle-review, reflecting, researching, and responding to personal, family/social, career, leisure, and community integration – Yikes!

Personal Career Plan

My personal career plan consists of several stages. Prior to landing to my dream job – senior marketing executive of a global multinational company I have to gain valuable skills and experience that would help me to be successful in that job. These skills are interpersonal skills, communication skills, ability to conduct extensive complex researches, creativity and others. I can gain these skills working in different positions which would lead me to senior marketing executive position, where in each position I can master one or more of the skills required

  Stage 1: Working as a sales person in a multi-level marketing company.

After completion of my studies the first job I will be doing is the position of a sales person in a multi-level marketing company such as Discovery Toys, Freelife, Herbalife, Neways or telecom Plus.

I will benefit from working in a multi-level marketing company in following ways:

• My communication skills will be improved. Working in a multi-level marketing company means I will be speaking to lots of people every day trying to persuade them to buy products I am selling when they do not want it in the first place. This is the essence of a multi-level marketing business. Customers will not come to me interested in my product, I will have to knock their doors and persuade them that they need the item I am selling.
• I will get used to rejections. Every day dozens of people will reject my offers and I will learn not to take rejections personally, but to deal with them professionally
• I will benefit from training courses. Many global multi-level marketing companies offer valuable training courses for employees for free which is aimed at increasing their communication and selling skills
• I will improve my team managing skills. Many multi-level marketing companies operate in a way that you have to build your team and you get a certain percentage of the sales made by your team.

However, there would be possible challenges such as desire to give up if no sales made for a period of time and coping with limited or no money earned during the initial period of joining the business.

Preventive actions for challenges would be to be focusing on my dream job and to be persistent. Also, to get financial help from my parents during the initial period of joining the company.

Stage 2: Working in a marketing research company.

After working for a multi-level marketing company for about 2 years and gaining confidence and expertise in communicating with people and direct selling, the next step will be joining a marketing research company such as Illuminas, Kantar Group or Mintel.

The benefits for me would be to understand deeply market segments, different strategies of marketing research and learning how to work with data. I am planning to work for a market research company for about a year.

The possible challenges could be difficulty of securing employment due to absence of formal work experience in the field and lack of my knowledge of marketing research

Preventive actions I am planning to undertake are convincing potential employers that the value of my academic research could be equal to formal work research experience and to be consistently increasing my knowledge about market research

Stage 3: Working in a multinational company as a marketing officer

In today’s global marketplace marketing executives have to know about different cultures in detail especially about the factors that trigger their decision to buy a product or service. Working for a multinational company where I have a chance to cooperate closely with representatives of a wide range of cultures will give me an opportunity to study them closely which will benefit me enormously later when I will become a marketing executive of a large multinational company. It will help me in two ways: to effectively manage multinational workforce and to target potential clients of different nationalities. I am planning to work in a multinational company for about three years.

The possible challenge for career progression at this stage can be the difficulty of finding such a position. There is a risk that a company can be global and multinational, but the circle of people I deal with in my position could be limited just to several nationalities. In that case alternative progression would be still working for a multinational company as marketing officer, and at the same time to be learning about different cultures, their values and factors influencing their decision making through alternative channels.

Stage 4: Working as marketing manager and leading a marketing team.

One I have mastered communication and interpersonal skills, obtained work experience in marketing research company as researcher and have been working with people from variety cultures and studying them, the only step from my dream job will be the actual experience of managing people. Knowing how to manage and motivate employees to greater performance is also one of the key skills successful senior marketing executive should possess. I will get a job where I will be managing a team of at least ten marketing officers. I will be working in such a position for about five years.

Possible challenges in that stage can be some difficulties in managing people at initial period due to absence of managing experience.

There are no alternative progressions in that part. Successful marketing executive has to know how to lead people. Preventive action would be to be learning about management well ahead before I reach that stage, that is effective management principles and rules from now.

Stage 5: Securing employment in my dream job – Senior Marketing Executive in a global, multinational company.

I will land my dream job after eleven years of graduating from school and acquiring all necessary KSAs needed to be successful as marketing executive. The period of securing my dream job – eleven years may not seem ambitious enough, but it is a realistic estimation to realise that plan.

Possible challenge I might face as a marketing executive can be in the form of size of the business. Preventive action would be to form a good team of employees in form to take on challenges.

Personal Development Plan

Generally, the following three basic questions need to be asked in order to develop personal development plan:

• Where am I now?
• Where do I want to be?
• How can I get there?

The following flowchart illustrates the process of writing a personal development plan:

My personal development plan is aimed to equip me with all necessary KSA’a to proceed through all stages of my career stages and to land to my dream job. It includes following:

• To be reviewing new issue of Marketing Week magazine every month. It will keep me updated about the latest trends in marketing
• To attend Dale Carnegie ‘Effective Communication and Human Relations” course in 2015
• To attend Impact Factory leadership development course in by 2015
• To attend Kwintessential cross-cultural awareness course by 2017
• To become a member of Market Research Society by 2019
• To be publishing articles about various aspects of marketing in specialist magazines each month starting from 2019

The existence of a career plan does not guarantee that our career will follow exactly the same direction as we have mapped. However, this fact should not diminish the importance of identifying career plan in writing, because thinking about our next job taking into account our interests, knowledge, skills and abilities will help us to identify positions where our talents will be in their best use and we will enjoy the job itself.

In a personal level I benefited from writing my present personal career plan enormously. I had to evaluate the choices I have at present and make plans what I want from my career and how to achieve them.

Career Planning Process (2014) Oregon State University, Available at:  http://www.osucascades.edu/studentresources/careers/puzzle

The Career Planning Process (2014) Career Services,   University of Edinburg Career Services, Available at:  http://www.careers.ed.ac.uk/STUDENTS/Getting_Started/The_Career_Planning_Process.html

What is a Career? (2014)  Careers and Employment,  Queensland University of Technology. Available at:  http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.careers.qut.edu.au/student/career/Graphics/CareerPlan.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.careers.qut.edu.au/student/career/&usg=__mq1vk_9xZsFppfkf4jo6ftcfk=&h=342&w=432&sz=25&hl=en&start=3&sig2=nKuXpu89vJdr24aaqh1cMQ&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=Dv_nap48kprkMM:&tbnh=100&tbnw=126&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcareer%2Bplanning%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1R2SUNC_enGB384%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=rM0aTNXpHND9_AbghpWbCQ

Research on Career Planning Education for College Students

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• Journal of Contemporary Educational Research 7(12):192-196
• 7(12):192-196
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