Many of us think that there is only one occupation that is best suited for us, but there are really several that may be good choices. The secret is to identify those occupations in which you have a high probability for success and happiness. As a college student, whether your career goals are accounting, theatre arts, or environmental sciences, there are general skills which will be required regardless of the career you pursue. These skills include the ability to read, write, compute, think critically, and communicate in an effective manner. For the most part, these skills are developed and/or sharpened in general education courses. These skills, along with effective career planning techniques, and the ability to cope with ambiguity in a changing environment, will enable you to overcome obstacles throughout your work life.
Career planning is an individual activity that occurs throughout a person's working lifetime. In American society, the career that you enter will influence your entire lifestyle, self-concept, income, prestige, choice of friends and living location. Career planning is indeed a subcomponent of life planning. It is influenced by many of the same factors, but it focuses attention on work tasks and work environments.
Creating Career Success: A Flexible Plan for the World of Work (Explore Our New Career Success 1st E
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The career planning process is ongoing and sequential. Since it is fluid rather than chronological, you move to the next step only when you are ready to do so, and you may move back and forth between steps at any given time. The career planning process is also cyclic. When career change is desired anytime during your work life, you may repeat the process once again. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the majority of members of the labor force will make three to four major changes in their career during their 35 to 45 years of working. Because human beings are complex, each of us has unique aspirations, goals, potential for development, and limitations. Although we can follow the same process, career planning outcomes must be individualized.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to make a rational decision or to evaluate and consider specific careers without an accurate information base. Career information gathering is an integral step in the process of career planning. Initially, you will need to generate a list of careers which you may want to consider. The federal government lists more than 31,000 career fields. Most students admit they have limited knowledge about careers and find it difficult to list or describe more than 40. Sources of career alternatives include the results of computer assessments such as MyPlan, paper and pencil assessments, career publications and suggestions from other people such as faculty and staff, parents and friends. Don't forget to take into account those careers you are merely curious about exploring. After developing the list, you will need to briefly research each career alternative and judge which of these seem potentially suitable for future employment. Determine for each: typical on-the-job duties, qualifications, outlook, salary, methods of entry, etc. How do your skills, values and interests correspond to the types of work you are considering?
Once you have made a career decision, the next task is to begin planning how to prepare for the career, how to get experience in it, and how to actually enter the field. In this step, you should identify the degree of effort and all the things which are required to be successful in your chosen career. What are the specific educational and experiential requirements? Of the qualifications required by that career, which ones do you currently possess, and which ones do you need to acquire? How will you best obtain the qualifications: additional education, internships, special courses or training? Answers to these questions will help you identify and set relevant goals. Having established the career goals and defined the tasks to achieve them, you should then set up a timing and sequence outline. Obviously, you cannot accomplish everything at once. Certain activities logically precede others. Try to put it all on paper, identifying activities which must occur, their proper sequence, and the time that it will take for each. Finally, put into action the long- and short-range goals and monitor your progress as you work. For a general college career planning timeline, refer to the Career Planning Timetable handout.
Finally, the last step in waging a successful job search campaign is timing. Begin with realistic expectations. It may take more than six months to get your initial career position, so you must start early. Since it is often difficult to stay motivated for that length of time, an emotional support group is helpful. This informal network can be composed of friends, family members, the CDO staff, other job seekers or individuals of your choosing who can help motivate you when you need it. Even though there may be many rejections, it takes only one "yes" to get hired. Be persistent, patient, and positive! For more information about conducting a good job search, refer to the series of Job Search Basics handouts.
Going to work as a professional is very different from attending school. As a student, you completed identified assignments for specific grades. As an employee, evaluation procedures are often vague. In many situations, you are expected to produce results with relatively little direction or feedback. Your understanding of the world of work, networking efforts, and contributions on the job will directly affect your career security and advancement opportunities. Keep track of your accomplishments and log them in specific terms. This data will assist you in negotiating the performance appraisals, salary, and promotions you desire.
In times of rapid change and rampant obsolescence in occupation fields, you must remain flexible. The "one-job, one-career worklife" of a generation ago phenomenon has been increasingly replaced by a "12-jobs, four-careers worklife." At some point you may begin to ask questions of yourself about your present employment. You may wonder whether there is something better available; or as your skills, values, and interests change, whether another position would better meet these factors. If and when this occurs, the career planning process has completed its cycle. You can return to Step 1: Self Assessment and begin anew the process, anytime during your working years as often as you desire. Remember, the key to success is being prepared. Make an appointment to talk with a CDO career counselor today!
Our hypotheses concerning organizational mobility preference and objective success are derived from research on career mobility. Feldman and Ng (2007) argue that interorganizational mobility in terms of actual transitions tends to be positively related with objective career success, yet not necessarily with subjective career success. Basically, they suggest a positive correlation between interorganizational mobility and objective career success for two reasons. First, they argue that people often change their jobs only when a significant pay raise or promotion occurs. People are more motivated to make an organizational move when they expect positive rewards. Second, when people change their jobs they acquire new skills and gather new experiences, which in turn increase their human capital (Becker 1964), which leads to more objective career success. Showing career mobility enhances individuals' job-related skills and knowledge and broadens individuals' experience in dealing with different clients from different industries. Moreover, social capital theory (Burt 1992; Granovetter 1973) predicts that job mobility is positively associated with salary. Social capital includes an individual's actual and potential resources from social networks. From an individual-level perspective, a person with high job mobility will have more opportunities for building and maintaining external contacts associated with objective career success (Wolff and Moser 2009).
The goal of the present study was, first, to empirically investigate simultaneously the relationship between protean and boundaryless career attitudes and both subjective and objective career success. Second, we wanted to integrate assumptions and findings from research on protean and boundaryless career attitudes with research on career mobility to better understand the role of career attitudes in today's frequently changing and complex work environment.
We conducted an online survey with 116 employees from two internationally operating engineering and manufacturing companies. Results from multiple hierarchical regression analyses revealed that after controlling for some relevant variables (work hours, age, gender) self-directed career management was positively related with career satisfaction as well as with success in comparison with colleagues. In other words, employees who self-direct their careers are more satisfied and evaluate their success as being higher in comparison with others. Moreover, we found a positive relationship between organizational mobility preference and salary. This implies that people who have a preference for changing between organizations earn more than people who do not have a preference for change. In summary, our results show that components of the protean career attitude are rather more related with subjective career success and that components of the boundaryless career attitude are more related with objective career success. Our findings suggest that a differential analysis of both career attitudes is valuable with respect to the prediction of career success.
In the working world, your professionalism encompasses the way you carry yourself, your attitude and the ways you communicate with others. Being professional can ensure a positive first impression, successful interpersonal relationships and a lasting reputation within your organization and industry, according to Katy Curameng, director of career planning and development at UMass Global. She goes on to say: 2ff7e9595c
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