Planning Your Career In A Week

Book excerpt: Planning your career just got easier Very few of us put much effort into planning for the kind of career we want. Thinking about where we are going at work is something we all need to do throughout our working lives. The nature of work and employment is always changing. When economic times are difficult, you need to show potential employers that you have something special to offer. You may also need to be more flexible in your plans. New kinds of jobs emerge all the time and many labour markets are becoming increasingly specialized. This means you need to find out more about the kinds of jobs that interest you, and you need to understand what employers are looking for and how people get these jobs. By working through a simple series of steps and exercises, you can help yourself to be clearer about what you want, what your options are, and how to move forward. Exercises in each chapter will help you build a collection of information and reflect on what you are learning about yourself and the process of career planning as you go along. Planning Your Career In A Week looks at one step in this process of career planning on each day of the week: Sunday: What do you want from work? Monday: What kind of job would you enjoy? Tuesday: What are you good at? Wednesday: Identifying your career options Thursday: Collecting information Friday: Making the choice Saturday: Taking the first steps