Career Planning and Development Study Material

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Auro University of Hospitality and Management

Module :Career Planning

By:

Gunjan Patel.

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CONTENT

1. The importance of long term career plans…3

2. What is a career development plan...5

3. Why it is important to have a career development plan…7

4. Five things to include in your career development toolkit...9

5. 50 career tips for college students…11

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The Importance of Long-Term Career Plansby Lisa McQuerrey, Demand Media

Having an established career path can help you make informed professional decisions.

Long-term career plans can help you make the best day-to-day decisions about your professional life throughout the course of your career. If you know where you eventually want your career to be, long-term planning can help you determine the steps you need to get there and allow you to set a timetable for achieving your goals. Long-term planning also helps you stay focused and on track.

Strategic Planning

Creating a long-term career plan forces you to take stock of your existing education, credentials, talents and aspirations, which can help you draft an effective course of action that will put you on the path to success. This may mean assessing where you live, what kind of education you will ultimately need to have, what kind of financial future you have in front of you and how the other elements of your life -- such as family planning -- will revolve around your career plans.

Goals and Measurements

Once your initial long-term plan is in place, you can start setting measurable goals for yourself. For example, if you currently are a manager in your company and want to move into a vice president role, you can start planning what it takes to get there. Maybe you need to have so many years with the company, hold an MBA or produce a certain amount of annual revenue for the company. When you have this information you can set measurable actions for

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yourself. Using this example, you may opt to set a goal of completing your MBA within a certain time period and join new business networking groups with the potential to help you increase your sales figures.

Continuing Education

Many career paths require ongoing training and education. Long-term career planning will help you plan for this eventuality in terms of securing financing and working professional development into your work and personal life. You don’t want to find yourself in a position of applying for your dream job and thinking you have the necessary credentials, only to learn the position requires an advanced degree that may take you years to complete. Having this knowledge in advance as part of a long-term career plan will help you continually position yourself for where you eventually want to be.

Financial Security

Long-term career planning can help you achieve financial stability and security. Having a firm understanding of your earning potential throughout the course of your career can help you make smarter, more informed investment decisions and help you save appropriately for the future.

What Is A Career Development Plan?

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Whether you are just beginning a career are in the midst of one, it is crucial you have a career development plan to follow.  There are far too many variables and bumps in the road you will face along the way to pursue a career without an effective plan.  Ideally, you should have a career guide from the beginning.

Look at it as a roadmap that you would use when going on vacation.  You are going to start at one point and plan out your goals and how you intend on reaching them until you reach the final destination.  Essentially, you would start by choosing a job, move on to applying for the job, getting the job and so on.

It is important you realize your career path will change over time.  Just because you plan everything out from the beginning does not mean you need to stick with it throughout your career.  It is more of a guide to help you get through the difficult times and have an idea of where you want to end up.There are far too many changes in the business world and economy for you to stick with a plan.  As you continue to grow your original career planning course will gradually shift to a different direction.  This is when you will need to learn to adjust to your surroundings and accommodate the changes that are occurring around you.Regardless, it is crucial you have a plan to career development plan from the start.  This has become a highly important tool that experts use to help students and clients reach their goals.  With society constantly changing at a rapid pace, seeking career guidance advice can help you formulate your ideal plan.

The benefit of talking to a counsellor or getting career assistance is that this person works with people like you on a daily basis.  They understand how to piece together all of your goals to help formulate the proper strategy so you can attain these goals. With that said, there is nothing wrong with you putting together your own career development plan either.  If you know what you want and have an idea of how to achieve it, sit down and plot everything out.  Think about where you want to start, what you will do to grow, and how you will go about reaching your goals and dreams.

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Having a career guide or plan of some sort is crucial to making it in the real world.  There are far too many obstacles for you to not have some sort of career guidance advice and career assistance every step of the way.  If you truly want to excel in life, put together a course that you can follow.

When you leave home in the morning you know where you’re going right? Do you know where your career is going? Get on a career path that makes sense for you personally and don’t be afraid to ask for career advice. Develop a career development plan and set a course toward the job of your dreams.

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Why Is It Important To Have A Career Development Plan?

There are few things as important as having a career development plan when it comes to excelling in life and accelerating in your chosen field.  It is vital that you have a clear sense of the direction you would like to head with your career. Career planning is a critical step and is essential to your success not something you want to skip over.The purpose of a career development plan is to help you reach your goals.  Everyone has aspirations in life and specific levels they would like to reach. Part of the planning process actually entails you developing specific career goals and mapping out a course on how to best reach them.

