Career Planning and Management

How Important Is Your Career?Let’s examine how important is your carrier for you. You have 168 hours in a week. Generally, you will be busy 84 hours for Physical wellbeing (sleep, nutrition, hygiene, exercise, rest). You will be busy in your personal work (family obligations, cooking, cleaning, paper work, maintenance, gardening, etc.) for 15 hours. You will be engaged for 5 hours in Spiritual and Mental wellbeing. 14 hours you will spend with friends, and in volunteer work i.e. social and personal activities. Now, you have remaining 50 hours only. Imagine, are you really able to manage your carrier within 50 hours?Herein I will illustrate the career planning and management tool for this limited hour. We will follow some of the following steps:Planning Your Career (please keep in your mind)• YOU are in Change process• Understand the entire change process• Be prepared for every stage of the process, AT ALL TIMES• There are more than 10,000 Occupations,e.g. Manager; which includes General Manager, Project, Production, Marketing manager. Engineer: Civil, hydro - Computer...and so on...•Research Current prospective but don‘t get tied up with itThere are three dimensions that, you should keep in mind while starting to think about your carrier •What are my vocations? What do I want to be when I grown up? (e.g. CR Manager)•What environment is best for me?(e.g. B2C based company)•Just how much academic education do I need and I want to pursue?(e.g. MBA degree in CRM)Also, consider other interests and constraints besides above 3 dimensions (for e.g. fear of height, color, religious or moral constraints, responsibilities, geographical constraints etc).Now you have planned your career. To achieve your target you must follow some further important steps which I have categorized for you into following headings:NetworkingBuilt and treasure your network of contracts throughout the process:•People, who work in the occupation of your interest. Do you have good chemistry with them? Do you share their interests?•Mentors( they will guide you)•RefereesPreparationPrepare for your Career early:•Participate in extra curricular activities•Complete your thesis•Attend particular classes, conferences•Learn foreign language(this is essential)•Join volunteer work and InternshipsInformationGather as much information as possible and explore ALL channels into your job:•Internet, People, clubs•Magazines, journals, newsletters, and newspapers•Employment agencies, Chamber of commerce •Professionals, other social organizations, associations•Business breakfast, job fair, exhibitions, and conferences, etc...Give attention to DetailPrepare everything with greatest care:•Application documents: completeness, spelling, choice of paper, binder •Prepare references and referees•Planning for an interview or any personal communication; travel & arrival, time, clothes•Seek friends and experts’ advice!!!Remember....!!!“Job hunting is a fulltime job„PracticeAll of the steps in any process need practice:•Interview skills•Networking and keeping in touch•Seminars, talks, and presentations•Cover letter and CV•Public speaking•MeetingsAttitudeYou are on the job hunt, 24 X 7•Be positive all at time: you never know what‘s coming up.•Internalize your 3T-skills(Training, Techenology, Team spirit )•Have everything ready(30 sec, 2 min, 10 min. Interview, your entire life story, 10 success stories)•Put yourself in the show of the employer•Keep you head up with job hunting : rejection is the rule, you will learn from mistakesThus, using the above “career planning and management” tips you can successfully manage and achieve your career .So get started now and you can achieve your target easily within those limited 50 hours of a week.Good Luck!