Kick off Your Career Planning
Most people start looking for a job and updating their resume, that's the last thing you should be doing
Whether you have a job or you’re looking for one, putting together a career plan can help to put you on the right path and give back control.
Most people just look for a job, they update their resume and look for the next job. They might think about what they want and what they don’t want. That’s the extent of the planning. No wonder most people are not satisfied with their roles.
I’ve been guilty of that too. Letting others dictate what roles and jobs I can or can’t do. Satisfaction was hard to come by until I started thinking and planning my career. And it’s not a one-off exercise. You need to review and update your career plan because things change. Your organisation changes, you change. What you think and feel when you’re in your 20s is different when you’re in your 30s and 40s.
Before you rush off and update your CV and look for a job. You need to assess your current state.
SWOT Analysis
A classic analysis that will help you understand yourself better. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Using the quadrant below. Identify the various components. This requires some thinking and introspection. Don’t try to do it on your own, ask your colleagues, family members and friends for their insights.
Strengths
What are you good at? Think about skill, expertise, knowledge, attributes or temperament
What positive feedback do you consistently get?
What do your colleagues, friends and family ask you for help?
What do you enjoy doing?
Weaknesses
What do you struggle with?
What do you find challenging?
What don't you find enjoyable?
What feedback do you get from your manager, colleagues, friends and family?
Opportunities
What opportunities can you create by using your strengths?
What opportunities can you create by removing or reducing your weaknesses?
What is happening in your organisation that may be an opportunity for you?
What is happening in your personal life that may be an opportunity for you?
Threats
What obstacles do you face?
What technological, economic, political or organisational changes may be a threat?
Are any of your weaknesses big enough to be a threat?
Steps to complete the SWOT Analysis
Block out some time to work through the SWOT analysis.
Brainstorm ideas on each of the sections, don’t try to edit or review it yet.
Talk to your colleagues, family and friends to get their thoughts.
Review the lists and populate the sections.
PEST Analysis
PEST stands for Political, Economic, Societal and Technological. It is a tool that allows you to identify the big picture and see what opportunities and threats you may face. Whilst SWOT is inward-looking, PEST is more outward-looking.
For each component, brainstorm changes, ideas, opportunities or threats that may arise.
Political
Any changes in the law that may affect you?
Any changes in regulations will affect you?
Is there an election coming up? What is the likelihood of a change of government? What will it mean for you?
Economic
At what stage is the economy? What is the trend?
What are the key indicators and the trends - Exchange rate, inflation rate, interest rate, unemployment rate?
What are the key challenges of the economy?
What are the business and consumer sentiments?
Social
What are the employment patterns?
What are the general trends that may affect your business?
What is the demographic and how is it changing? How will this affect you?
What is the population growth?
What are the social challenges occurring? How will it impact you?
Technological
What are the technological trends? How will it impact you?
Are there new technologies coming up that may impact you?
What opportunities are there to learn new technology?
Can you access the new technology?
What changes in technology are affecting you now?
Values
Having your values aligned with the work that you do will improve your satisfaction and help you make decisions about your career. You can pursue roles and careers that align with your values. The next exercise is to identify your values.
Like, hate and everything in between
Reflecting on your current job and previous jobs, identify what you love, like, put up with, dislike and hate. It doesn’t matter if they’re big or small.
Values
The next step is to brainstorm and identify your values. Grab a piece of paper or a new Word document. Start listing down as many values that resonate with you as possible. Don’t review them yet. Just write them down.
Think about the times when you were happy or satisfied at work. What were the reasons?
Consider the times when things weren’t going well. What values were not met?
Once you have a list of the values, leave it for a day and come back to review it. Update the list and start eliminating values you disagree with, adding new ones and grouping similar ones.
The final step is to prioritise the list of values in order of importance. Identify the values that are the non-negotiables and what can you flex on?
Next steps…
Now you’re at the stage where you’ve got a good idea about who you are, you’re strengths, weaknesses, and external factors that affect you and your values. Next newsletter, we’ll go through how to use that information.
Practice
The practice for this newsletter is to go through the exercise above and get a baseline of where you are at this stage of your life. This is a useful exercise that you can revisit regularly in the future.
Let me know how you go with this exercise. Was there any surprises? Anything that was difficult for you to consider?
Quote
“In our personal lives, if we do not develop our own self-awareness and become responsible for first creations, we empower other people and circumstances to shape our lives by default.” – Stephen Covey
Useful resources
This is one of the first books that I read on personal development and it led me down that path of lifelong learning. Its timeless lessons on personal development have helped a lot of people. The first three chapters deal with internal focus, to improve your personal effectiveness. The next three chapters deal with external focus, to be effective with other people.
I highly recommend the book.