To do that, you must determine what is important to you. You may or may not have an idea of what you are looking for in terms of a career – a career coach will ask powerful questions that enable you to determine exactly what you are looking for in your career. Starting out with comprehensive career assessment tools will allow you to uncover your key strengths and determine how those best relate to building a successful career. Once you have your strengths mapped out, you can determine next steps. And, next steps begin with goals.

When setting goals, it is critical that you consider all aspects. Which do you have, a job or a career? What is it about your job that you absolutely cannot stand? If you have a career, what is it that you absolutely love about it? Knowing this is just part of the puzzle – there is much more to uncover and many decisions to make to ensure you find balance, passion, and purpose as well as continued growth. 

Part of identifying your career paths includes defining your purpose and passions. Why? Because everyone dreams of getting into a career field they enjoy and have fun with, but most people wander off course. They select a different career aspiration simply because they

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react rather than plan. They apply for an opening and take a job even though they know it is not the right fit. By having a plan and clear ideas about what it is you really want, you will avoid the pitfalls of career mismatch. You will identify find the right field to get into based on your interests, strengths, and personal passions.

So you see the importance of getting career guidance advice and creation of a career development plan. It is geared toward you and what you’re made of – you deserve to find the proper balance between your personal life and career.  It can be easy to get caught up in work mode and constantly have the job on your mind. However, this can lead to a troubling lifestyle if you do not intertwine passion, purpose, and personal fulfilment into your career. By setting goals, understanding how you will reach them, finding something you love, and finding a balance between work and play will allow you to reach a level of happiness people only dream about. Manage your career – set your course for success with a career development plan. Dreams do come true.

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Five Things To Include In Your Career Development Toolkit

In order to excel in life and with your career, it is of utmost importance you have a career development plan to follow. A career development toolkit is an excellent resource which will help guide you through some of the steps in the career management process so you can effectively reach your goals.  To help with the process, here are five things to include in your career development toolkit.

1. Know what you want

The number one thing you need to include in your career development program is an understanding of what you want.  By knowing what you want according to your interests and desires, you can plan accordingly to seek the field or job you would enjoy.  There is no point in settling for a job that has no interest whatsoever to you. At this point, career assessment tools can be very helpful in identifying next steps.

2. Plan your future

When piecing together a career development plan, keep in mind that you are planning your future.  Although your plan will change over time, this is the beginning of something that could be life-changing.  It is crucial you take it seriously and really think about where you want to be in the future and what career paths will best match with your plans.

3. Balance between life and work

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One of the biggest reasons people fail in life is because they simply cannot balance their life properly.  It is vital you learn how to properly balance work with your personal life.  While it is important you excel in work and succeed, it is equally important you understand how to step away from the job and enjoy yourself – your career job profile should address your needs.  If you do not do this you will end up burned out and overly stressed.

4. Properly market yourselfAnother vital component in your career development toolkit is a marketing plan, as you must know how to effectively present and market yourself to maximize success. With the economy where it is today and the amount of people that are looking for jobs, you need to know exactly how to promote and set yourself ahead of the rest of the crowd.  Learn how to properly present your skills and accomplishments in order to display your overall capabilities.

5. Interview preparation

A key step in career development is preparation. When that dream job gives you a call to set up an interview, you want to be ready and prepared.  This could potentially be the starting point to something that you will be doing the rest of your life.  Take the time to read over commonly asked questions, think about how to answer them, and learn everything there is to know about the company.  Career management is a critical component to your success. Get some career assistance and career guidance advice – the more prepared you are for an interview the better.

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50 Career Tips for College Students By Dr. Tom Denham

College teaches you how to think.  However, unless you are engaged with your campus Career Centre, college teaches you virtually nothing on the subject of career development.  Think about how many courses you took in your major, and then think about how many semester-long courses you took on career development?  A rare few colleges offer, at most, one or two courses on the topic.  You spend time more time at work than in any other aspect of your life, but college teaches you barely anything on how to start, build and manage your career.  Without the Career Centre, you will be left on your own to figure out what you are suppose to do with your life.  The transition is difficult because there is no syllabus for success.  Here are my 50 tips to prepare you for the realities of working.

1. Go to the Career Centre on campus at least once a semester and then every month when you are a senior.

2. Believe in yourself, believe in something and have someone believe in you.3. Success comes from inside of you.4. In addition to your college degree, employers will want to see multiple internship

experiences.  Your competition has them.5. Start building your resume early in your college career.  Don’t wait until you get back

from spring break of your Senior year.6. Be nice to your faculty.  You’ll need them someday to serve as a reference for graduate

school or a job.7. Get clarity and focus on the three types of jobs you will pursue: 1) Ideal Jobs, 2) Back-

Up/Realistic Jobs, and 3) Survival Jobs.

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8. Come up with your own personal and professional definition of success and don’t let anyone else define it for you.

9. Your first job is a period of adjustment.  It’s like being a freshman all over again.  Be patient and learn the ropes.

10. Think of your first job as a stepping-stone that can help you get closer to your Ideal Job.11. Show up early and stay late.12. If you are self-aware, self-confident and self-disciplined you will go very far in life.13. Take advantage of everything that college has to offer.  Suck the life-force out of it.  If

you do, you’ll have no regrets.14. Most jobs today are not for life.  The time to start preparing for your next job search is the

day you take your new job.15. Eliminate poor grammar and slang from your speech.16. Resist the temptation to use work time to conduct personal business like email, phone

calls and combing the Internet.17. An employer cares about how productive you are.  They don’t really care whether or not

you’re professionally fulfilled.18. Starting at the bottom is not beneath you; it’s expected.19. An employer wants to know, “Can you do the job?  Are you willing to do the job?  Can

we stand you when you do the job?”20. Don’t get sloppy with your behaviour.  It can run you into trouble later on.21. Share your life, but don’t over-share.22. Stay focused and don’t get distracted by Facebook or other social media sites.  Cut your

addiction to the Internet.23. Know when you need to work independently and know when you need to be a team

player.24. You can never say “please” and “thank you” enough – it goes a long way.25. If you perpetually smile and look people in the eyes you are likely to get the same in

return.26. Employers hire for attitude and train for knowledge.  Enthusiasm is the road to success.27. Clean up any “Digital Dirt” that’s on the Internet.  Your online reputation IS your

reputation.  Create it, build it and protect it.28. Keep your commitments.  Habitually cancelling is a C.L.M., Career Limiting Move.29. Keep in mind that success is the first attempt after failure.  We all have made mistakes. 

Don’t sweat it; just learn from them.30. Devote a great deal of time to practicing your interview skills.  Have a Mock Interview at

your campus Career Centre.31. You won’t reach your career goals if you let someone else drive your career.  Go from

passenger to driver.32. If you take your career seriously, others will take you seriously.  If you care about others,

others will care about you.33. Ask for help, but don’t suck up too much of anyone’s time.34. How you dress is a reflection of your self-image.  Dress for not where you are, but for

where you want to be.  Be neat.

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35. Have a clear vision for your life.  Set personal and professional goals every year and develop an action plan to achieve them.

36. It is highly likely you will go on to graduate school.  Carefully pick the right degree and program.  It’s expensive if you don’t.

37. Network your brains out and carefully build your LinkedIn Contacts.  You will be changing jobs, and you’ll need their help.

38. Givers Get!  It starts with you.39. Most communication is non-verbal.  Pay attention to what you say.  Pay closer attention

to what you say when you’re not talking.40. Have regular meetings with your boss to discuss your progress.  This can save a lot of

misunderstandings and headaches later.41. A person’s most basic human emotional need is to be heard.  Listening is a critically

important skill in the workplace.  Talk less.42. Stay in your first job out of college for one year, preferably two to three.  Anything less is

job hopping and it doesn’t look good.43. The world is very small and increasingly interconnected.  Play nice.  Don’t burn any

bridges.44. Don’t chase after money.  It tends to be a poor long-term motivator.  Do what you love

and the money will follow.45. Pursue meaningful work that makes a difference.  The meaning of life is to make a

difference.  Do work that you value.46. Build an emergency fund just in case something goes wrong at work.  Find a financial

planner and start investing immediately!47. Set up a budget and stick to it.  Don’t get into credit card debt.  Always live below your

means.48. Don’t wait for opportunities.  Go out and hunt for them.49. Where you go in life is up to you.50. Go be somebody.

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